New Chicano(a) Titles in April 2010

New Chicano(a) Titles in April 2010

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Of Space and Mind: Cognitive Mappings of Contemporary Chicano/a Fiction

(Cognitive Approaches to Literature and Culture Series)

Hardcover University of Texas Press April 1, 2011

ISBN-10: 0292723636 ISBN-13: 978-0292723634

Patrick L. Hamilton 

Chicano/a fiction is often understood as a literature of resistance to the dominant U.S. Anglo culture and society. But reducing this rich literary production to a single, binary opposition distorts it in fundamental ways. 

It conflates literature with life, potentially substituting a literature of protest for social activism that could provoke real changes in society. And it overlooks the complex range of responses to Anglo society that actually animates Chicano/a fiction.

In this paradigm-shifting book, Patrick L. Hamilton analyzes works by Rudolfo Anaya, Ana Castillo, Denise Chávez, Rolando Hinojosa, Arturo Islas, John Rechy, Alfredo Véa, and Helena María Viramontes to expand our understandings of the cultural interactions within the United States that are communicated by Chicano/a fiction. 

He argues that the narrative ethics of "resistance" within the Chicano/a canon is actually complemented by ethics of "persistence" and "transformation" that imagine cultural differences within the United States as participatory and irreducible to simple oppositions. 

To demonstrate these alternative ethics, Hamilton adapts the methodology of cognitive mapping; that is, he treats the chosen fictional texts as mental maps that are constructed around and communicative of the narrative's ethics. 

As he reads these cognitive maps, which envision Chicano/a culture as being part of U.S. society rather than as "resistant" and separate, Hamilton asserts that the authors' conception of cultural difference speaks more usefully to current sociopolitical debates, such as those about gay marriage and immigration reform, than does the traditional "resistant" paradigm.

The Tejano Diaspora: Mexican Americanism and Ethnic Politics in Texas and Wisconsin  

Hardcover The University of North Carolina Press (April 4, 2011)

ISBN-10: 9780807834640 ISBN-13: 978-0807834640

Marc Rodriguez

Each spring during the 1960s and 1970s, a quarter million farm workers left Texas to travel across the nation, from the Midwest to California, to harvest America's agricultural products. 

During this migration of people, labor, and ideas, Tejanos established settlements in nearly all the places they traveled to for work, influencing concepts of Mexican Americanism in Texas, California, Wisconsin, Michigan, and elsewhere. 

In The Tejano Diaspora, Marc Simon Rodriguez examines how Chicano political and social movements developed at both ends of the migratory labor network that flowed between Crystal City, Texas, and Wisconsin during this period.

Rodriguez argues that translocal Mexican American activism gained ground as young people, activists, and politicians united across the migrant stream. Crystal City, well known as a flash point of 1960s-era Mexican Americanism, was a classic migrant sending community, with over 80 percent of the population migrating each year in pursuit of farm work. 

Wisconsin, which had a long tradition of progressive labor politics, provided a testing ground for activism and ideas for young movement leaders. By providing a view of the Chicano movement beyond the Southwest, Rodriguez reveals an emergent ethnic identity, discovers an overlooked youth movement, and interrogates the meanings of American citizenship.

Mexican Americans Across Generations: Immigrant Families, Racial Realities 
 Paperback NYU Press (April 18, 2011)

ISBN-10: 0814788297 ISBN-13: 978-0814788295

Jessica Vasquez

While newly arrived immigrants are often the focus of public concern and debate, many Mexican immigrants and Mexican Americans have resided in the United States for generations. 

Latinos are the largest and fastest-growing ethnic group in the United States, and their racial identities change with each generation. While the attainment of education and middle class occupations signals a decline in cultural attachment for some, socioeconomic mobility is not a cultural death-knell, as others are highly ethnically identified. 

There are a variety of ways that middle class Mexican Americans relate to their ethnic heritage, and racialization despite assimilation among a segment of the second and third generations reveals the continuing role of race even among the U.S.-born.

