"Chicano writers from El Paso are the most progressive, open-minded, far-reaching, and inclusive writers of them all."

Octavio Romano

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Poetic Wisdom for Your Week from Lalo Delgado







Poetic Wisdom for Your Week
"Aqui" and Reflections on The Fast, Rafael Jesus Gonzalez, Schizoid Autobiographical Notes, and Seven Abelardos
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Aquí

Aquí, de hoy en adelante
hemos despertado el gigante,
a nosotors mismos
y nosotros aquí,
bajo el sol de Aztlán,
no juramos uno al otro,
apoyo...cariño...respeto...
confianza y carnalismo
porque vivir esclavos
es como haber muerto.

Aquí, con los ojos
y la vez
la mente clara,
vemos como el Xicano
libre de declara
y por eso con una fuerte
a b r a z o ,
la vida misma tú prometes
y yo te prometo ti.

Aquí, en la cuna
de la
r e v o l u c i ó n
social Xicana,
hoy, cinco de mayo,
la raza soberna
declaramos con el percho
en llamas
por el orgullo
que cada Xicano
por ser Xicano
tiene como suyo.

Aquí se had decidido
no emprender camino sino
a aumentar el paso
y ensenarle a todos
lo fino que es
ser raza
y lo sagrado que es
nuestra justa causa
recordándonos que
ya no
es tiempo pa' descansar
cuando se trata de avanzar.

      by Ableardo B. Delgado



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Notes on The Fast, Pre-Movimiento Writing, Rafael Jesus González, and Schizoid Autobiographical Notes

Raymundo Eli Rojas: Now your fast...I'm trying to place the date.

Lalo Delgado: It ended on Easter of '68. I timed it so it would en on Easter.

RR: A little after Martin Luther King's death. How many days was it (fast)?

LD: Twenty-two. To prepare for it, I had done 18 on just liquids. So I did a 40-day fast, but half of it was on liquids, the other was just on water. A little salt and just a little sugar. I got a lot of publicity out of that, a telegram from César Chavez, who probably was the one I was trying to emulate in doing the fast. I also had heard that he had gone that long without food, so I figured that if he could go without food that long, I can.

So after the fast, I went to the hospital to start eating little by little. When I ended, I was at the crowd with my mom, my wife, my kids. Then after that, I went for a day or so to the hospital and came back the next day to work.

RR: How long after the fast did your book The Fast come out?

LD: Probably a couple of weeks later. Cause the poems were ready, I just had to have someone type them and put them on a stencil. We ran maybe 200 copies, bound, not even hard bounded, just softbound. I think it sold for a dollar and fifty cents. The idea for me, at least, was the fact that I collected my first book of works. Of course by then, I had already, as you already discovered, published some stuff in El Burro and some anthologies. I was still looking at social issues from Christian eyes rather than just a worldly person. Maybe through the years my work has become more pessimistic because I know that issues are not so simple to analyze.

There's God and then there's politicians.


RR: Who were some of the Chicanos that were writing back then? I know you guys would have lots of readings, Ricardo (Sanchez), you, Carlos Morton, Juan Contreras, Che Luera.

LD: There's a Chicano from El Paso that I don't think has been fully appreciated, but he use to go to Texas Western (UT El Paso previous name) with me, and now he is a professor in California. His name is González, Rafael González! He doesn't write much, but when he writes, it's very good. 

We were friends, you know friends during college years. We kind of inspired each other. His parents had a little hardware store on Stanton Street...I think he's in Santa Rosa or something. California. There's only one book I got my hands on. 

He writes in Spanish very well. All kinds of old Spanish stuff...his work is very polished. It became one of our favorites. Plus, we had this guy named Santiago Rodríguez who was in the Sociology Department (at UTEP). He might still be there. A daughter, Carmen.

Yea, of course, all this time, you never lose touch with the church. I continue to be involved with the church. I don't know if its worth mentioning it or not, but during my stay with Father Rahm, I became a playwright. 

And I wrote three plays and they won first prize three years in a row. The competition was sponsored by CYO, Catholic Youth Organization. No Chicano had ever won. I won three times in a row, so they stopped the competition. “We don't want more of this stuff.” 

My writing started even before that. I started writing little quentos in Spanish and sending them to El Continental. And they also won first prize, which in those days mean $25.

But it encouraged me to write when I saw people respond to what I was doing. I think it is hard to separate myself from my writing. I'm writing my autobiography. It's going to be sort of a schizoid autobiography. There's six or seven Lalos inside of me, you know. One of them is the writer, the other one is the organizer/activist, the other one the organizer, the activist, the other one is the educator, the other one is the gambler, you know all the bad things you do in life. So it's kind of hard to put down who the hell I am.

RR: Well, Seven Abelardos!

LD: (laughing): Abelardos! No wonder I've been saying that. Thanks for the idea. Actually.... I have seven chapters!


Notes: El Burro was a early UTEP (then Texas Western) literary magazine published in the late 1950s and early 60s. El Continental was a Spanish-language newspaper in El Paso, colloquially known as El Cuentamentiras. Lalo refers to Father Harold Rahn and poet Rafael Jesus Gonzalez.


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"Aqui" - (c) Abelardo Delgado 2003. Published with permission of the Delgado family.

Interview with Lalo Delgado (c) Raymundo Eli Rojas 2000.
"


Wednesday, August 17, 2011

El Paso Writers Update for Week of Aug. 15







El Paso Writers Update for Week of Aug. 15
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Ruben Salazar Files

Ruben Salazar is mentioned in Gabriel Lerner's Huntington Post article "We're Here and We're Not Leaving." "Salazar was the first Latino to cover the Mexican-American community of Los Angeles for mainstream media and the first to break the unofficial embargo that blocked non-crime news from the Latino enclave of East Los Angeles, where I now live. As a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, and as News Director of TV station KMEX, he was fully bilingual and integrated into mainstream America while developing, honoring and maintaining his Hispanic culture. He reported on a community struggling for respect and recognition." READ MORE.


Also of interest on Salazar is "Finally, transparency in the Ruben Salazar case" (LA Times)
 "Ruben Salazar's daughter on her father's killing" (LA Times).



