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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of South Carolina, 1991. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 179-185).

“To(o) Queer the Chican@s: Disrupting Genders in the Post-Borderlands" examines representations of non-normative genders and sexualities in Mexican American literature. / text

My dissertation, Perspectives of the Mexican Revolution from the exile: the disillusionment of the intellectuals in Mexican-American narratives (1926-1935), studies the migration from Mexico to the United States during the Mexican Revolution of 1910 and the literary production of the Mexican intellectuals in exile who build a transnational imaginary of national identity and interpretations of nationalism. I argue that the transnational experience of the Mexican Revolution influences the political discourse that questions the integration of the immigrant community in the reconstruction project of post-revolutionary Mexico, as reflected in the novels Las aventuras de don Chipote (1928) by Daniel Venegas, El sol de Texas (1926) by Conrado Espinoza and La patria perdida (1935) by Teodoro Torres. My work on these authors and their texts, all of them understudied and written in Spanish, focuses on the study of the parallels between the literary production during the Revolution in Mexico and also in the United States, pointing at a decisive moment where the transnational impact of the Revolution influences the incorporation of the immigrant and peasant community as citizens of Mexico or the United States. My dissertation consists of an introduction and four chapters. In the introduction, I present the theoretical framework that analyzes the literary production in both Mexico and the United States during this time period. Chapter 1 presents a historical context that explains the inevitable impact of the Mexican Revolution on the U.S.-Mexico border. Chapter 2 shows the perspective of Daniel Venegas in Las aventuras de don Chipote (1928) which presents a protest against the abuse of the immigrant communities and questions the success of the immigrant in the United States. Chapter 3 presents the perspective of Conrado Espinoza in El sol de Texas (1926) portraying the idea that the national imaginary can only be constructed in the nation and not in exile. Chapter 4 presents the perspective of Teodoro Torres in La patria perdida (1935) where the idea of the repatriation project is contested, and citizenship in the United States is favored. The dissertation intends to study two contrasting perspectives on the immigrant communities and their role in the reconstruction of post-revolutionary Mexico or in the booming U.S. economy. / text

This dissertation reassumes the research and literary analysis conducted in my Master's thesis "Family Ideal and Real: The Change of the Image of the Family in Selected Works of Mexican American Authors" and extends its scope. As an interdisciplinary work, it examines the connections between history, sociology, and literature. Family as one of the central values in the Mexican American community, started to be oficially celebrated as such during the Chicano Movement, in the 1960s and 70s. However, the family was viewed as warm and nurturing by some people, and as strict and rigid by others, and this dichotomy is represented also in literature. After opening the dissertation with a discussion of Charles Taylor's and Will Kymlicka's view of multiculturalism, I move on to the analysis of the Mexican American family and address several statistics, which describe and analyze the position of Mexican American minority in society and also the Mexican American family, focusing especially on the common stereotypes and supporting them or refuting them with research studies on the specific topics. The literary section of the dissertation analyzes three segments of Mexican American literature: literature by Chicana authors, autobiographical narratives, and children's literature; and assesses the representation...

abstract: ABSTRACTO La identidad y el pluralismo se debaten cuando hablamos de dos escritoras chicanas. Ellas reclaman una herencia judía e indígena en sus obras literarias: María Speaks: Journeys into the Mysteries of the Mother in My Life (2004) de Sarah Amira de la Garza y The Desert Remembers My Name:On Family and Writing (2007) de Kathleen Alcalá. En sus obras se examina el proceso de la construcción de identidad dentro de la comunidad cripto-judía en el suroeste de los Estados Unidos. Dicha comunidad ejemplifica y pone en cuestión la construcción de la identidad en el mundo moderno, deconstruyendo la historia tradicional. Se aplican dos conceptos derivados del estructuralismo para analizar el proceso de integrar una identidad más en identidades ya existentes. Bricolaje, concepto teórico de Claude Lévi-Strauss en su obra: El pensamiento salvaje (1962); bricolaje proporciona el modelo a seguir para entender los diferentes patrones culturales que conforman la construcción de una identidad. Jonglerie de Seth Kunin o la manipulación de las identidades, extraído del artículo: “Juggling Identities Among the Crypto-Jews of the American Southwest” (2001). Acudimos al deconstructivismo de Jacques Derrida y al poscolonialismo de Gloria Anzaldúa y Emma Pérez. Este estudio revela que María Speaks deconstruye una educación católica al haber contradicciones eclesiásticas y cotidianas que producen un agudo sufrimiento en el sujeto femenino, ejerciendo como bricoleur, éste acude a la historia chicana de resistencia, a los mitos aztecas y coloniales, y al conocimiento y creencias judías para construir una nueva identidad chicana que incluye la cara sefardita. En The Desert Remembers my Name, el sujeto femenino, partiendo de una conciencia mexicoamericana de los 1950 y los 1960 donde se dan indicios culturales judíos, deconstruye su temprana identidad chicana y, como bricoleur, emprende investigaciones históricas y de familia para recuperar hechos, figuras, prácticas y símbolos para reconstruir una identidad sefardita y opata como parte de una actualizada identidad chicana. El método teórico aplicado, Bricolaje, Jonglerie, deconstructivismo y el poscolonialismo han sido útiles para recuperar la cara sefardita de la identidad chicana heterogénea. Creemos que este estudio representará un punto de partida para futuros estudios de la literatura judea-chicana. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Spanish 2019

