Atzlán
It 's Symbolism and Significance
I. Introduction The concept of Atzlán represents a belief, a symbol, a rallying cry, a declaration of autonomy, a nation, a journey 's end and a homeland. Perhaps it is more myth than fact. Nevertheless, its importance cannot not be overstated or underestimated. It is representative of the Chicano/a culture and its origins. Atzlán is the spiritual epicenter and ancestral home to fifty-four billion individuals whose Latino heritage defines them. Atzlán’s importance in literary and visual arts continues to be a focal point for Chicano/a artists and authors. Atzlán epitomizes and denotes a historical past brimming with every conceivable human emotion.
II. History According to Nahuatl written and oral stories, Atzlán is the ancestral home of the Aztec people. A component of one of the largest Native American linguistic family, Uto-Aztecan, Nahuatl was the language of the Aztecs. Atzlán means “place of whiteness” or “the place of the Heron”. According to legend, seven tribes lived in Atzlan-Chicomoztoc, or
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Atzlán is a significant symbol in the art, folklore, music, poetry, dance, sculpture, theatre. It represents cultural identity, values, activism, history and the struggle for parity. In Chicano Poetics, Alfred Arteaga writes, “Atzlán aims at the homeland, at the nation as people, as state. It offers an interwoven history and myth if presence. It provides the principle of definition in the present and dines an idealized state in the future. As such it functions as the national myth” Atzlán is often used as a literary device that signifies the territory seized unjustly by the United States from Mexico. Latinos function as a diasporic population in regard to Atzlán. Their homeland has been appropriated by the “gringo” and, by extension, so has their national
Starting with the first chapter, Deverell examines the racial and ethnic violence that took place in the wake of American defeat. In no more than thirty years or so, ethnic relations had appeased and the Mexican people were outnumbered quickly (as well as economically marginalized and politically disenfranchised), as the second chapter discloses. The author examines a variety of topics to further his case but the most compelling and captivating sections of the book come into the third, fourth and fifth chapters. The third chapter focuses its attention
Harvest of the Empire is a valuable tool to gaining a better understanding of Latinos. This book helps people understand how varied Latino’s in the United States are. The author also helped give insight as to how Americans reacts to differences within itself. It does this by giving a description of the struggles that every Latino immigrant faced entering the United States. These points of emphasis of the book were explained thoroughly in the identification of the key points, the explanation of the intersection of race, ethnicity, and class, in addition to the overall evaluation of the book.
Islas, Arturo. From Migrant Souls. American Mosaic: Multicultural Readings in Context. Eds. Gabriele Rico, Barbara Roche and Sandra Mano. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. 1995. 483-491.
The title of the essay refers to the Aztecs' phrase “writing and wisdom”, which describes the importance of truth in poetry. They believed in communication with the Devine through poetry. By utilizing this title Anzaldua again emphasizes her tribal ancestry once more and uses it as justification for her interest in writing.
Anzaldua grew up in the United States but spoke mostly Spanish, however, her essay discusses how the elements of language began to define her identity and culture. She was living in an English speaking environment, but was not White. She describes the difficulty of straddling the delicate changing language of Chicano Spanish. Chicano Spanish can even differ from state to state; these variations as well as and the whole Chicano language, is considered a lesser form of Spanish, which is where Anzaldua has a problem. The language a person speaks is a part...
Torres, Hector Avalos. 2007. Conversations with Contemporary Chicana and Chicano Writers. U.S.: University of New Mexico press, 315-324.
of the native tongue is lost , certain holidays may not be celebrated the same , and American born generations feel that they might have lost their identity , making it hard to fit in either cultures . Was is significant about this book is the fact it’s like telling a story to someone about something that happened when they were kid . Anyone can relate because we all have stories from when we were kids . Alvarez presents this method of writing by making it so that it doesn’t feel like it’s a story about Latin Americans , when
Gonzalez, Juan. Harvest of Empire a History of Latinos in America. New York: Penguin Putnam Inc, 2000.
Moraga, Cherrie. “Queer Aztlan: the Reformation of Chicano Tribe,” in The Color of Privilege 1996, ed Aida Hurtado. Ann Arbor: University Michigan Press, 1996.