Troncoso to Read at Writer's Center

Sergio Troncoso will read on Oct 16, 2: 00 to 4:00 pm, at The Writer's Center, 4508 Walsh St, Chevy Chase, MD 20815. He will read with Patricia Valdata. Troncoso posted some movies shorts about his new book. Check out.



Carlos Munoz, Jr. Quoted

Carlos Munoz, Jr. is quoted in The Nation in David Zirin's "Bud, Bruno and Baseball's Bigotry" about Tony Bruno calling San Francisco Giant's pitcher Ramon Ramirez an "illegal." READ MORE.

Poetry by Luna

Check out this post on Sheryl Luna along with one of her poems: Four Poems By Sheryl Luna.

State fo Education: Raymund Paredes

Raymund Paredes is quoted in a piece about an adult education program at the University of Texas Brownsville. See "Program will help adult students earn degree". Also see "Higher ed goals still need work" and "Help for community college students" (Austin American Statesman); "State faces challenge in helping underprepared students graduate from college" (Austin American Statesman);


Short Story by Chacon

Daniel Chacón's short story ”22 Hiding Places” is included in a new anthology titled Solace in So Many Words, a collection of essays, stories, and poems. Read more.

Redroom Bio's

Nice bio on Octavio Solis posted at the Redroom.com. Check it out. Also catch C.M. Mayo's bio. Read it now.



Gilb's Newest Reviewed

A Publishers Weekly review of Dagoberto Gilb's new book on Grove Press is out: "PEN/Hemingway Award–winner Gilb’s 10 new tales, many written as the author recovered from a 2009 stroke, take on family ties, poverty, labor, and prejudice at the country’s borders, but defy racial and geographic boundaries even when they provide the principal conflict." READ MORE.



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Delgadoisms: Poetic Wisdom for your Week: GANAS





Delgadoisms: Poetic Wisdom for your Week
by Lalo Delgado
Ganas



When in distress

a one-word ticket to success

is GANAS.

GANAS is that desire

which often over eats

and takes a siesta in us.

GANAS is that puntapie

we often need

to kick ourselves into action.

GANAS, if it were to be

a computer key-word,

would open up all the files

of opportunity to the possessor

of such a magical word.

GANAS, is job promotion

and security,

it is the A+

we never dreamed we could earn.

GANAS helps one learn,

makes one happy and proud.

GANAS is people of one mind

who wish to leave poverty behind,

people with the strong desire

to turn the world around,

to turn the world upsidedown.



Abelardo

March '91

(c) Abelardo Delgado 1991
Published with permission of the Delgado family.

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Sunday, August 07, 2011

Sunday Press Spotlight: University of New Mexico Press - Selected Recent and Forthcoming Titles



Sunday Press Spotlight: University of New Mexico Press
Selected Recent and Forthcoming Titles
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Tia's Tamales (Multilingual Edition)
Hardcover University of New Mexico Press; Bilingual edition (May 15, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0826350267 ISBN-13: 978-0826350268
Ana Baca (Author), Noel Chilton (Illustrator)

Ana Baca's bilingual tale of how two children from different generations learn to make their family recipe for tamales will delight readers of her earlier picture books that combine folklore and traditional cuisine.

Luz's school day is canceled because of snow and her abuela decides it's the perfect time to teach her to make tamales, just as Abuela's father, Diego, was taught by his tia on a long-ago winter day.

As Abuela tells it, when Tia showed up unexpectedly at Diego's home, the pantry was almost bare with only a few dried squash, two pumpkins, three onions, a bundle of dried corn, and one red chile ristra on the shelves. Diego didn't think they'd be able to do much with such meager ingredients, but by the end of the afternoon, Tia had taught him that with laughter and a little embellishment, a delicious meal can be made from almost nothing.


The Maya of Modernism: Art, Architecture, and Film
Hardcover University of New Mexico Press (May 15, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0826349811 ISBN-13: 978-0826349811
Jesse Lerner

From the time when archaeologists first began to discover the civilization's spectacular ruins, Mexico's Mayan past has been a boundless source of inspiration, ideas, and iconography for the modernist imagination. This study examines the ways artists, architects, filmmakers, photographers, and other producers of visual culture in Mexico, the United States, Europe, and beyond have mined Mayan history and imagery.

Beginning his study in the mid-nineteenth century, with the first mechanically reproduced and mass distributed images of the Mayan ruins, and ending with recent works that address this history of representation, Lerner argues that Maya modernism is the product of an ongoing pan-American modernism characterized by a continuing series of reinterpretations, collaborations, and exchanges in which Yucatecans, Mexicans and foreigners, mestizos, Mayas, and others all participate and are free to endorse, misunderstand, reinterpret, or reject each other's ideas.


Cuauhtemoc's Bones: Forging National Identity in Modern Mexico
(Dialogos Series) Paperback University of New Mexico Press (May 15, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0826350372 ISBN-13: 978-0826350374
Paul Gillingham

In 1949, a group of villagers and ad hoc archaeologists dug up what they believed to be the remains of the last Aztec emperor, Cuauhtemoc, in a remote village in the mountains of central Mexico. State and local leaders enthusiastically promoted this remarkable discovery and nationalist celebrations erupted throughout the country.

The festivities ended abruptly when professional Mexican archaeologists denied that the body was that of Cuauhtemoc, igniting what became the greatest scandal in the cultural politics of twentieth-century Mexico. Suddenly, Cuauhtemoc's bones were at the center of debates about the politics and mechanisms of Mexican national identity.

In this engaging study, Paul Gillingham uses the revelation of the forgery of Cuauhtemoc's tomb and the responses it evoked as a means of examining the set of ideas, beliefs, and dreams that bind societies to the nation-state.


