CHICAN@ LIT

And the Earth Did Not Devour Him

Poetry. Fiction. Cultural Writing. Latino/Latina studies. Translated from the Spanish by Evangelina Vigil-Pinon. . . . Y NO SE LO TRAGO LA TIERRA/ . . . AND THE EARTH DID NOT DEVOUR HIM by Tomas Rivera is a fictional account of the experiences of Mexican-American migrant workers in the 40's and 50's. Depicting the voice of a young boy and of several migrant workers, this novel, made into an acclaimed film, is a monument to a proud people's unyielding search for a brighter future. "Winner in 1970 of the first Quinto Sol Prize for literature, the most prestigious literary award in the early years of Chicano literature, Rivera's novel . . . became a primary element of the new Mexican American literary history"-Ramon Saldivar of Stanford University. Educator, author, and poet, Tomas Rivera received a BS in English from Texas State University-San Marcos. At the University of Oklahoma, he earned a MA in Spanish literature and a Doctorate in Romance languages.

Black Widow's Wardrobe

Author: Luchi CorpiWas it a spectre from the past, some Aztec revenant that had inspired the "Black Widow" to kill her husband? Or did these chilling murders have more to do with the rights of property and inheritance, and mere greed? Who better than Gloria Damasco, that indomitable detective with a flair for clairvoyance, to unravel this intricate and pulsing plot, which winds its way from an exotic Day of the Dead celebration in San Francisco to the even more exotic sites and customs of Tepozotlan, an Indian village high in the mountains above Cuernavaca? Part thriller, part exploration of myth and history, Black Widow's Wardrobe is a page-turner.

Canícula

Canícula--the dog days--a particularly intense part of the summer when most cotton is harvested in South Texas. In Norma Cantú's fictionalized memoir of Laredo in the 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s, it also represents a time between childhood and an as yet unknown adulthood. Actual snapshots and the author's re-created memories allow readers to experience the pivotal events of this world--births, deaths, injuries, fiestas, rites of passage. This popular book won the 1995 Premio Aztlán. "A personalized ethnography that feels as familiar as my own family album, and as touching."--Ana Castillo "Intimate as a poem, and as large as the Texas sky, these stories are at once diminutive and grand."--Sandra Cisneros

Chicana Falsa

From the white boy who transforms himself into a full-fledged Chicano, to the self-assured woman who effortlessly terrorizes her Anglo boss, to the junior-high friend who berated her "sloppy Spanish" and accused her of being a "Chicana Falsa," the people and places that Michele Serros brings to vivid life in this collection of poems and stories introduce a unique new viewpoint to the American literary landscape. Witty, tender, irreverent, and emotionally honest, her words speak to the painful and hilarious identity crises particular to the coming of age of an adolescent caught between two cultures.

Chicano Movement for Beginners

As the heyday of the Chicano Movement of the late 1960s to early 70s fades further into history and as more and more of its important figures pass on, so too does knowledge of its significance. Thus, The Chicano Movement For Beginners is an important attempt to stave off historical amnesia. It seeks to shed light on the multifaceted civil rights struggle known as "El Movimiento" that galvanized the Mexican American community, from laborers to student activists, giving them not only a political voice to combat prejudice and inequality, but also a new sense of cultural awareness and ethnic pride. Beyond commemorating the past, The Chicano Movement For Beginners seeks to reaffirm the goals and spirit of the Chicano Movement for the simple reason that many of the critical issues Mexican American activists first brought to the nation's attention the educational disadvantage, endemic poverty, political exclusion, and social bias remain as pervasive as ever almost half a century later.