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abstract: Anchored to the Mexican-American and U.S. Latino historical experience, this dissertation examines how a Latino and Chicano Canibalia manifests itself in literary and cultural production across the different literary periods of the Southwest and the United States as formulated by Luis Leal and Ilan Stavans: Colonization: 1537-1810, Annexations: 1811-1898, Acculturation: 1898-1945, Upheaval: 1946-1979, and the fifth period, Into the Mainstream: 1980-Present. Theoretically, the study is primarily based on the work Canibalia: canibalismo, calibanismo, antropofagia cultural y consumo en América Latina (2005) by Carlos Jauregui. This Canibalia claims that the symbol Caliban, a character taken from the drama The Tempest (1611) by William Shakespeare and interpreted in Calibán (1971) by Roberto Fernández Retamar, is an indispensable reference that, today, links the discourse on Colonial Studies in Latin America and, for us, also in the Mexican-American Southwest. To particularize Jáuregui’s critical perspective, we draw from the work The Dialectics of Our America: Genealogy, Cultural Critique, and Literary History (1990) by José David Saldívar, whose call for a School of Caliban not only brings together all subaltern subject positions but marks the value of the “schooling” such an institution will provide. For Saldívar, Chicano and U.S. Latino scholarship needs to be incorporated into Caliban Studies due to a shared anti-imperial resistance. We also rely on the theoretical work Local Histories/Global Designs: Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledges, and Border Thinking (2000) by Walter Mignolo, which links colonial difference to border thinking and examines contemporary dialogues on Orientalism, Occidentalism, and post-Occidentalism with regards to Latin American, Chicano, and U.S. Latino cultures. Our study interprets such works as I Am Joaquín (1967) by Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales, the performances of Guillermo Gómez-Peña, the novels Peregrinos de Aztlán (1974) by Miguel Méndez and Entre la sed y el desierto (2004) by Óscar L. Cordero, US Latino films like Balseros (2002) and Which Way Home (2009), the Mexican film Acorazado (2010), and Chicano and US Latino poetry that features the literary symbol examined under our critical approach; in turn, we have learned that the Chicano and Latino Canibalia is a collection of cannibal discourses which have as an objective stereotyping civilians of Mexican and Latin American descent in the United States. Our critical discourse provides an understanding of today’s complex cultural ties between all countries. A Chicano and Latino Canibalia serves as a bridge of understanding regarding the discursive silences in the history of the United States and Latin America as well as the world. [TEXT IN SPANISH.] ABSTRACTO Anclada a la experiencia histórica mexicoamericana y eulatina, esta disertación examina cómo se manifiesta la Canibalia chicana y eulatina en su producción literaria y cultural de las distintas épocas del Sudoeste como diseñadas por Luis Leal y Ilan Stavans: la Colonización: 1537-1810, las Anexiones: 1811-1898, las Aculturaciones: 1898-1945, la Turbulencia: 1946-1979 y el quinto periodo, Hacia la corriente cultural dominante: 1980-Presente. Se fundamenta en la obra teórica Canibalia: canibalismo, calibanismo, antropofagia cultural y consumo en América Latina (2005) de Carlos Jáuregui. Esta Canibalia afirma que el personaje simbólico Caliban, tomado de la obra The Tempest (1611) de William Shakespeare e interpretado en el ensayo Calibán (1971) de Roberto Fernández Retamar, es un referente indispensable que hoy en día conecta los horizontes de los estudios de la colonialidad en América Latina y, para nosotros, en el Sudoeste de los Estados Unidos. Para profundizar la perspectiva crítica de Jáuregui, se acude el trabajo The Dialectics of Our America: Genealogy, Cultural Critique, and Literary History (1990) de José David Saldívar, cuyo llamado por una School of Caliban reúne no sólo las posiciones de los sujetos subalternos, sino que nos acerca a entender la schooling o escolarización sobre lo que significa su resistencia. Para Saldívar, la lucha chicana y eulatina se incorpora a los estudios calibánicos de resistencia anti-imperial. También, nos apoyamos en el trabajo Local Histories/Global Designs: Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledges, and Border Thinking (2000) de Walter Mignolo, el cual liga la diferencia colonial con el pensamiento fronterizo y explica los diálogos contemporáneos alrededor del orientalismo, el occidentalismo y el post-occidentalismo con respecto a las culturas latinoamericana, chicana y eulatina. Nuestro estudio se ha enfocado en los trabajos Yo soy Joaquín (1967) de Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales, las performances de Guillermo Gómez-Peña, las novelas Peregrinos de Aztlán (1974) de Miguel Méndez y Entre la sed y el desierto de Óscar L. Cordero, filmes eulatinos como Balseros (2002) and Which Way Home (2009), la película mexicana Acorazado (2010) y la producción de la poesía chicana y eulatina con el símbolo examinado bajo dicho enfoque crítico; como resultado, hemos aprendido que la Canibalia chicana y eulatina es un conjunto de discursos caníbales los cuales tienen por objetivo estereotipar a los ciudadanos estadounidenses de origen mexicano y latinoamericano en los Estados Unidos. Se trata de una nueva forma de entender los complicados lazos culturales que unen a los países de hoy en día. La Canibalia chicana y eulatina es el puente que conduce al entendimiento de los vacíos discursivos de la historia de los Estados Unidos y América Latina así como el mundo. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Spanish 2015