Primitive Revolution: Restorationist Religion and the Idea of the Mexican Revolution, 1940-1968
Paperback University of New Mexico Press (June 20, 2011)
ISBN-10: 082634951X ISBN-13: 978-0826349514
Jason H. Dormady

In this intriguing study, Jason Dormady examines the ways members of Mexico's urban and rural poor used religious community to mediate between themselves and the state through the practice of religious primitivism, the belief that they were restoring Christianity – and the practice of Mexican citizenship – to a more pure and essential state. Focusing on three community formation projects -- the Iglesia del Reino de Dios en su Plenitud, a Mormon-based polygamist organization; the Iglesia Luz del Mundo, an evangelical Protestant organization; and the Union Nacional Sinarquista, a semi-fascist Mexican Catholic group -- Dormady argues that their attempts to establish religious authenticity mirror the efforts of officials to define the meaning of the Mexican Revolution in the era following its military phase.

Despite the fact that these communities engaged in counterrevolutionary behavior, the state remained pragmatic and willing to be flexible depending on convergence of the group's interests with those of the official revolution.


Marvels and Miracles in Late Colonial Mexico: Three Texts in Context
(Religions of the Americas Series) Hardcover University of New Mexico Press (June 20, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0826349757 ISBN-13: 978-0826349750
William B. Taylor

Miracles, signs of divine presence and intervention, have been esteemed by Christians, especially Catholic Christians, as central to religious belief.

During the second half of the eighteenth century Spain's Bourbon dynasty sought to tighten its control over New World colonies, reform imperial institutions, and change the role of the church and religion in colonial life.

As a result, miracles were recognized and publicized sparingly by the church hierarchy and colonial courts were increasingly reluctant to recognize the events. Despite this lack of official encouragement, stories of amazing healings, rescues, and acts of divine retribution abounded throughout Mexico.

Consisting of three rare documents about miracles from this period, each accompanied by an introductory essay, this study serves as a source book and complement to the author's Shrines and Miraculous Images: Religious Life in Mexico Before the Reforma.


La Llorona: The Crying Woman (Multilingual Edition)
Hardcover University of New Mexico Press; Bilingual edition (September 15, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0826344607 ISBN-13: 978-0826344601
Rudolfo Anaya (Author), Amy Cordova (Illustrator)

La Llorona, the Crying Woman, is the legendary creature who haunts rivers, lakes, and lonely roads. Said to seek out children who disobey their parents, she has become a 'boogeyman', terrorizing the imaginations of New Mexican children and inspiring them to behave. But there are other lessons her tragic history can demonstrate for children.

In Rudolfo Anaya's version Maya, a young woman in ancient Mexico, loses her children to Father Time s cunning. This tragic and informative story serves as an accessible message of mortality for children. La Llorona, deftly translated by Enrique Lamadrid, is familiar and newly informative, while Amy Cordova's rich illustrations illuminate the story. The legend as retold by Anaya, a man as integral to southwest tradition as La Llorona herself, is storytelling anchored in a very human experience. His book helps parents explain to children the reality of death and the loss of loved ones.


Bruja: The Legend of La Llorona
Paperback University of New Mexico Press (October 15, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0826350526 ISBN-13: 978-0826350527
Lucinda Ciddio Leyba (Author)

In this powerfully eerie tale by Lucinda Ciddio Leyba, the legend of La Llorona is recast as the tale of a witch intent on doing evil in modern Santa Fe.

 By the light of the full moon, La Llorona is released from her earthly tomb. Cursed with the memories of her past, she becomes obsessed with reclaiming what was taken from her and preys on Santa Fe's innocent citizens. One of the unwittingly haunted is Christina, a young mother caught up in the ancient tradition of curanderas and witches. As she slips dangerously into the dark recesses of La Llorona's twisted mind, Christina becomes desperate to protect her own children from the terrifying madness, and must find a way to stop the evil that possesses her before she loses her sanity and everything she holds dear.


Amadito and the Hero Children : Amadito y los Ninos Heroes
(Paso Por Aqui Series on the Nuevomexicano Literary Heritage Series)
Hardcover University of New Mexico Press; Bilingual edition (November 15, 2011)
ISBN-10: 082634979X ISBN-13: 978-0826349798
Enrique R. Lamadrid (Author), Amy Cordova (Illustrator)

Recent health scares such as H1N1 influenza have exposed children to frightening information that can be difficult to process. This thoughtful bilingual book helps them understand the abstract concept of largescale sickness and appreciate the role children play in the health of their community. It introduces young readers to a fascinating aspect of southwest history, and invites discussion of folk medicine and science, while also addressing children's curiosities and fears.

Recounting the two most deadly epidemics to strike the Southwest -- smallpox in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and influenza during World War I--this beautifully illustrated narrative reveals that with tragedy comes heroism, as demonstrated by the children who bravely transported the smallpox vaccine from Mexico's interior to New Mexico in 1805.

Through the eyes of the protagonist Jose Amado 'Amadito' Domi­nguez a real child of the flu epidemic era who would later become Taos County's first nuevomexicano physician -- folklorist Lamadrid weaves together culture, history, mortality, and hope into a life-affirming lesson.


Don't Forget the Accent Mark: A Memoir
Paperback University of New Mexico Press (October 15, 2011)
ISBN-10: 082635047X ISBN-13: 978-0826350473
David Sanchez (Author)

Raised in a Mexican home in an Anglo neighborhood, David Sanchez was fair-skinned and fluent in Spanish and English when he entered kindergarten. None of this should have had any influence on the career path he chose, but at certain moments it did. With the birth of the Chicano Movement and affirmative action, a different and sometimes disturbing significance became attached to his name. Sanchez's story chronicles his life and those moments.
No matter how we transcend our origins, they remain part of our lives. This autobiography of an outstanding mathematician, dedicated to others, whose career included stints as a senior university and federal administrator, is also the story of a young man of mixed Mexican and American parentage.


Sweet Nata: Growing Up in Rural New Mexico
Paperback University of New Mexico Press (May 15, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0826346359 ISBN-13: 978-0826346353
Gloria Zamora (Author)

Grandparents are our teachers, our allies, and a great source of love. They supply endless stories that connect us to a past way of life and to people long gone--people who led ordinary lives, but were full of extraordinary teachings.