Cholo Style

The powerful Chicano street-tough look—or cholo style—continues to become incorporated as a matter of pride in the fast-growing American Hispanic culture and, as reported by The New York Times, is now part of “the fashion vernacular of non-Latinos as well.” From his San Francisco home, author Reynaldo Berrios started Mi Vida Loca maga-zine in 1992 (nearly two years prior to the release of Allison Anders’ movie of the same name) with ambitious goals: “I wanted vatos to get started on a peace treaty. I wanted for cholos to stop the drive-bys. I wanted for the mainstream to stop acting as if La Raza didn’t exist. I wanted my people to have a voice and to be proud of our beliefs, our heroes, and our culture.” Cholo Style includes interviews and photographs obtained at great risk from gang members and underworld leaders throughout the state of California, plus intense, stylized line drawings from barrios, prisons, and low-rider cultural gatherings. With over 150 photographs, illustrations, and letters, the sharply designed Cholo Style presents the fast-expanding Chicano barrio culture from its most authentic and street-credible perspective.

Drink Cultura

This book is about the Chicano experience of living within, between and sometimes outside of two cultures--the damnation and salvation, and the celebration of it all. "In some ways a book Erma Bombeck might have written, that is, if she were from El Paso, dressed in Tony Lama boots, and full fledged member of raza."--Gary Soto" A passionately lyrical collection para todos about the history of the Western and Southwestern people. Burciaga is deeply rooted in the indigenous realities."--Carlos Santana

Ends of Assimilation

Ends of Assimilation examines how Chicano literature imagines the conditions and costs of cultural change, arguing that its thematic preoccupation with assimilation illuminates the function of literature. John Alba Cutler shows how mid-century sociologists advanced a model of assimilation that ignored the interlinking of race, gender, and sexuality and characterized American culture as homogeneous, stable, and exceptional. He demonstrates how Chicano literary works from the postwar period to the present understand culture as dynamic and self-consciously promote literature as a medium for influencing the direction of cultural change. With original analyses of works by canonical and noncanonical writers--from Americo Paredes, Sandra Cisneros, and Jimmy Santiago Baca to Estela Portillo Trambley, Alfredo Vea, and Patricia Santana--Ends of Assimilation demands that we reevaluate assimilation, literature, and the very language we use to talk about culture.

Growing Up Chicana/o

What Does It Mean To Grow Up Chicana/o?When I was growing up, I never read anything in school by anyone who had a "Z" in their last name. This anthology is, in many ways, a public gift to that child who was always searching for herself within the pages of a book.

How to be a Chicana Role Model

Michele Serros's work has been called "wonderfully comical and wise" (Son Francisco Chronicle) and "pulsating with the exuberance of an unmistakably original poetic talent" (Entertainment Weekly). How to be a Chicana Role Model is the fiercely funny tale of a Chicana writer who's trying to find a way to embrace two very different cultures -- without losing touch with who she is.

Infinite Divisions

Given the explosive creativity shown by Chicana writers over the past two decades, this first major anthology devoted to their work is a major contribution to American letters. It highlights the key issues, motifs, and concerns of Mexican American women from 1848 to the present, and particularly reflects the modern Chicana's struggle for identity. Among the recurring themes in the collection is a re-visioning of foremothers such as the historical Malinche, the mythical Llorona, and pioneering women who settled the American Southwest from the sixteenth to twentieth centuries. Also included are historical documents on the lives, culture, and writings of Mexican American women in the nineteenth century, as well as oral histories recorded by the Federal Writers Project in the 1930s. Through poetry, fiction, drama, essay, and other forms, this landmark volume showcases the talents of more than fifty authors, including Gloria E. Anzaldúa, Ana Castillo, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Denise Chavez, Sandra Cisneros, Pat Mora, Cherrie Moraga, and Mar’a Helena Viramontes.

