darklullaby

You will need to find a focus for a PhD, but everything you mentioned is possible at U of California-Merced (http://ih.ucmerced.edu/), where half the students are Hispanic and it is located in a town that is half Hispanic. The program also offers a concetratuion in Luso-Hispanic World studies (http://ih.ucmerced.edu/content/multicultural-luso-hispanic-world). As far as getting into a top program goes, the top program is the one that best matches what you do as a scholar. In the end, you have to do the work that will make a name for you, and that can be done at any school.

If you want to write fiction then you don't need a PhD. You don't even need a degree. If you want to be a professor of writing, or a humanities scholar, then a PhD could make sense, but as rising_star noted MFA's are a good route for future creative writing scholars. For what it's worth, two of the most interdisciplinary programs I know of are U of California-Merced (http://ih.ucmerced.edu/) and Virginia Tech ASPECT (http://www.aspect.vt.edu/).

George Mason has that degree, and offers a neuroscience focus. I don't know anything about it but one of my undergrad profs graduated from it. http://mais.gmu.edu/programs/LA-MAIS-ISIN

my apps are all done as of yesterday - i also discovered a one letter typo in my purpose statement to three of six programs to which i applied. that i am not the only one to have a typo gives me hope it won't matter i really had trouble when some apps required pdfs instead of docs and during conversion the spacing and spelling was sometimes off

I don't have any programs in mind, but you might do an internet search for scholars interested in critiques of anthropocentrism.

I can share three things: 1. One of my advisers said to me, don't worry about a perfect match with faculty interests because what you do is unique to you, and you will be the expert on your topic or context, not your PhD adviser. 2. Another told me that many who were rejected everywhere the first time did better the second time, but I don't have any advice that explains what they did to improve their lots. Perhaps apply to more schools? 3. I am sort of in your situation. I have two acceptances, but I am waitlisted for funding at both. Where do I go from here? (Back to 2 - apply to more schools next year)

From University of Maryland, American Studies website: Although we do take GRE scores into account when we review applications, we don’t put as much weight on them. We have admitted students with Verbal GREs between 280 and 800. But the GRE isn’t an especially good predictor of success in our program. We require it because we cannot award fellowships or GAships to students who have not taken the GRE. From the standpoint of the UMD American Studies Department, you need not place a great deal of emphasis on the quantitative portion of the exam; we do not consider or report that score.