This is the subject of Sweet Nata, a memoir about familial traditions and the joys and hardships the author experienced in her youth. Set during the 1950s and 1960s in Mora and Corrales, New Mexico, Zamora reveals her interaction with her parents, grandparents, and other extended family members who had the greatest influence on her life. She paints a picture of native New Mexican culture and history for younger generations that will also be nostalgic for older generations.


Other Mexicos: Essays on Regional Mexican History, 1876-1911
Paperback University of New Mexico Press (December 30, 2010)
ISBN-10: 0826307558 ISBN-13: 978-0826307552
Thomas Benjamin (Author, Editor), William McNellie (Editor)

Examined in this volume is the neglected field of Mexican history at the regional level during Porfirio Di­az's long rule. The panorama of regional perspectives and center-periphery relationships includes essays on eight states that combine original research and synthesis.

These chapters present political, economic, and social developments in specific regions, based on long-ignored archival materials and new points of view. An introductory chapter gives an overview of the period, and the final two chapters respectively indicate promising opportunities for additional research and provide a selection of suggested readings.


Always Messing With Them Boys
Paperback West End Press (April 30, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0982696841 ISBN-13: 978-0982696842
Jessica Helen Lopez (Author)

'Every generation a few select voices seem to rise up and represent a revolution in the mechanics and mission of poetry.

This collection is an exotic, aphrodisiacal perfume wafting through the senses, thickly spiced by the dual nature of a poet whose culture and experience effortlessly blend concrete imagery with a quiet, fierce longing for a world that may only exist within memory -- or verse.

Jessica Helen Lopez sings in these poems; they are signal flares drawn from those pivotal moments of living that evoke the feminine, the sensual and the surreal in equal measure. These are the songs of the bruja, the bread-heavy hands of a mother, the beautiful indignation of a hopeless optimist.'--Zachary Kluckman


The Latest Word from 1540: People, Places, and Portrayals of the Coronado Expedition
Hardcover University of New Mexico Press (October 15, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0826350607 ISBN-13: 978-0826350602
Richard Flint, Shirley Cushing Flint (Editors)

Between 1539 and 1542, some two thousand people under Spanish leadership, mostly Indians from central and western Mexico, made an armed reconnaissance of a place they knew by the name Tierra Nueva, now the American Southwest. They intended to seize control of the people who lived there, in places called Ca­bola, Marata, Totonteac, Tiguex, Tusayan, and Quivira.

 The expedition eventually failed and most of those who survived returned to Nueva Esparza disillusioned and heavily in debt. They left in their wake dislocation and destruction, and their disruptive presence set the stage for further friction when the Spaniards next entered the region.


This book examines the environmental and cultural impact of the Coronado expedition while also placing it in the context of what was happening in Mexico as Spain expanded west and north of Mexico City. Including multidisciplinary studies by archaeologists, historians, and others, the volume gives a much fuller biographical account of the actual members of the expedition as well as a clearer understanding of how and where this large assemblage moved each day.


The Wrath of God: Lope de Aguirre, Revolutionary of the Americas
Hardcover University of New Mexico Press (October 15, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0826350437 ISBN-13: 978-0826350435
Evan L. Balkan (Author)

In 1560, General Pedro de Urs__ led an expedition through the Amazon in search of El Dorado. Three months later, Ursaa was murdered. His replacement, Fernando de Guzman, was also murdered. Emerging from the chaos was the Biscayan Lope de Aguirre, who turned away from El Dorado and led his men to Peru to overthrow the royal forces and declare independence from the Spanish Crown.

When Aguirre was finally killed, the aftermath was astonishing: hundreds dead, entire towns
depopulated, and a nascent revolution quashed.

Deliberately provocative, Evan Balkan's The Wrath of God examines Aguirre, a symbol of Basque fury and rampage, arguing that Aguirre's historical representation as a one-dimensional madman deserves revisiting. Indeed, Aguirre may be the Americas' first true revolutionary, a view shared by Simon Boli­var, among others. 2011 marks the 450th anniversary of one of the most extraordinary and least known events in the history of the Americas, and Balkan's work offers a timely investigation into the revolutionary's life and controversial methods.


The South American Expeditions, 1540-1545
Hardcover University of New Mexico Press (October 15, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0826350631 ISBN-13: 978-0826350633
Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca (Author), Baker H. Morrow (Editor)

First published in 1555, Cabeza de Vaca's narrative of his South American expeditions is a detailed account of his five years as governor of Spain's province of the Rio de la Plata in South America. Cabeza de Vaca was already a celebrated explorer by the time he went to La Plata, known for his great trek across North America in the 1520s and 1530s and for the Relación he wrote about that journey.


His tales of his river and forest explorations in South America show that he had lost none of his early curiosity and drive. He was the great secular champion of the native peoples of the New World and the only Spaniard to explore the coasts and interiors of two continents.
This book is one of the great first-person accounts of the Spanish conquest of the Americas in the sixteenth century. Morrow's new translation makes Cabeza deVaca's adventures available to a wide English-speaking audience for the first time.


Slavery, Freedom, and Abolition in Latin America and the Atlantic World
(Dialogos)
University of New Mexico Press (July 15, 2011)
 ISBN-10: 0826339042 ISBN-13: 978-0826339041
Christopher Schmidt-Nowara (Author)

The last New World countries to abolish slavery were Cuba and Brazil, more than twenty years after slave emancipation in the United States. Why slavery was so resilient and how people in Latin America fought against it are the subjects of this compelling study.

 Beginning with the roots of African slavery in the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Iberian empires, this work explores central issues, including the transatlantic slave trade, labor, Afro-Latin American cultures, racial identities in colonial slave societies, and the spread of antislavery ideas and social movements.

 A study of Latin America, this work, with its Atlantic-world framework, will also appeal to students of slavery and abolition in other Atlantic empires and nation-states in the early modern and modern eras.

The last New World countries to abolish slavery were Cuba and Brazil, more than twenty years after slave emancipation in the United States. Why slavery was so resilient and how people in Latin America fought against it are the subjects of this compelling study.

Beginning with the roots of African slavery in the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Iberian empires, this work explores central issues, including the transatlantic slave trade, labor, Afro-Latin American cultures, racial identities in colonial slave societies, and the spread of antislavery ideas and social movements.