Jaguar in the Library: The Story of the First Chicana Librarian

It is heart-felt cogitation of a sincere Latina library administrator who dedicated her professional life to providing services to the Hispanic population, wherever she served. On her quest, she encounters the very profound, individual, and structural face of discrimination and the debasing effects of denial of information and library services to Latinos and minorities—let them pay taxes, but don’t let in the library! On June 26, 2020, about 144 years after its founding, The American Library Association (ALA), very likely forced by the unprecedented racial demonstrations in the streets of America, has issued a declaration of responsibility: "ALA takes responsibility for past racism, pledges a more equitable association."
It is a riveting personal and intimate story of the professional trajectory of Elizabeth Martinez. She took the librarians’ publicly articulated commitment to serve and provide information and library services to all, very seriously. She risked many times her career and high-level administrative positions to expand those services to Latinos, and minorities, the underserved populations. She experienced the anguishes and the blisses, the obstructions and visions, the raw insults and inspiring moments, and, most of all, her hard work fueled by her profound professional commitment to serving the minority populations. This book is an inspirational as well as a didactic tale of what happens to a capable minority female administrator when she means business and becomes a change agent refusing to accept the discriminatory pattern of public and library services.

La Chicana

La Chicana is the story of a marginal group in society, neither fully Mexican or fully American, who suffer under triple oppression: as women, as members of a colonized culture, and as victims of a cultural heritage dominated by the cult of machismo. Tracing the role of Chicanas from pre-Columbian society to the present, the authors reveal the antecedents and roots of contemporary cultural expectations in Aztec, colonial, and revolutionary Mexican historical periods. A discussion of the contribution of modern Chicanas to their community and to feminism and a look at literary stereotypes and the emergence of Chicana literature to counter them round out this perceptive and sympathetic analysis.

Las Obreras: Chicana Politics of Work and Family

Author: Vicki L. RuizIn this anthology, Chicana voices of the past and present illuminate the experiences of Mexican American women as they strive to integrate wage work, family life, and community engagement. Sections cover confrontations with the state through community action, court litigation, and union organizing; negotiating work, marriage, and children; stories of feminists and Mexican migrant workers; and activist struggles. Of particular educational interest are chapters on Raza Unida and the struggles for political representation and equal education in Texas, and a Chicana faculty member's thoughts on consciousness raising in the college classroom. Following an introduction by Vicki L. Ruiz, the chapters are: "Claiming Public Space at Work, Church, and Neighborhood" (Vicki L. Ruiz); "'She Has Served Others in More Intimate Ways': The Domestic Service Reform in Yucatan, 1915-1918" (Emma Perez); "'Woman Sterilized as Gives Birth': Forced Sterilization and Chicana Resistance in the 1970s" (Virginia Espino); "'We Lived and Breathed and Worked the Movement': The Contradictions and Rewards of Chicana/Mexicana Activism in el Centro de Accion Social Autonomo-Hermandad General de Trabajadores (Casa-HGT), Los Angeles, 1975-1978" (Marisela R. Chavez); "Creating Community: Mexican American Women in Eastside Los Angeles" (Mary Pardo); "Organizing Latina Garment Workers in Los Angeles" (Maria Angelina Soldatenko); "'Work Gave Me a Lot of Confianza': Chicanas' Work Commitment and Work Identity" (Beatriz M. Pesquera); "Ambivalence or Continuity? Motherhood and Employment among Chicanas and Mexican Immigrant Women Workers" (Denise A. Segura); "Levels of Acculturation, Marital Satisfaction, and Depression among Chicana Workers: A Psychological Perspective" (Yvette G. Flores-Ortiz); "Engendering a 'Dialectics of Our America': Jovita Gonzalez's Pluralist Dialogue as Feminist Testimonio" (Maria Eugenia Cotera); "Three Stories: Campesinas, Onions, and Granma's Apron" (Mary Helen Ponce); "Mexican Migrants in North Carolina: Maria Salas Shares Her Story" (Margarita Decierdo); "The Synapses of Struggle: Martha Cotera and Tejana Activism" (Mary Ann Villarreal); "'I Wanted To Be Treated as an Equal': Testimony from a Latina Union Activist" (Guadalupe M. Friaz); and "'No se raje, chicanita': Some Thoughts on Race, Class, and Gender in the Classroom" (Gloria J. Romero). (Contains references in most chapters.) (SV)