In this sense, the film tests the resiliency of good human nature. The modern world is becoming increasingly set in its extremes, as the lifestyle of the poor vastly contrasts that of the wealthy. The implementation of NAFTA reflects this movement toward separation, despite the fact that it was intended to boost trade between regions and create more prosperity on both sides of the United States-Mexico border. The Mexican elites saw it as their salvation. Others saw it as “ a death sentence.” The Chiapas region itself exemplifies this gap, as well. The region was split between the relatively prosperous west, which was fertile and characterized by commercial development, and the poor, subsistence-oriented east. It was not by accident that the Zapatista movement began in Chiapas as the struggle between ranchers, landowners, and subsistence farmers was intensified by NAFTA.
Crouch, Ned. Mexicans & Americans : Cracking The Cultural Code. NB Publishing, Inc., 2004. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 21 Nov. 2011.
The struggle to find a place inside an un-welcoming America has forced the Latino to recreate one. The Latino feels out of place, torn from the womb inside of America's reality because she would rather use it than know it (Paz 226-227). In response, the Mexican women planted the seeds of home inside the corral*. These tended and potted plants became her burrow of solace and place of acceptance. In the comfort of the suns slices and underneath the orange scents, the women were free. Still the questions pounded in the rhythm of street side whispers. The outside stare thundered in pulses, you are different it said. Instead of listening she tried to instill within her children the pride of language, song, and culture. Her roots weave soul into the stubborn soil and strength grew with each blossom of the fig tree (Goldsmith).
The Chicano history is a history of transformation based on conquest and struggle under a racial hierarchy. The Anglo-Americans’ intentions of creation of this racial foundation and segregating culture was to justify their act of assigning socio-economic functions to Mexican-Americans, limiting them to a cycle of exploitation and poverty. The meaning behind the contradiction of double aims was identified in El Plan de Santa Barbara’s manifesto and Menchaca’s Recovering History, which emphasized the neglect and distortion of Mexican-American history as a political act by Anglo-Americans to generate a negative, inferior image of these minorities, in comparison to their progressive “American” culture. This ultimately kept the two cultures unreconciled,
Indigenous people of the world have historically been and continue to be pushed to the margins of society. Similarly, women have experienced political, social, and economical marginalization. For the past 500 years or so, the indigenous peoples of México have been subjected to violence and the exploitation since the arrival of the Spanish. The xenophobic tendencies of Spanish colonizers did not disappear after México’s independence; rather it maintained the racial assimilation and exclusion policies left behind by the colonists, including gender roles (Moore 166) . México is historically and continues to be a patriarchal society. So when the Zapatista movement of 1994, more formally known as the Ejército Zapatista de Liberación National (Zapatista Army of National Liberation; EZLN) constructed a space for indigenous women to reclaim their rights, it was a significant step towards justice. The Mexican government, in haste for globalization and profits, ignored its indigenous peoples’ sufferings. Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico, consisting of mostly indigenous peoples living in the mountains and country, grew frustration with the Mexican government. It was in that moment that the Zapatista movement arose from the countryside to awaken a nation to the plight of indigenous Mexicans. Being indigenous puts a person at a disadvantage in Mexican society; when adding gender, an indigenous woman is set back two steps. It was through the Zapatista movement that a catalyst was created for indigenous women to reclaim rights and autonomy through the praxis of indigeneity and the popular struggle.
Using both English and Spanish or Spanglish the author Gloria Anzaldua explores the physical, cultural, spiritual, sexual and psychological meaning of borderlands in her book Borderlands/La Frontera: A New Mestiza. As a Chicana lesbian feminist, Anzaldua grew up in an atmosphere of oppression and confusion. Anzaldua illustrates the meaning of being a “mestiza”. In order to define this, she examines herself, her homeland and language. Anzaldúa discusses the complexity of several themes having to do with borderlands, mestizaje, cultural identity, women in the traditional Mexican family, sexual orientation, la facultad and the Coatlicue state. Through these themes, she is able to give her readers a new way of discovering themselves. Anzaldua alerts us to a new understanding of the self and the world around us by using her personal experiences.