The Women's Suffrage Movement and Feminism in Argentina from Roca to Peron
Paperback University of New Mexico Press (October 15, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0826350550 ISBN-13: 978-0826350558
Gregory Hammond (Author)

On September 23, 1947, the Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires filled with jubilant men and women celebrating a new law that gave women the same right as men to vote in all elections.

President Juan Domingo Peron had achieved a major victory for his regime. In the years that followed, Peron, with the help of his wife, Evita, courted female voters and created opportunities for them to participate in his broad-based political coalition. However, the suffrage law generated considerable controversy, including from supporters of the movement.

Harsh criticism came from the Left, especially from the Socialist Party, the earliest advocate of women's suffrage in Argentina. Also, feminists who had done so much to build the case in favor of voting vehemently opposed the reform, viewing the Peronist suffrage plan as a cynical attempt to boost Evita's political career.

Providing an overview of the women's suffrage movement from its earliest stages through the passage of the 1947 law, this study examines what Argentina's history can tell us about the moment when a society agrees to the equal participation of women in the political realm.


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Saturday, August 06, 2011

Un paso adelante, un paso para atras: 1971


Que Pronto Pasen Los Años: A Look Back at Chicano(a) Literature 
1971 (part 1)
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Tierra Amarilla: Stories of New Mexico/Cuentos de Nuevo México
Sabine R. Ulibarrí
University Of New Mexico Press [1971]

These five bilingual tales and one novella evoke the rural life of Tierra Amarilla, a village in northern New Mexico where the author grew up. Ulibarrí weaves mystery and sympathy into his stories of carefully drawn characters who can be cruel, eccentric, hilarious, and unforgettable.

First published in 1964, these enduring stories were translated for the first edition of this book in 1971. In the introduction to the present edition, literary critic Erlinda Gonzales-Berry writes that Ulibarrí’s work has long taken part in Hispano literary resistance by refusing to let traditions be forgotten.

Delightful reading for anyone interested in the hues of Hispano life in northern New Mexico.

First published in Spansih in 1964, this was the first English translation.

Republished in 1978 and 1993.





Actos
Luis Valdez (Author), El Teatro Campesino (Author)
Cucaracha Press Fresno (1971)

This collection is actually three books in one: 1) a collection of one-act plays by the famous farmwork theatre, El Teatro Campesino and its director, Luis Valdez,

Republished in 1978 and in Luis Valdez Early Works: Actos, Bernabe and Pensamiento Serpentino
on Arte Publico Press in 1990.


Blessing From Above
Arthur Tenorio

"Blessing appears to have been self-published. According to the title page, the novel was published by the West Las Vegas Schools’ Press in 1971. Both novels do contain anBlessing centers around the alien “Nifty” who is “found” in the bush in Africa by two missionaries, taken in and raised and educated by the Wellsons. When they are posted to a new mission, they take their “son” to a friend in Jocunda, the capital city of the fictional country Morunda. Morunda is struggling with
agricultural and economic development, though once Nifty arrives and begins working for a government agency, each of its crises are “solved” by Nifty, though he never takes credit. Eventually, Morunda becomes a global model for development, and the aliens come down to Earth to make their presence known. They decide, in the end, to withdraw and continue to monitor Earth since we are not yet ready to join the larger community...scientifically- and politically-advanced aliens attempt to interact with humans. While in Blessing, the alien Nifty assumes a physical form — like an incarnation or avatar from the god-like aliens...the interaction remains at an abstract level."
--- Rich Calvin, "Isabella Ríos and Victuum: Speculating a Chicana Identity"

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Thursday, August 04, 2011

El Paso Writers Update for Week Aug. 1


El Paso Writers Update for Week Aug. 1
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Christine Granados Website

Christine Granados has a website up. Check it out at http://www.christinegranados.com/


Octavio Solis Interview

Adam Szymkowicz has an interview with Octavio Solis on his blog. Check out I Interview Playwrights Part 372: Octavio Solis : "A US Border Patrol cruiser drove up and asked us what we were doing. We told him we were just having around. Then he gave us a hard steely look asked us for our identification. I told I was an American citizen and a kid besides, and that I didn't need identification. He leaned down to me and took off his sunglasses and told me I would never be an American, no matter how hard I tried. In his eyes, and in the eyes of the world, I was and would forever be a Mexican. He almost cuffed me and took me in, but he laughed and drove off. " ---- Octavio Solis


Raymund Paredes in the news

Money, Money, Money. The everending battle to give higher education to the poor. Paredes was quoted in the Austin American Statesman: "Higher Education Commissioner Raymund Paredes is warning that the Legislature's reduction in funding for the state's main financial aid program could threaten its viability as an incentive for low-income students to attend college." READ MORE.

Also see "Paredes on Texas' college graduation rates" in the Dallas Morning News and "Point Person: Our Q&A with Raymund Paredes on college graduate rates" (Dallas Morning News) and "Texas Colleges Lagging In Enrollment Of Minority Students" and "Texas Colleges Lagging In Enrollment Of Minority Students" (University Business) and "Texas higher ed enrollment topped 1.5M in 2010."  


Saenz at Port Townsend

Benjamin A. Saenz was recently at the Port Townsend Writers’ Conference at Centrum. Not much but a mention here. Read more.  

Sergio Troncoso

Blogs of Note

A few blog posts of note. Check out "Economic uncertainty as a political weapon" (Sergio Troncoso). "Tea Party" by Edgar Gabriel Silex on the Pink Velvet Jesus Blog. "Persistence" by Paul Pedroza on the chicano exile blog. Images of Juárez: Light does not stop at the border. on the Chacon in Chuco blog (Daniel Chacon). Uncivil discourse is not good for our country in Mario T. Garcia's National Catholic Reporter Blog.


Ruben Salazar in Dever Roots 

Ruben Salazar is mention among other Chicano(a) Movement icons on NPR's Talk of the Nation in "Chicano Movement's Denver Roots Run Deep": "Many cite Denver as the birthplace of the American Chicano movement. Its leaders today are largely the children of the "Crusaders for Justice" who launched a nationwide civil rights movement in the 60s and 70s." HEAR MORE.