Mexican Americans Across Generations investigates racial identity and assimilation in three-generation Mexican American families living in California. Through rich interviews with three generations of middle class Mexican American families, Vasquez focuses on the family as a key site for racial and gender identity formation, knowledge transmission, and incorporation processes, exploring how the racial identities of Mexican Americans both change and persist generationally in families. 

She illustrates how gender, physical appearance, parental teaching, historical era and discrimination influence Mexican Americans' racial identity and incorporation patterns, ultimately arguing that neither racial identity nor assimilation are straightforward progressions but, instead, develop unevenly and are influenced by family, society, and historical social movements.

Tamales, Comadres, and the Meaning of Civilization

Paperback Wings Press April 1, 2011

ISBN-10: 0916727815 ISBN-13: 978-0916727819

Ellen Riojas Clark (Author), Carmen Tafolla (Author)

This culinary history unwraps the extensive culture surrounding the tamale, bringing together writers, artists, journalists, and Texas’ regional leaders to honor this traditional Latin American dish. It is filled with family stories, recipes, and artwork, and also celebrates tamaladas—the large family gatherings where women prepare the tamales for the Christmas festivities. Humorous and colorful, this collection reveals the importance of community and good food.

Eva's Kitchen: Cooking with Love for Family and Friends

Hardcover Clarkson Potter April 5, 2011

ISBN-10: 0307719332 ISBN-13: 978-0307719331

Eva Longoria (Author), Marah Stets (Author) 

Eva Longoria may be most recognized for her role as Desperate Housewives’ saucy Gabrielle Solis, but on her own time, there are few places she would rather be than in the kitchen, cooking the food she loves for her family and friends. 

Here is the food Eva loves to eat, and the recipes in Eva’s Kitchen trace her life story, taking readers on her culinary journey—from the food she was brought up on to the recipes inspired by her travels abroad to the dishes she serves during casual nights at home.

Having grown up on a ranch with every meal based on what was in the family fields, Eva believes, like so many of us, that good cooking relies on local, fresh, easy-to-find ingredients. In Eva’s Kitchen, she teaches readers essential cooking skills and she sprinkles in the histories and traditions behind her favorite dishes, including personal stories and anecdotes that capture the warmth, humor, and joy of her most memorable meals.

In her first cookbook, Eva welcomes you into her kitchen, offering 100 of her favorite dishes—many of which are family recipes collected over the years—all fused with her passion for cooking. She also shares memories of her Texas ranch upbringing, her very first cooking adventures, vacations overseas, nights in with her girlfriends, and last-minute pre–red carpet meals.

Inspired by her heritage, Eva highlights the essentials of great Mexican cooking, Texas style—with her family’s recipes and techniques for making the world’s best tamales, homemade tortillas, Spanish rice, and Pan de Polvo (Mexican pastry), to name a few. She also offers dishes from a variety of international cuisines, from Latin American to Italian and French, inspired by her globe-trotting travels. 

A taste of Lemon Dover Sole whisks Eva to a tiny hotel-restaurant she once visited on a trip to Normandy; the recipe for Cannellini Beans with Crushed Red Pepper was a souvenir from a trip to Florence; kimchi adds a kick to her Spicy Roasted Brussels Sprouts, a Thanksgiving staple; and Yellow Squash Soup with Lemon brings her full circle, back to her family’s vegetable garden in Corpus Christi.

With full-color food photographs, intimate portraits of her family and friends, and a glimpse into Eva’s home and her lesser-known domestic side (family first, acting second, she says), Eva’s debut cookbook will entice her loyal fans and inspire home cooks to broaden their culinary horizons and create memorable meals for the people they love.

Beyond Rain of Gold

Hardcover Hay House April 1, 2011

ISBN-10: 1401931227 ISBN-13: 978-1401931223

Victor Villasenor

Beyond Rain of Gold is the incredible story of acclaimed author Victor Villaseñor’s initiation into the spiritual realm.

