Cuentos Chicanos

A collection of twenty-one short stories in English and Spanish that demonstrate the changes and developments that have occured in the Chicano literary tradition over the last twenty years.

A collection of twenty-one short stories in English and Spanish that demonstrate the changes and developments that have occured in the Chicano literary tradition over the last twenty years.

How the text of Spanish and Indian miscegenation and the story of Aztlan propagate identity is demonstrated in texts from Bernal Diaz del Castillo to Gloria Anzaldua. The international space and the interlingual language of the borderlands are read as factors of nationalism and postcoloniality in discussion ranging from cowboy lingo to the essential Mexicanism of Octavio Paz.

A collection of short stories in Spanish dealing with the intermingling of the two border cultures. Contributors include Jim Sagel, Fausto Avendano, Gloria Velasquez Trevino, Margarita Tavera Rivera.

A collection of essays, stories, poems, plays and novels representing the breadth of Chicano/a literature from 1965 to 1995. The anthology highlights major themes of identity, feminism, revisionism, homoeroticism, and internationalism, the political foundations of writers such as Gloria Anzaldua, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Luis Valdes, Gary Soto, and Sergio Elizondo. The selections are offered in Spanish, English, and Spanglish text without translation and feature annotations of colloquial and regional uses of Spanish. Lacks an index. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Mario Suárez will tell you: Garza’s Barber Shop is more than razors, scissors, and hair. It is where men, disgruntled at the vice of the rest of the world, come to get things off their chests. The lawbreakers come in to rub elbows with the sheriff’s deputies. And when zoot-suiters come in for a trim, Garza puts on a bit of zoot talk and "hep-cats with the zootiest of them." A key figure in the foundation of Chicano literature, Mario Suárez (1923–1998) was among the first writers to focus not only on Chicano characters but also on the multicultural space in which they live, whether a Tucson barbershop or a Manhattan boxing ring. Many of his stories have received wide acclaim through publication in periodicals and anthologies; this book presents those eleven previously published stories along with eight others from the archive of his unpublished work. It also includes a biographical introduction and a critical analysis of the stories that will broaden readers’ appreciation for his place in Chicano literature. In most of his stories, Suárez sought to portray people he knew from Tucson’s El Hoyo barrio, a place usually thought of as urban wasteland when it is thought of at all. Suárez set out to fictionalize this place of ignored men and women because he believed their human stories were worth telling, and he hoped that through his depictions American literature would recognize their existence. By seeking to record the so-called underside of America, Suárez was inspired to pay close attention to people’s mannerisms, language, and aspirations. And by focusing on these barrio characters he also crafted a unique, mild-mannered realism overflowing with humor and pathos. Along with Fray Angélico Chávez, Suárez stands as arguably the mid-twentieth century’s most important short story writer of Mexican descent. Chicano Sketches reclaims Suárez as a major figure of the genre and offers lovers of fine fiction a chance to rediscover this major talent.

The Clasicos Chicanos/Chicano Classics series is intended to ensure the long-term accessibility of deserving works of Chicano literature and culture that have become unavailable over the years or that are in imminent danger of becoming inaccessible. Each of the volumes includes an introduction contextualizing the work within Chicano literature and a bibliography of works by and about the author. The series is designed to be a vehicle that will help in the recuperation of Raza literary history and permit the continued experience and enjoyment of our literature by both present and future generations of readers. In this updated and expanded collection of interrelated stories, Portillo Trambley dares again to create a new vision for Chicanas. Through bold acts they gain freedom, like Clotilde in The Paris Gown, who descends naked to greet the guests at her betrothal party and so escapes her impending arranged marriage. In a hostile world such women find hope and the strength to begin healing themselves and their community.

What Does It Mean To Grow Up Chicana/o? When I was growing up, I never read anything in school by anyone who had a "Z" in their last name. This anthology is, in many ways, a public gift to that child who was always searching for herself whithin the pages of a book. from the Introduction by Tiffany Ana Lopez Louie The Foot Gonzalez tells of an eighty-nine-year-old woman with only one tooth who did strange and magical healings... Her name was Dona Tona and she was never taken seriously until someone got sick and sent for her. She'd always show up, even if she had to drag herself, and she stayed as long as needed. Dona Tona didn't seem to mind that after she had helped them, they ridiculed her ways. Rosa Elena Yzquierdo remembers when homemade tortillas and homespun wisdom went hand-in-hand... As children we watched our abuelas lovingly make tortillas. In my own grandmother's kitchen, it was an opportunity for me to ask questions within the safety of that warm room...and the conversation carried resonance far beyond the kitchen... Sandra Cisneros remembers growing up in Chicago... Teachers thought if you were poor and Mexican you didn't have anything to say. Now I know, "We've got to tell our own history...making communication happen between cultures."

A first collection of short stories by the widely published Chicano satirist, including "The Adventures of the Chicano Kid, " "Faustino, " "Monologue of the Bolivian Major" and others.