Luis Rodriguez Interview

Check out the EPL Off the Shelf for an interview with Luis J. Rodriguez. Read now. "Chicano/Mexicano fathers have the problem of inheriting the wrong “macho” concept of manhood–that one doesn’t cry, or feel, and being tough is being a man. There’s more being a man than that. More of a real warrior–well-rounded, healthy, loving in a man’s way, and being a great protector, teacher, guide, and creative. I’m not putting down all fathers, of course, but my dad was one of those emotionally-detached fathers. I also had raging issues, which alienated me from my wives, girlfriends, and my kids. Yes, men need to be strong, but not bullies. They need to know how to not get emotionally lost in situations, but not be cold and emotionless. They need to know the full variety of emotions as well as thinking and acting. Not just the most limited ways of doing things." Read more.


John Rechy and the Black Cat

Rechy is mentioned in the article "The Gay Bar: Why the gay rights movement was born in one" about the Black Cat, a gay bar in Los Angeles' Silver Lake neighborhood: "This 'was perhaps the first homosexual uprising in the world,' according to Gay L.A. READ MORE.


Alicia Gaspar de Alba in Ireland

The many times homophobic among other thing Voz of Aztlan lashed out againt Gaspar de Alba  in Chicana lesbians sully Irish university about her recent visit to Ireland. But read with a grain of salt as it is the Voz of Aztlan.


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Tuesday, August 02, 2011

Recent Chicano(a) Titles in July and August 2011


Recent Chicano(a) Titles in July and August 2011
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The Chicano Studies Reader: An Anthology of Aztlan, 1970-2010
[Paperback] UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Press; 2 edition (July 1, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0895511231 ISBN-13: 978-0895511232
Chon A. Noriega (Editor)


The 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-Qui-ones, Deena J. Gonzalez, Ramon A. GutiŽrrez, Jorge A. Huerta, Jessica E. Jones, Chon A. Noriega, AmŽrico 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.



Con Safo: The Chicano Art Group and the Politics of South Texas
[Paperback] UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Press (July 1, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0895511215 ISBN-13: 978-0895511218
Ruben C. Cordova (Author)

Ruben C. Cordova traces the history of Con Safo, one of the earliest and most significant of the Chicano art groups, from 1968, when it formed as El Grupo, to the mid-1970s, when Con Safo gradually disbanded. Founded by Felipe Reyes, the original group was made up of six San Antonio artists. The fluxuating membership over the decade of the group's existence included Mel Casas, Jose Esquivel, Rudy Trevino, and Roberto Rios. Although the structure of the original group changed, its mission did not: Con Safo defined possibilities for Chicano art at a time when Chicano culture was largely invisible.

Cordova's painstaking research, which included extensive archival work and interviews with group members and activists, resolves many of the contradictions and fills in many of the gaps that exist in earlier accounts of the group. Con Safo: The Chicano Art Group and the Politics of South Texas is an important resource for anyone interested in Chicano art and Chicano history. The book concludes with reproductions of original documents related to the group, including Casas's Brown Paper Report.



Lowriders in Chicano Culture: From Low to Slow to Show
[Hardcover] Greenwood (July 31, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0313381496 ISBN-13: 978-0313381492
Charles M. Tatum (Author)

Much like rap music and ethnic foods, Chicano lowrider culture has become sufficiently widespread in recent decades to almost be considered "mainstream." However, those outside of lowriding may not realize that this cultural phenomenon is not the result of a recent fad — it originated in the pre–World War II era, and has continued to grow and evolve since then.

Lowriders in Chicano Culture: From Low to Slow to Show allows readers to see how this expressive culture fits within the broader context of Chicano culture and understand how lowriding reflects the social, artistic, and political dimensions of America's fastest-growing ethnic group. It includes chapters that explain the culture of pachucas/os and cholas/os; the unique aesthetics of lowrider vehicles; lowrider music, shows, and clubs; the mechanics of building a lowrider vehicle; and lowrider culture in the media including film, newspapers, and television. The book also traces how lowrider culture has recently expanded beyond the urban streets and into the massive exhibit halls of lowrider shows, exposing lowrider culture to even more enthusiasts.


The Mexican Museum of San Francisco Papers, 1971-2006,
Paperback UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Press (July 1, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0895511223 ISBN-13: 978-0895511225
Karen Mary Davalos (Author)

The Mexican Museum of San Francisco was founded in 1975 by artist Peter Rodriguez to "foster the exhibition, conservation, and dissemination of Mexican and Chicano art and culture for all peoples." Its holdings include some 14,000 objects with a historical range extending from pre-conquest Mexico to contemporary Mexican American and Latino communities in the United States.

The Chicano Studies Research Center's collection includes a broad selection of the museum's administrative papers and related materials. Karen Mary Davalos draws on these documents to trace the origins of the museum and explore how its mission has been shaped by its visionary artist-founder, local art collectors and patrons, Mexican art and culture, and the Chicano movement. A detailed finding aid and a selected bibliography complete the volume.



Paths to Discovery: Autobiographies from Chicanas with Careers in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering
Paperback UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Press (July 1, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0895511193 ISBN-13: 978-0895511195
Norma E. Cantu (Editor), Aida Hurtado (Introduction)

In Paths to Discovery a group of extraordinary Chicanas trace how their interest in math and science at a young age developed into a passion fed by talent and determination. Today they are teaching at major universities, setting public and institutional policy, and pursuing groundbreaking research.

These testimonios (personal stories) will encourage young Chicanas to enter the fields of mathematics, science, and engineering and to create futures in classrooms, boardrooms, and laboratories across the nation.



The Fire of Life: The Robert Legorreta-Cyclona Collection
(The Chicano Archives Series)
[Paperback] UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Press; Pap/DVD edition (July 1, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0895511207 ISBN-13: 978-0895511201
Robb Hernandez (Author)

The Fire of Life, the collection of performance artist Robert Legorreta, is a fascinating and eclectic archive. Correspondence, artwork, photographs, and other materials document Legorreta's artistic career and trace the development of the East L.A. arts scene in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The collection contains more than a thousand LPs, gathered primarily for the Latino imagery on their covers, and toys, coupons, and ads, that show how Latino themes have been used to promote consumer products.



