This course considers the notion of the icon as site of cultural production and circulation in Latin American contexts, focusing on transformative processes and practices of embodiment, collection, devotion, and sensation. Readings in literature, film and other media emphasize the unique roles of cultural objects as conduits to expressions of vulnerability, violence, and collective desire. The course builds on new materialist theories in its approach to the icon as sensory object, but also as a sign, while engaging the fluidity between living bodies and inanimate matter.