abstract: This dissertation examines how contemporary ideologies of race and “colorblind” discourse are reproduced, deployed, and reimagined in Mexican American literature. It demonstrates that the selected narratives foreground inconsistencies in colorblind ideologies and problematize the instability and perennial reformulation of race definitions in the United States. This study also contributes to the discussion of racial formation in Mexican American literary studies from 1970 to 2010. Chapter One provides the critical and literary context of Mexican American literature from 1970 to 2010. Chapter Two details the process of racial formation in the United States according to Michael Omi and Howard Winant. Simultaneously, this chapter describes the theoretical framework and concepts of experience and epistemic privilege, mestizaje, and intercultural relations as offered respectively by Paula M. L. Moya, Rafael Pérez-Torres, and Marta E. Sánchez. Chapter Three offers an analysis of racial discourse and assimilation via two autobiographical texts: Oscar Acosta’s The Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo (1972) and Richard Rodriguez’s Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez (1982). Chapter Four examines the colorblind racial ideology in two texts by Mexican American women authors: Erlinda Gonzales-Berry’s Paletitas de guayaba (1991) and Mona Ruiz’s Two Badges: The Lives of Mona Ruiz (1998). Chapter Five explores the rearticulation of colorblind racial discourse in the “postracial” United States. In this chapter, we examine three works of speculative fiction: The Rag Doll Plagues (1992) by Alejandro Morales, Texas 2077: A Futuristic Novel (1998) by Carlos Miralejos, and Lunar Braceros 2125-2148 (2009) by Rosaura Sánchez and Beatrice Pita. By combining theories from Chicana/o Studies, Critical Race and Gender Studies, and Cultural Studies in my textual analysis, my dissertation challenges notions of contemporary colorblind or postracial ideologies that regard present day discussions of race as counterproductive to U.S. race relations. [Text in Spanish] / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation International Letters and Cultures 2017

Paraíso, Caída y Regeneración en tres novelas chicanas is a detailed literary analysis of three well-known chicano novels: Pocho, Bless Me, Ultima and Peregrinos de Aztlán. The approach is the utilization of the "paradise-fall-regeneration" pattern as a means to study the three stages of the principal characters' development. By identifying and characterizing this process within each of these novels, this writer acquires a better understanding as to what constitutes the characters' self-perception as well as their relation to the reality around them. This fictitious representation of Chicano life in turn sheds light on the three novelists' perceptions of what Chicano reality is and how it is reflected in their works. Pocho is a clear manifestation of the "fall" from Mexican traditional culture. The old characters* geographic and spiritual removal from what they consider the paradisal state and the slow eroding process of their cultural system is what the novel is about. Although the characters make a vain attempt at the preservation of these values, the defeat is clearly manifested in their children's acculturation, especially in the protagonist, Richard. At the end of the novel there is no indication that the characters attain some sort of regeneration. On the contrary, there is only chaos, a disintegrated marriage, and a psychologically disoriented protagonist. Bless Me, Ultima offers a much broader view of the "paradise-fall-regeneration” pattern and appears on various planes. Culture, from the protagonist's point of view, is not seen as conflict or as a fall but as an affirmation of cultural roots. Paradisal remnants of the New Mexican heritage are still manifest in contemporary life; thus, the fall is no more than the protagonist's coming of age. This fallen state is temporary and at the end of the novel the protagonist gathers all the knowledge acquired through his life experience and builds a positive world view. This new stage in life is what represents regeneration. Moreover, the incursion into the ancestral roots of New Mexican culture and the knowledge acquired in the writing of the novel is in itself an act of regeneration for the author. In this manner, the regenerative state in Bless Me, Ultima is also represented outside its fictitious boundaries. Peregrinos de Aztlán is by far the most complex of the three novels. It also represents the extreme "fall" of man. There is no paradise for the characters but a continuous degeneration of humanity on every conceivable plane. For the characters there is no salvation and human life can well be considered hell. Paradise is characterized by dreams and illusions which serve to help tolerate the dehumanizing existence of the characters. The regenerative state, consequently, is non-existent within the world of Peregrinos de Aztlán. Nevertheless, the work itself is an act of regeneration for the author and for the Chicano Movement because it is an act of rebellion. Méndez exposes a realistic condition of the two societies in which Chicanos live and offers the Chicano perspective of himself and his circumstance. His novel's importance is as great as Rudy Acuña's Occupied America in the area of the history of Chicanos in the Southwest. This dissertation has been written entirely in Spanish.