Rallying for Immigrant Rights: The Fight for Inclusion in 21st Century America
Hardcover University of California Press; 1 edition (July 6, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0520267540 ISBN-13: 978-0520267541
Kim Voss (Editor), Irene Bloemraad (Editor)

From Alaska to Florida, millions of immigrants and their supporters took to the streets across the United States to rally for immigrant rights in the spring of 2006.

The scope and size of their protests, rallies, and boycotts made these the most significant events of political activism in the United States since the 1960s. This accessibly written volume offers the first comprehensive analysis of this historic moment. Perfect for students and general readers, its essays, written by a multidisciplinary group of scholars and grassroots organizers, trace the evolution and legacy of the 2006 protest movement in engaging, theoretically informed discussions.

The contributors cover topics including unions, churches, the media, immigrant organizations, and immigrant politics. Today, one in eight U.S. residents was born outside the country, but for many, lack of citizenship makes political voice through the ballot box impossible. This book helps us better understand how immigrants are making their voices heard in other ways.


Bilingualism in the USA: The case of the Chicano-Latino community
(Studies in Bilingualism Series) Paperback 
John Benjamins Publishing Company (August 15, 2011)
ISBN-10: 9027241848 ISBN-13: 978-9027241849
Prof. Dr. Fredric W. Field (Author)

This text provides an overview of bi- and multilingualism as a worldwide phenomenon. It features comprehensive discussions of many of the linguistic, social, political, and educational issues found in an increasingly multilingual nation and world.

To this end, the book takes the Chicano-Latino community of Southern California, where Spanish-English bilingualism has over a century and a half of history, and presents a detailed case study, thereby situating the community in a much broader social context.

Spanish is the second most-widely spoken language in the U.S. after English, yet, for the most part, its speakers form a language minority that essentially lacks the social, political, and educational support necessary to derive the many cognitive, socioeconomic, and educational benefits that proficient bilingualism can provide. The issues facing Spanish-English bilinguals in the Los Angeles area are relevant to nearly every bi- and multilingual community irrespective of nation, language, and/or ethnicity.



¡Chicana Power!: Contested Histories of Feminism in the Chicano Movement
(Chicana Matters) [Paperback] University of Texas Press (August 1, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0292726902 ISBN-13: 978-0292726901

The first book-length study of women's involvement in the Chicano Movement of the late 1960s and 1970s, ¡Chicana Power! tells the powerful story of the emergence of Chicana feminism within student and community-based organizations throughout southern California and the Southwest.

As Chicanos engaged in widespread protest in their struggle for social justice, civil rights, and self-determination, women in el movimiento became increasingly militant about the gap between the rhetoric of equality and the organizational culture that suppressed women's leadership and subjected women to chauvinism, discrimination, and sexual harassment.

Based on rich oral histories and extensive archival research, Maylei Blackwell analyzes the struggles over gender and sexuality within the Chicano Movement and illustrates how those struggles produced new forms of racial consciousness, gender awareness, and political identities.


¡Chicana Power! provides a critical genealogy of pioneering Chicana activist and theorist Anna NietoGomez and the Hijas de Cuauhtémoc, one of the first Latina feminist organizations, who together with other Chicana activists forged an autonomous space for women's political participation and challenged the gendered confines of Chicano nationalism in the movement and in the formation of the field of Chicana studies.

She uncovers the multifaceted vision of liberation that continues to reverberate today as contemporary activists, artists, and intellectuals, both grassroots and academic, struggle for, revise, and rework the political legacy of Chicana feminism.



Chicanas of 18th Street: Narratives of a Movement from Latino Chicago
(Latinos in Chicago and Midwest Series) Paperback
University of Illinois Press; 1st Edition edition (August 1, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0252078128 ISBN-13: 978-0252078125
Leonard G. Ramirez, Yenelli Flores, Maria Gamboa, Isaura Gonzalez, Victoria Perez , Magda Ramirez-Castaneda, Cristina Vital 

Overflowing with powerful testimonies of six female community activists who have lived and worked in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago, Chicanas of 18th Street reveals the convictions and approaches of those organizing for social reform. In chronicling a pivotal moment in the history of community activism in Chicago, the women discuss how education, immigration, religion, identity, and acculturation affected the Chicano movement.

Chicanas of 18th Street underscores the hierarchies of race, gender, and class while stressing the interplay of individual and collective values in the development of community reform.

Highlighting the women's motivations, initiatives, and experiences in politics during the 1960s and 1970s, these rich personal accounts reveal the complexity of the Chicano movement, conflicts within the movement, and the importance of teatro and cultural expressions to the movement.

Also detailed are vital interactions between members of the Chicano movement with leftist and nationalist community members and the influence of other activist groups such as African Americans and Marxists.


Profiles in Emergent Biliteracy: Children Making Meaning in a Chicano Community
(Educational Psychology: Critical Pedagogical Perspectives Series)
Paperback Peter Lang Publishing; First printing edition (August 15, 2011)
ISBN-10: 1433108623 ISBN-13: 978-1433108624
M. Cathrene Connery (Author)

How do young children learn to read, write, speak, and listen in two languages? How do emergent readers and writers make meaning within multilingual communities? This book examines the emergent biliteracy development of two kindergarteners growing up in a New Mexican neighborhood.

Using ethnographic accounts, the book portrays the familial, communal, and academic contexts in which the children appropriated dual proficiencies in English and Spanish, and provides a window into the homes and lives of these working-class boys and the political, philosophical, and pedagogical world of their bilingual kindergarten.

The complexity of emergent biliteracy as a sociocultural-semiotic process is elaborated through Vygotskian theory, the multiple voices of these children, and the action research of their teacher.