     

Decades ago, after penning the nonfiction epic Rain of Gold, the writer embarked on a life-changing journey. In the process of ensuring that his family’s saga would be published as the authentic, true account it was, Villaseñor forged a sacred bond with his father and his indigenous ancestors, who were guiding him from the Other Side. The book eventually became a national bestseller and an enduring favorite of millions of readers.

Yet the story doesn’t end there. Villaseñor’s connection with the Spirit World continued to deepen, awakening him to the ongoing miracles inherent in everyday living. He discovered that his life had suddenly taken on a magical quality, with events occurring that transcended the boundaries of what is normally considered “reality.”

A series of mystical encounters with Spirit convinced Villaseñor that not only is there no firm line between life and death—but that the time has come in our collective “human-story” to usher in a new era of abundance, peace, and harmony on our beloved Mother Earth and among all of humanity!

     

Similar to Carlos Castaneda’s body of work, this exciting, raw, and honest book courageously delves into altered states of consciousness that exist alongside ordinary reality . . . ultimately revealing the Spiritual Wisdom that is available to each and every one of us.

Beyond Rain of Gold will truly transform the way you see the world—on both a personal and planetary level!

Bridging: How Gloria Anzaldúa's Life and Work Transformed Our Own

Hardcover University of Texas Press (April 1, 2011)

ISBN-10: 0292725558 ISBN-13: 978-0292725553

Ana Louise Keating (Editor), Gloria González-López (Editor) 

The inspirational writings of cultural theorist and social justice activist Gloria Anzaldúa have empowered generations of women and men throughout the world. 

Charting the multiplicity of Anzaldúa's impact within and beyond academic disciplines, community trenches, and international borders, Bridging presents more than thirty reflections on her work and her life, examining vibrant facets in surprising new ways and inviting readers to engage with these intimate, heartfelt contributions.

Bridging is divided into five sections: The New Mestizas: "transitions and transformations"; Exposing the Wounds: "You gave me permission to fly in the dark"; Border Crossings: Inner Struggles, Outer Change; Bridging Theories: Intellectual Activism with/in Borders; and "Todas somos nos/otras": Toward a "politics of openness." Contributors, who include Norma Elia Cantú, Elisa Facio, Shelley Fisher Fishkin, Aída Hurtado, Andrea Lunsford, Denise Segura, Gloria Steinem, and Mohammad Tamdgidi, represent a broad range of generations, professions, academic disciplines, and national backgrounds. 

Critically engaging with Anzaldúa's theories and building on her work, they use virtual diaries, transformational theory, poetry, empirical research, autobiographical narrative, and other genres to creatively explore and boldly enact future directions for Anzaldúan studies.

A book whose form and content reflect Anzaldúa's diverse audience, Bridging perpetuates Anzaldúa's spirit through groundbreaking praxis and visionary insights into culture, gender, sexuality, religion, aesthetics, and politics. This is a collection whose span is as broad and dazzling as Anzaldúa herself.

Dallas's Little Mexico

(Images of America Series)

Paperback Arcadia Publishing (April 4, 2011)

ISBN-10: 0738579793 ISBN-13: 978-0738579795

Sol Villasana

Little Mexico was Dallas's earliest Mexican barrio. 

"Mexicanos" had lived in Dallas since the mid-19th century. The social displacement created by the Mexican Revolution of 1910, however, caused the emergence of a distinct and vibrant neighborhood on the edge of the city's downtown. 

This neighborhood consisted of modest homes, small businesses, churches, and schools, and further immigration from Mexico in the 1920s caused its population to boom. By the 1930s, Little Mexico's population had grown to over 15,000 people. 

The expanding city's construction projects, urban renewal plans, and land speculation by developers gradually began to dismantle Little Mexico. By the end of the 20th century, Little Mexico had all but disappeared, giving way to upscale high-rise residences and hotels, office towers of steel and glass, and the city's newest entertainment district. This book looks at Little Mexico's growth, zenith, demise, and its remarkable renaissance as a neighborhood.