Southwest Women's Literature (cont.)

Here are some titles of nonfiction books to consider when studying Southwest Women's Literature:

Alarcon, Norma, Editor

CHICANA CRITICAL ISSUES

(Third Woman Press, 281 pages, $14.95 paperback)

EDITORS: Edited by the editorial board of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social: Norma Alarcon, Rafaela Castro, Emma Perez, Beatriz Pesquera, Adaljiza Sosa Riddell, Patricia Zavella.

NOTES: We are the daughters of Chicano working class families, who were able to receive a university education ... Our history is the story of working people - their struggles, commitments, and strengths ... We document, analyze and interpret the Chicana/Mexicana experience in the United States. Essays include: "The Sardonic Powers of the Erotic in the work of Ana Castillo" by Norma Alarcpn; "The Wild Zone Thesis as Gloss in Chicana Literary Study" by Cordelia Chavez Candelaria; "La Mujer y La violencia: A culturally based model for the Understanding and Treatment of Domestic Violence in Chicana/Latina Communities" by Yvette Flores-Ortiz and others.

Atencio, Paulette

CUENTOS FROM MY CHILDHOOD: LEGENDS AND FOLKTALES OF NOTHERN NEW MEXICO (Bilingual Edition, Museum of New Mexico Press, 159 pages, $9.95 paperback, ISBN: 0-89013-226-7)

AUTHOR: Paulette Attencio writes: "Since I was a little girl growing up in Penasco, New Mexico, I have been intrigued by storytelling, largely through the memorable experiences of listening to my mother's stories." NOTES: A Bilingual Book. Includes the supernatural legends: La Llorona, El Gato Negro, Bailo con un Bulto, Teresita, La Boda Negra, Jose Maria, El Prisionero, Don Cuerno; The Religious Legends - Semillas de Fe, El Pobre Rico, Juan Diego; Historical Legends - Marina La Malinche; Cuentos - La Estrillita, La Ceniza, El Muchacho que se hizo pincipe; El Rico, El Collar de Oro, La Flor que Cantaba; Cuentos admonitorios - La Nuera, El Mendigo, El Sapo, La Morena Linda, Don Samuel, El Veloro; Cuento Humoristico - La Panadera.

Castillo, Ana

MASSACRE OF THE DREAMERS: ESSAYS ON XICANISMA

AUTHOR: Ana Castillo is the author of "So Far From God," "Sapogonia," and "The Mexquiahuala Letters."

NOTES: The 'I' in these critical essays by novelist, poet, scholar, and activist/curandera Ana Castillo is that of the Mexic-Amerindian woman living in the United States. The essays are addressed to everyone interested in the roots of the colonized woman's reality. Castillo introduces the term Xicanisma in a passionate call for a politically active, socially comitted Chicana feminism. In "A Countryless Woman," Castillo outlines the experience of the brown woman in a racist society that recognizes race relations mostly as a black and white dilemma. Essays on the Watsonville strike, the early Chicano movement, and the roots of machismo illustrate the extent to which women still struggle against male dominance. Other essays suggest strategies for opposing the suppression of women's spirituality and sexuality by institutionalized religion and the state.

CHICANA VOICES: Intersections of Class, Race, and Gender, National Association of Chicano Studies

(University of New Mexico Press, 223 pages, $16 paperback) Editorial Committee: Teresa Cordova, chair; Norma Cantu, Gilberto Cardenas, Juan Garcia, Christine M. Sierra.

NOTES: This landmark collection of essays from the 1984 National Association for Chicano Studies conference entitled "Voces de la Mujer" offers a cross section of the interdisciplinary scholarship on Chicanas in U.S. society. Chicanas' roles in politics, history, bilingualism, the work force, literature, and higher education are examined in depth in the 20 essays. Introducing the third printing of this influential book is a new foreward by Teresa Cordova, which updates readers on the gains and struggles of Chicanas in the association since these essays were originally published. Cordova puts the conference that gave toot to these essays in historical perspective as an important turning for Chicana academics on the road to establishing their rightful place on university campuses. Emerging from Chicana Voces is a multifaceted picture of Chicanas - the impact they have had on U.S. history, culture, higher education, and their own communities.

Eysturoy, Annie O.