Mexican Labor Migrants and U.s. Immigration Policies: From Sojourner to Emigrant?
(The New Americans Recent Immigration and American Society Series)
Hardcover Lfb Scholarly Pub Llc (August 15, 2011)
ISBN-10: 1593324693 ISBN-13: 978-1593324698
Florian K. Kaufmann (Author)



The Trouble with Sauling Around: Conversion in Ethnic American Autobiography, 1965-2002
Paperback University Of Iowa Press; 1 edition (August 16, 2011)
ISBN-10: 1609380630 ISBN-13: 978-1609380632
Madeline Ruth Walker (Author)

Examining autobiographical texts by Malcolm X (The Autobiography of Malcolm X), Oscar Zeta Acosta (The Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo and Revolt of the Cockroach People), Amiri Baraka (The Autobiography of LeRoi Jones), and Richard Rodriguez  (Hunger of Memory, Days of Obligation, and Brown), Walker questions the often rosy views and simplistic binary conceptions of religious conversion.

Her reading of these texts takes into account the conflict and serial changes the authors experience in a society that marginalizes them, the manner in which religious conversion offers ethnic Americans “salvation” through cultural assimilation or cultural nationalism, and what conversion, anticonversion, and deconversion narratives tell us about the problematic effects of religion that often go unremarked because of a code of “special respect” and political correctness.

Walker asserts that critics have been too willing to praise religion in America as salutary or beyond the ken of criticism because religious belief is seen as belonging to an untouchable arena of cultural identity. The Trouble with Sauling Around goes beyond traditional literary criticism to pay close attention to the social phenomena that underlie religious conversion narratives and considers the potentially negative effects of religious conversion, something that has been likewise neglected by scholars.



Heart-Shaped Cookies
Paperback Bilingual Review Press (August 1, 2011)
ISBN-10: 193101079X ISBN-13: 978-1931010795
David Rice (Author)


HEART-SHAPED COOKIES, David Rice's new collection, consists of seven short stories from his first book, three stories reprinted from various anthologies, nine flash fiction pieces, and a play by Mike D. García based on Rice's short story "She Flies."

Rice skillfully balances humor and sensitivity in his writing, and his imaginative tales and colorful characters appeal to young readers on many levels. Culture and place figure prominently in these narratives; most are set in the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas and explore issues encountered in contemporary Mexican American life near the border. The author's distinctive wit and style are apparent throughout the collection and are sure to secure his place in Chicano literature.



Memories of a Hyphenated Man
Paperback University of Arizona Press (July 15, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0816530025 ISBN-13: 978-0816530021
Ramon Eduardo Ruiz Urueta (Author)


Ramon Eduardo Ruiz would be the first to admit that he is not your typical Mexican American. But he has always known who he is.

Historian, author, and intellectual, Ruiz has established himself through such books as Triumphs and Tragedy: A History of the Mexican People and Cuba: The Making of a Revolution, and in 1998 he was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Clinton.

Now he turns his pen on his own life to offer a personal look at what it really means to be American by birth but Mexican by culture.

Little has been written by or about persons of Mexican origin who have achieved the academic stature of Ruiz, and his memoir provides insights not found in the more common biographies of labor leaders and civil rights activists. His early life straddled the social worlds of his parent's Mexico and semi-rural America, where his father's success as an entrepreneur and property owner set his family's experiences apart from those of most other Mexican Americans at the time.

His parents reinforced in their children an identity as mexicanos, and that connection with his ancestral roots was for Ruiz a lifejacket in the days of acute bigotry in America.


In making an early, self-conscious commitment to a life of the mind, Ruiz became aware of his unique nature, and while not immune to prejudice he was able to make a name for himself in several endeavors.

As a student, he attended college when few Mexican Americans were given that opportunity, and he was one of the first of his generation to earn a Ph.D. As an Army Air Force officer during World War II, he served as a pilot in the Pacific theatre. And as an intellectual, he navigated the currents of the historical profession and charted new directions in Latin American research through his prolific writing.

Ruiz's career teaching took him to Mexico, Massachusetts, Texas, Oregon — often as the lone "Mexican professor," and ultimately back to his native California. While teaching at Smith, he exulted in being "free to interpret Spanish American life and culture to my heart's content," and at the University of California, San Diego, he saw the era of campus racial barrier give way to the birth of affirmative action. While at UCSD, he taught hundreds of Chicanos and trained one of the largest groups of Chicano Ph.D's.

Memories of a Hyphenated Man is the story of a unique individual who, while shaped by his upbringing and drawing on deep cultural roots, steadfastly followed his own compass in life. It tells of a singular man who beat the odds as it poignantly addresses the ambiguities associated with race, class, citizenship, and nationality for Mexicans and Mexican Americans.

            
Spiritual Mestizaje: Religion, Gender, Race, and Nation in Contemporary Chicana Narrative
(Latin America Otherwise) [Paperback] Duke University Press Books (July 18, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0822350467 ISBN-13: 978-0822350460
Theresa Delgadillo (Author)

Gloria Anzaldúa’s narrative and theoretical innovations, particularly her concept of mestiza consciousness, have influenced critical thinking about colonialism, gender, history, language, religion, sexuality, spirituality, and subjectivity.

Yet Anzaldúa’s theory of spiritual mestizaje has not been extensively studied until now. Taking up that task, Theresa Delgadillo reveals spiritual mestizaje as central to the queer feminist Chicana theorist’s life and thought, and as a critical framework for interpreting contemporary Chicana literary and visual narratives.

First mentioned by Anzaldúa in her pioneering book Borderlands/La Frontera, spiritual mestizaje is a transformative process of excavating bodily memory to develop a radical, sustained critique of oppression and renew one’s relation to the sacred.

Delgadillo analyzes the role of spiritual mestizaje in Anzaldúa’s work and in relation to other forms of spirituality and theories of oppression. Illuminating the ways that contemporary Chicana narratives visualize, imagine, and enact Anzaldúa’s theory and method of spiritual mestizaje, Delgadillo interprets novels, memoir, and documentaries.

Her critical reading of literary and visual technologies demonstrates how Chicanas challenge normative categories of gender, sexuality, nation, and race by depicting alternative visions of spirituality.

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