13 April 2016
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Pat Mora is an author of poetry and children's books with a multicultural focus. “Mora was born in El Paso, Texas, on January 19, 1942, and grew up speaking both Spanish and English at home,”(“Legal Alien” 124). While growing up, Mora’s mother encouraged her to read, hence establishing a lifelong love of literature. With a bachelor of arts degree, Mora graduated in 1963 from Texas Western College, in 1967 Mora got her master’s degree at the same college, which is now known as the University of Texas at El Paso. Mora married William H. Burnside, Jr. and had three children while getting her bachelor’s degree (“Legal Alien” 125). Pat Mora worked as a part-time teacher of both English and communications at El Paso Community College from 1971 to 1978. When Mora and Burnside divorced in 1981, Mora became the assistant of the vice president of academic affairs at the University of Texas El Paso (“Elena” 17). From 1983 to 1984 Mora hosted a radio show and talked about the Mexican American perspective on life and society. In the late 1970s when Mora divorced Burnside, she started writing poems and wrote individual books of her poetry, but they were not published until the 1980s. Mora’s first volume of
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The literature and art produced in these countries after independence has become the object of “Postcolonial studies,” a term coined in for academia, initially in British universities. This field gained prominence in the 1970s and has been developing ever since,” (Postcolonialism” 225). The United States is considered a postcolonial country by some because of it used to be a territory of Great Britain. It is studied for colonizing rather than its colonized attributes. Also former colonies of Britain, Canada and Australia are often put in a different category because if their status as “settler” countries and their loyalty to Great
Preceding her youth, in 1977, Anzaldua became a High School English teacher to Chicano students. She had requested to buy Chicano texts, but was rejected to do so. The principal of the school she worked for told her, in Anzaldua’s words: “He claimed that I was supposed to teach “American” and English literature.” She then taught the text at the risk of being fired. Anzaldua described, “Being Mexican is a state of soul – not on of mind.” All in all, the reprimanding she had to endure only made her stronger: “Until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself.” It led to Anzaldua embracing her Mexican culture even more, contrary to shoving it aside. Anzaldua transformed her beliefs into something both cultures can applaud, and be honored
In his book, “…And the Earth Did Not Devour Him,” author Tomás Rivera documents through a fictional non-traditional novel, the life experiences of a child that endured many difficulties, he describes the hope, struggles, and tragedies of the Mexican-American migrant workers in the 40s and 50s, and how they travel from home to work to survive. The book’s focus is in Texas, although other areas are mentioned throughout the United States. Divided into 14 different short stories and 13 vignettes the author records the predicament of the Mexican-American migrant workers in Texas and explains how the migrants had to overcome constant discriminatory actions by the White Americans and endure difficult living situations because of poverty as well as unsatisfactory job
Julia Alvarez is a Dominican-American writer and poet, the author of “How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent,” a novel that some critics might say is autobiographical opposed by Alvarez’s opinion of it applying to any culture or background. This story narrates the growing-up ventures the Garcia Girls go through as the family abruptly moves from the Dominican Republic to the United States. Julia Alvarez experiences a similar process of a childhood in the Dominican Republic, being an immigrant in the United States, and finding her identity as an adult between two countries.
Post-colonialism is a discourse draped in history. In one point in time or another, European colonialism dominated most non-European lands since the end of the Renaissance. Naturally, colonialists depicted the cultures of non-Europeans incorrectly and inferior. Traditionally, the canon has misappropriated and misrepresented these cultures, but also the Western academia has yet to teach us the valuable and basic lessons that allow true representations to develop. Partly in response, Post-colonialism arose. Though this term is a broad one, Post-colonialists generally agree on certain key principles. They understand that colonialism exploits the dominated people or country in one way or another, evoking inequalities. Examples of past inequalities include “genocide, economic exploitation, cultural decimation and political exclusion…” (Loomba 9-10). They abhor traditional colonialism but also believe that every people, through the context of their own cultures, have something to contribute to our understanding of human nature (Loomba 1-20). This is the theme that Lewis prescribes in his, self described, “satirical fantasy”, Out of the Silent Planet (Of Other 77).
Gloria Anzaldúa writes of a Utopic frame of mind, the borderlands created in and lived in by the new mestiza. She describes the preexisting natures of the Anglos, Mexicanos, and Chicanos as seen around the southwest U.S. / Mexican border, indicative of the nations at large. She also probes the borders of language, sexuality, psychology and spirituality. Anzaldúa presents this information in various identifiable ways including the autobiography, historical/informative essay, and poetry. What is unique to Anzaldúa is her ability to weave a ‘perfect’ kind of compromised state of mind that melds together the preexisting cultures while simultaneously formulating a fusion of genres that stretches previously constructed borders, proving both problematic and a step in the right extremely ideal direction.
Torres, Hector Avalos. 2007. Conversations with Contemporary Chicana and Chicano Writers. U.S.: University of New Mexico press, 315-324.