EDITOR: Annie O. Eysturoy, Ph.D., has taught American literature in the United States and Spain. She now teaches in the Faroe Islands. NOTES: The coming-of-age novel has a long tradition in American literature and has become one of the most viable literary forms in heretofore marginalized U.S. literatures. But how does the Chicana develop in her own novelistic world? How does she portray her quest for authentic self-knowledge? Feminist critics have shown that gender is a determining factor in self-development. In this groundbreaking study of Chicana literature, Eysturoy takes the task a step further by arguing that race and class are crucial components of the female coming-of-age process. Examining "Victuum" by Isabella Rios, "Trini" by Estella Portillo Trambley, "The House on Mango Streeet" by Sandra Cisneros, and "The Last of the Menu Girls" by Denise Chavez, Eysturoy posits that the Chicana coming-of-age novel brings to literature distinct perspectives that transform the traditional male and female quest story. The protagonists of these novels evolve from victimization to self-affirmation as Chicanas begin to claim the narrating "I." An essential book for any student of American literature. Eysturoy writes in her acknowledgements: "This study, based upon my American Studies doctoral dissertation, is dedicated to a new voice that has emerged on the American literary scene, the voice of the Chicana."

Maitino, John R. & David R. Peck

TEACHING AMERICAN ETHNIC LITERATURES

AUTHORS: John R. Maitino is associate professor of English at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. David R. Peck is professor of English at California State University, Long Beach.

NOTES: This book features scholarly criticism (19 essays) on works by famous authors such as N. Scott Momaday, James Welch, Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Rudolfo Anaya, Sandra Cisneros, Amy Tan and more. These authors' works are widely taught, but little critical comment is yet available about them. Written specifically for instructors in literature courses, these essays focus on longer works of prose in each of the four major ethnic literatures of the United States: Native American, Mexican American, Asian American and African American. Each essay is accompanied by bibliographies and pedagogical strategies for helping students appreciate texts from a variety of cultures and traditions. Students of literature will find this book a wonderful introduction to ethnic literature. Instructors of broad survey courses will find this text invaluable as well as those planning more specialized courses in the novel, short story, or autobiography. This book contributes to the scholarship on ethnic writing in the United States and to the effort to apply that scholarship to classroom writing.

Martin, Patricia Preciado

SONGS MY MOTHERS SANG TO ME

(University of Arizona, 225 pages, $16 paperback)

AUTHOR: Patricia Preciado Martin is a native Arizonan and a lifelong Tucsonan. She is a University of Arizona honors graduate. She is active in many facets of the Mexican American community of Tucson and for 10 years has devoted her time to writing, the collection of oral history, and the development of the Mexican Heritage Project at the Arizona Historical Society.

NOTES: While the role of women in Southwestern history has begun to be chronicled, that of Hispanic women largely remains obscure. Motivated by a love of her own Mexican American heritage, Patricia Preciado Martin set out to document the lives and memories of the women of her mother's and grandmother's eras. In "Songs My Mother Sang to Me," she has preserved the oral histories of many of these women to keep them from being lost or forgotten. In the 10 oral histories recorded here, these women document more than the details of their own lives; in relating the histories of their ancestors and communities, they add to our knowledge of the culture and contributions of Mexican American people in the Southwest.

Mora, Pat

NEPLANTA: ESSAYS FROM THE LAND IN THE MIDDLE

(University of New Mexico Press, 181 pages, $18.95 hardcover, ISBN: 0-8263-1454-6)

AUTHOR: Pat Mora, a poet and writer, currently lives in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Notes: As a Chicana, educator, poet, lecturer, mother and native of El Paso, Texas, Pat Mora is a denizen of nepantla - a Nahuatl word meaning "land in the middle." In her first collection of essays this award-winning writer negotiates the middleland's many terrains by exploring the personal issues and political responsibilities she faces as a woman of color in the United States. Mora explores the issues of cultural preservation, beginning with the preservation of her own Mexican American culture as a source of creativity and for her sense of self. She remembers her encounters with other cultures, which have taught her to appreciate and to spotlight the stunning riches and injustices of her own country. Mora's insights on bilingualism, education, women and family are sometimes barbed and always exact. Sprinkled like blossoms on a springtime cholla, excerpts from Mora's own poems crystallize her own thoughts into unforgettable images.