Literatura Chicana, 1965-1995

This collection of essays and reviews represents the most significant and comprehensive writing on Shakespeare's A Comedy of Errors. Miola's edited work also features a comprehensive critical history, coupled with a full bibliography and photographs of major productions of the play from around the world. In the collection, there are five previously unpublished essays. The topics covered in these new essays are women in the play, the play's debt to contemporary theater, its critical and performance histories in Germany and Japan, the metrical variety of the play, and the distinctly modern perspective on the play as containing dark and disturbing elements. To compliment these new essays, the collection features significant scholarship and commentary on The Comedy of Errors that is published in obscure and difficulty accessible journals, newspapers, and other sources. This collection brings together these essays for the first time.

Living Chicana Theory

Twenty-one Chicana scholars and writers create theory through fiction, performance, and essays. They address the secrets, inequities, and issues they all confront in their daily negotiations with a system that often seeks to subvert their very existence. They have to struggle daily not only with the racism that pervades our lives, but also with the overwhelming male domination of the "macho" Chicano and Mexican culture.

Major Problems in Mexican American History

This volume in the Major Problems in American History series chronicles the history of Mexican-Americans from the pre-Colonial era through the present.

Massacre of the Dreamers

Author: Ana CastilloThe "I" in these critical essays by novelist, poet, scholar, and activist/curandera Ana Castillo is that of the Mexic-Amerindian woman living in the United States. The essays are addressed to everyone interested in the roots of the colonized woman's reality. Castillo introduces the term Xicanisma in a passionate call for a politically active, socially committed Chicana feminism. In "A Countryless Woman, " Castillo outlines the experience of the brown woman in a racist society that recognizes race relations mostly as a black and white dilemma. Essays on the Watsonville strike, the early Chicano movement, and the roots of machismo illustrate the extent to which women still struggle against male dominance. Other essays suggest strategies for opposing the suppression of women's spirituality and sexuality by institutionalized religion and the state. These challenging essays will be a provocative guide for those who envision a new future for women as we face a new century.

Migrant Song

Migration and continuity have shaped both the Chicano people and their oral and written literature. In this pathfinding study of Chicano literature, Teresa McKenna specifically explores how these works arise out of social, political, and psychological conflict and how the development of Chicano literature is inextricably embedded in this fact. McKenna begins by appraising the evolution of Chicano literature from oral forms—including the important role of the corrido in the development of Chicano poetry. In subsequent chapters she examines the works of Richard Rodriguez and Rolando Hinojosa. She also devotes a chapter to the development of the Chicana voice in Chicano literature. Her epilogue considers the parallel development of Chicano literary theory and discusses some possible directions for research. In McKenna's own words, "I believe that the future of this literature, as that of all literatures by people of color in the United States, rests largely on its being effectively introduced into the curricula at all levels, as well as its entrance into the critical consciousness of literary theory." This book will be an important step in that process.

The Chicano Studies Reader

he second edition of the Chicano Studies Reader brings this best-selling anthology up to date with a new section, "Continuing to Push Boundaries." Five additional essays address current issues, including cross-disciplinary studies, investigations of mass media and public culture, and explorations of the intersection of race, sexuality, and citizenship. These essays correspond to the themes that organize the original set of essays: "Decolonizing the Territory," "Performing Politics," "Configuring Identities, and Remapping the World." The revised edition documents the foundation of Chicano studies, testifies to its broad disciplinary range, and explores its continuing development.The contributors are Eric Avila, Maxine Baca Zinn, Gilberto Cardenas, David Carrasco, Angie Chabram-Dernersesian, John Alba Cutler, Karen Mary Davalos, Adelaida R. Del Castillo, Shifra M. Goldman, Juan Gomez-Quiñones, Deena J. Gonzalez, Ramon A. Gutierrez, Jorge A. Huerta, Jessica E. Jones, Chon A. Noriega, Americo Paredes, Fernando Peoalosa, Rafael Perez-Torres, Beatriz M. Pesquera, David Roman, Robert Chao Romero, Rosaura Sanchez, Chela Sandoval, Alex M. Saragoza, Denise A. Segura, Marian E. Schlotterbeck, Adaljiza Sosa-Riddell, Kay Turner, and Steven S. Volk. "This volume should be required reading for any undergraduate or graduate course in ethnic studies." -George Sanchez, president of the American Studies Association "A landmark collection on the state of Chicano studies." -Alberto Lopez Pulido, University of San Diego, in American Quarterly