Pat Mora discusses the cultural identity of Hispanic Americans; despite belonging both to an American community and a Mexican community, one can never really be fully integrated into the other; “an American to Mexicans/a Mexican to Americans” (lines 14 and 15). To be constantly “sliding back and forth/between the fringes of both worlds,” (lines 17 and 18) is strenuous and disaffirming. Likewise, she juxtaposes her perception of being viewed as “exotic” but “inferior” at the same time. Another juxtaposition starts with the title of the poem, Legal Alien. In this sense, Pat Mora is legal but feels alien. Despite being an American citizen, Mora feels like an outsider as she is continually singled out for her foundations. To the Mexican people likewise, she depicts her sentiments of being far expelled from their way of life. She is along these lines torn between two universes characterized here by dialect occupation, and ethnicity (“Bi-lingual, Bi-cultural”, line 1). Mora’s poem epitomizes how she noticed the differences in culture and being treated differently; split between the two
It sometimes is quite difficult to find one’s voice when no one is truly listening or understands. Yolanda, or "Yo", a Dominican immigrant, has grown up to be a writer and in the process infuriates her entire family by publishing the intimate details of their lives as fiction. “¡Yo!” is an exploration of a woman's soul, a meditation on the writing life, as well as a lyrical account of Latino immigrants’ search for identity and a place in the United States. Julia Alvarez divides her novel ¡Yo! into chapters to distinguish the perspectives of each member of the Garcia family. Through the stylistic, subtle homage to the Spanish language as well as speaking on the horrors that occurred during the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican Republic, Julia Alvarez showcases storytelling in the first chapter of her novel titled “From ¡Yo! The Mother” to show how Yo and her entire family used it to cope with their struggles as immigrants in America. By telling stories, Yo’s mother Laura, battles between her Dominican and American identities to ultimately redefine not only who she is, but also who she and her family will be.
The popular revolutionary poem “I am Joaquin” by Rodolfo Corky Gonzales influenced many Chicana/os to embrace their heritage in the Chicano Movement in the 1960s. The poem created psychological work for the Chicano identity. Moreover, this poem developed and promoted social consciousness, commitment to activism, and cultural pride for many Chicanos. However, Gonzales primarily focuses on the identity and struggles of a Mexican-American male which excludes other narratives. Thus, the lack of inclusivity influenced me to recreate the popular poem, which centers on women from Central America who are rarely acknowledged in Chicano Studies. Therefore, our poem “I am Dolores” is focused on these three main themes: empowerment of women of color, resistance
Williams, Norma. (2009). The Mexican American family: tradition and change. New York: General Hall. (Primary)
The Chicano people are lost in their identities as both Mexican and American people. In the 1960’s there was a rise in Chicano literature in response to the social and political changes in society. Chicano literature is often misunderstood due to cultural ambivalence, “Cultural ambivalence can be defined as an attitude that expresses the diverse nature of the Chicano experience in American Society. It expresses the central dilemma of the Chicano who is conscious of being a product of both Mexican and American cultures” (Treviño 1). The Chicano literature embraces the cultural ambivalence that is existent only with both cultures. In the United States literature that has Mexican lore or representation but still takes place in America making it relatable to all American citizens. In reference to the “Education of Popo” by Maria Cristina Mena, “Mena directly interprets the Chicana experience from this dual consciousness that incorporates elements of both the dominant culture and of her subculture. The theme of this satirical narration is the conflict that results when the value systems of Mexican culture are contrasted with those of Anglo-American culture” (Treviño 1). The drift between the cultures highlights the isolation Chicanos face in a literary social protest. The Chicano literature movement has helped American society by making a stand about not belonging to one culture and the beauty that can come from a diverse culture. “Don José María similarly is characterized as being representative of a unique cultural experience in the Southwest which early Chicano authors like Jovita González are attempting to define. The narrator states: "Monotonous and uninteresting from the outside, his home was the center of border culture--not the culture of Mexico, not the culture of the United States, but a culture peculiar to the
Pat Mora was born and raised in El Paso, Texas, the city in which her four Spanish-speaking grandparents migrated during the Mexican Revolution. Her firm belief in promoting cross-cultural understanding and the appreciation of Hispanic culture often reveals itself in her works. She often writes about the elements of the Southwest to relate to and empower Hispanics to embrace the cultural traditions that are so significant to their identities (University of Minnesota).
...l Castillo, R. 1994. La Familia: Chicano Families in the Urban Southwest, 1848 to the present. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
Postcolonial criticism, as suggested in the textbook, “has developed because of the dramatic shrinking of the world and the increasing multicultural cast of our own country” (1603). As described by Andrea Smith in his book “From Heteropatriarchy and the Three pillars of White Supremacy”, “The
Postcolonialism is the continual shedding of the old skin of Western thought and discourse, and the emergence of new self-awareness, critique, and celebration. With this self-awareness comes self-expression. But how should the inhabitants of a colonial territory, or formerly colonized country or province see themselves, once they have achieved their independence?... ... middle of paper ...