Rebolledo, Tey Diana

AUTHOR: Tey Diana Rebolledo is an associate professor of Spanish at the University of New Mexico, where she teaches Latin American and Chicano literature. She was born in Las Vegas, New Mexico, in 1937. Rebolledo is the author numerous articles on Chicana writers, and the editor of Nuestras mujeres: Hispanas in New Mexico: Their Images and Their Lives, 1582-1992 and Las mujeres hablan: An Anthology of Nuevo Mexicana Writers. She is also coeditor (with Eliana Rivero) of Infinite Divisions: An Anthology of Chicana Literature. Rebolledo has been a New Mexico Eminent Scholar and a Faculty Scholar at the University of New Mexico, and she has served as Chair of the National Association for Chicana Studies. Her current project is a cultural history of Spanish/Mexicanas in the Southwest. Rebolledo lives in Albuquerque with her compaNero, Michael Passi, two spaniels, Fina dna Gus, and a cat, Esperanza.

NOTES: This first book-length analysis of the Chicana literary tradition is a substantial contribution to American feminist literature and a fitting companion to the author's popular anthology, Infinite Divisions. Tracing the development of Chicana literature from 1848 to the present, Rebolledo discusses major writers' works, important myths and archetypes, and key theoritical issues. She shows the ways in which Chicana writers explore subjectivity and identity in their writing, the struggle Chicana writers have faced in finding their voices and developing a strong and ethnically tagged language, and the ways they have broken taboos by transgessing into traditionally male spaces.

Torres, Olga Beatriz

MEMORIAS DE MI VIAJE / RECOLLECTIONS OF MY TRIP

AUTHOR: not available.

NOTES: This collection of letters from a young Mexican girl to her aunt was originally published in 1918 in El Paso Del Norte, a newspaper established by and for Mexicans fleeing the turbulence of the revolution. Presented here in a bilingual format, young Olga's observations on her family's trip from Mexico City to Texas are revealing and amusing. We see children allowed to play on the grass in a Houston park, sea bathers in Galveston, and houses in El Paso built on land taken from the Rio Grande - from Mexico as Olga reminds us. Memorias de mi viaje is one of the few accounts of the early 20th century Southwest told from the point of view of an upper-class female observer. Its outsider's view of the growing cities of the Southwest, American technology, race relations, and linguistic change is valuable to our understanding of border culture and especially the experiences of women. Extending our knowledge of Mexicana/Chicana writers back in time, it will be a vital document in the combined literary history of Mexico and the United States.

Feyder, Linda

SHATTERING THE MYTH: PLAYS BY HISPANIC WOMEN

EDITOR: none.

NOTES: Cherrie Moraga, Migdalia Cruz, Caridad Svich, Josefina Lopez, Edit Villareal and Diana Saenz are in the vanguard of Hispanic women playwrights in the United States today. In their plays are heard the voices of three generations of Hispanic women exploring their bicultural heritage, articulating what it means to be an Hispanic woman and, in essence, shattering the myths that have been associated with the two. The plays of Shattering the Myth illuminate a feminine language rich with texture and character, a language that has far too long been hidden from this country's cultural tapestry. Opening the anthology is an introduction by Linda Feyder which provides background on the playwrights and their works. The plays of the collection were chosen by noted playwright and novelist Denise Chavez. CONTENTS: Includes introduction by Linda Feyder; "Shadow of a Man" by Cherrie Moraga; "Miriam's Flowers" by Midgalia Cruz; "Gleaning/Rebusca" by Caridad Svich; "Simply Maria or The American Dream" by Josefina Lopez; "My Visits with MGM" by Edit Villareal; and "A Dream of Canaries" by Diana Saenz.

Wilson, Michael,

SALT OF THE EARTH

AUTHOR: Michael Wilson wrote the screenplay. Commentary by Deborah Silverton Rosenfelt.

NOTES: The screenplay of the controversial 1954 "film of persuasion" about a strike in a New Mexico zinc mine is accompanied by an original work by Deborah Rosenfelt. The film is extraordinary in its effort to deal with the struggles of workers, an ethnic minority, and women for dignity and equality - and because it was the product of a unique collaboration between mining families and blacklisted Hollywood people. The film's narrator and protagonist is a Mexican-American woman who grows in consciousness and effectiveness through her participation in the community struggle. Rosenfelt's essay, based partly on recent interviews, analyzes the background, history and significance of both the strike and the film.

This list is certainly not all inclusive. I hope these recommended nonfiction books for Southwest Women's Literature help.

Sincerely,

Ruben Sosa Villegas

Rocky Mountain News

400 West Colfax Ave.

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