Lit min etn C2

8/3/2019 Lit min etn C2

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Lit min etn C2

14citate din chicanos, native Americans , asian Americans (4chicano/6native/4asian,

or 3/8/3)

The Chicano or the Mexican Literature

The American continent can be considered the last region of the world to be

discovered by the Europeans. Thus it was mainly discovered by the Spanish, the Portuguese

and the English speaking peoples. Afte its discovery, the New World turned into the so called

promised land.

According to Alfonso Reyes, a famous Mexican humanist, and well known essayist,

since the sixteenth century, America has been thought of as the realm where a perfect republic

could be established where utopia could become a reality, and even today , according toAlfonso Reyes The continent can be encompassed as a hope and offers itself to Europe as a

reservation forhumanity Alfonso Reyes is well known for his Ultima Tule and one of his

main themes is that for the search of the Mexican identity.

The spanyards who conquered the New World were looking for more than gold, they

were looking for the promised land. From Tenoclititlan the Aztec capital, they set out to

search for the Utopia. Some moved to the south, to the realm of El Dorado, some went to

Florida to look for the fountain of youth, and others moved to Aztlam, later to be called Texas

or they moved to Arizona, California, or New Mexico.

In Aztlam, which was considered to be the promised land, the Chicanos would create

one day their own literature, slightly different from that of Central Mexico and quite different

from that of the anglo-americans, living on the periphery of their territory, which according to

the legend , was the land of the origin of the Aztecs.

In 1836, Texas became independent. In 1845 Texas received its statehood. In 1848, a

very important treaty was signed, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and this treaty ended

the Mexican war. Mexico City, the rest of the Mexican territory, north of the Rio Grande, to

the United States. Some of the Spanish speaking inhabitants decided to move southwards to

Mexico, but the majority refused to move, and they turned into American cities.

Acc to the treaty, they were to be aloud to preserve their culture, their language, and

their customs and traditions, thus a new minority was created.

Their number increased gradually as immigrants arrived from mexico being attracted

to Texas or Aztlam, especially by the economy of the US(wealth). However, the dream wasnot to become reality for most of the immigrants, or for the native settlers of the southwest,

because they discovered that the English speaking majority considered them outsiders. Thus

they were caught between two different cultures. They were segregated into the so called

barrios. They were ignorant of the law and at a certain disadvantage, due to the language

difficulties. They were relegated(assigned) an obscure condition/status. of second class

citizens.

In 1945 they were considered to be the forgotten people. Even later, in the 1969, they

were considered to be the so called invisible minority. If they are forgotten or if they are

considered invisible it is not because of their number, but because members of the dominant

culture chose to ignore them. In fact , the Chicanos are considered to be the 2nd largest

minority group in the country. In fact, the Chicano movement came into being in the 1960sand it has began to spread rapidly throughout the whole nation; One of the positive outcomes


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regards the wealth of literature. The rejection of the Chicano in the US is well documented.

One of the first studies to explore the plight of the Chicano in the US was done by

Carey Mc Williams in 1949 when he published a famous work entitled North from Mexico

This rejection of the Chicano is reflected in literature as Cecil Robinson stated, and one of

her famous works are With the ears of the strangers , the Mexican in the American

Literature, and also by Edward Simmen the Chicano From caricature to self-portrait.

If Chicano literature has not entered the mainstream of American literature, neither has

it become part of Mexican literature, in which it holds its origins. Chicanos have not always

been accepted in Mexico or even by the Mexicans visiting the United States and that they

themselves have often rejected both groups, especially true in the 1940s when the so called

Pachucos tried to assert their identity through a special or very distinctive manner of dress and

speech and by developing a very close group consciousness.

Pachucos were young Mexican Americans living in the southern part of Texas and

California.

According to Octavio Paz, the Pachuco does not want to become Mexican again. At

the same time, he doesnt want to blend into the life of North America.This desire to establish a separate identity has resulted in the creation of a certain type

of literature which in fact reflects a unique culture having certain features which differentiate

it.

Characteristics

Chicano literature is considered to be new, only in the sense that in the last 25-30

years, writers have made great efforts to describe the Chicano reality, authentically. In fact,

this so called newness also lies in the recently rich production of outstanding writers, which in

fact approves of the Chicano awareness that the literary expression fulfills a historical goal.

The Chicano literature is extensive, but we should analyze earlier writings , in order to

determine the point at which they stopped describing a reality and in certain circumstances,

different from the Mexicans.

The colonial Literature of the South-West has never been given serious attention.

The American Literature began with the settlement of Jamestown, and consideration is

given to a corresponding literature of Spanish settlers in the South-West.

What was written in Spanish much earlier is disregarding. Thus any literature written

by Americans in languages other than English has been ignored. In fact, only the literary

forms that were created in Europe are consistently studied. The saddest truth is that ethnic

prejudice exists in the study of literature.

Acc to Gerald Haslam in his work entitled Forgotten pages in American Literature

we quote the cruel fact is that the same Americans who have been denied social, economic,and edicational equality, have been consistently ignored by literary scholars. The result has

been an apparent gap in history. In fact, a people who seem to have existed without self

expression and without self image. This particular gap has been filled in by damaging

stereotypes and by the extremist works written by the anglo-americans.

The Chicano literature is of revolutionary nature. Its writers try to present la raza(the

Mexican race). This stands for the Spanish speaking community and its complex nature, thus

the Chicano literature presents a picture describing not only the Chicanos social and

economic circumstance, but also their past history. Thus the Mexican-American writers

search for their own identities by means of their literature thus they create self definition and

identity only through action.


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Action is much more effective when supported by knowledge. The Chicano literature

is full of references to the Indian heritage. Sometimes they are simple allusions, but theyre

also faces in which they take a form of strong symbols.

Rodolfo Gonzales I am Joaquin

This is full of Aztec images and the poet aims at presenting the character and the

composition of the chicano.Alberto Baltazan Urista Heredia (stage name Alurista) makes use of the Indian

culture in his whole work , e.g. Floricamto en Azlam

Philip Ortego The coming of Zamora here Ortego describes his protagonist as

entirely Indian.

Miguel Mendez a few quotes of his work entitled Tata Casehua

Mendez by means of this work succeeds in offering the best characterization done by a

Chicano writer. Tata Casehua is a Yaqui Indian who in fact resists death itself as the

extermination of la raza ( the race) These Indians live in a certain desert called

Sonora belonging to the state of Arizona

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