The Decolonial Imaginary

"The Decolonial Imaginary is a smart, challenging book that disrupts a great deal of what we think we know... it will certainly be read seriously in Chicano/a studies." —Women's Review of Books Emma Pérez discusses the historical methodology which has created Chicano history and argues that the historical narrative has often omitted gender. She poses a theory which rejects the colonizer's methodological assumptions and examines new tools for uncovering the hidden voices of Chicanas who have been relegated to silence.

The Last of the Menu Girls

THE LAST OF THE MENU GIRLS is comprised of seven interrelated stories that, through shifting narrative voices, define the protagonist, Rocio Esquibel, as she takes stock of her family and society. An acute awareness of accent, tone and dialect enliven characters rarely depicted in fiction: janitors, gardeners and nurse's aides.Rocío Esquibel is a girl growing up in a Southern New Mexico town with her mother and sister. She defines her neighborhood by its trees—the willow, the apricot and the one they call the marking-off tree. Rocio knows she was born in the closet where she and her sister now take turns looking at the picture of Jesus whose eyes light up in the dark. But at night she enters a magical realm, and in her imaginary Blue Room, she can fly. At first she is a mesmerized observer of the lives of older girls and their boyfriends, but as she finds a job at the local hospital, and discovers a passion for drama and stories, Rocio begins to make her own choices in love and work.Alive with the taste of tamales and the lyrical tang of the Esquibels’ talk, The Last of the Menu Girls becomes a rich celebration of Chicano culture, and a universal story of finding one’s way in the world.

They Called Me "King Tiger"

Cultural Writing. Translated and edited by Jose Angel Gutierrez. All of the passion and commitment, as well as the flamboyant rhetoric of the 1960s, is preserved in this recollection of a life dedicated to a cause and transformed by continuous prosecution. Tijerina is the only member of a historical group of four Mexican-American Civil Rights activists to have penned his memoirs, perhaps in an effort to explain the trials and frustrations that brought him and his Federal Land-Grant Alliance members to break the law: reclaiming part of a national forest reserve as part of their inheritance; invading and occupying a courthouse, inflicting a gunshot wound on a deputy sheriff in the process; and challenging New Mexico and national authorities at every opportunity. But the acts that placed him in the most danger were also the ones that won the hearts and minds of many young Chicano activists.

What Night Brings

Author: Carla Trujillo What Night Brings focuses on a Chicano working-class family living in California during the 1960s. Marci-smart, feisty and funny-tells the story with the wisdom of someone twice her age as she determines to defy her family and God in order to find her identity, sexuality and freedom. "Carla Trujillo's What Night Brings puts one more wonderful Latina novelist on the must-read list right up there beside Sandra Cisneros, Julia Alvarez and Cristina Garcia. This moving story, told in the completely convincing voice of its young protagonist, explores living with domestic abuse and longing for the maternal protection that always fails to materialize. We touch the mysteries of religion in a child's life, and are completely captivated by a young girl's budding lesbian identity. Character and situation building are exemplary, yet we are hit hard when the book takes its final turn. What Night Brings is a page-turner that lingers long after the last page has been turned."-Margaret Randall "A story that is at once heartbreaking and hilarious, beautifully told by a wise and wise-cracking young girl."-Sandra Cisneros

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