Refiguring “the American Congo: Jovita González, John Gregory Bourke, and the Battle over Ethno-Historical Representations of the Texas Mexican Border (original) (raw)
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Chicana/Latina Studies, 2011
Jovita González has received critical praise and critical concern for her representations of South Texas Mexican culture and its people in her literary production. Critics have also questioned González’s personal identity politics in light of her academic affiliation with J. Frank Dobie, University of Texas folklorist and longtime editor of the Texas Folklore Society, who controversially instructed society members to write of the folk with picturesque flavor. My essay evaluates critical interpretations that position González and her work as conflicted, contradictory, and repressed-ultimately arguing against these interpretations. I argue that González demonstrates the ability to strategically challenge dominant Anglo modes of discourse, especially in discriminatory academic climates, personally and via her work. Using a framework that includes cultural theories by Chela Sandoval and Henry Louis Gates Jr., I position González as a subversive linguistic performer capable of polyvalent speech acts in her various contacts with Anglo academics and in her earlier folkloric productions to problematize critical studies that question González’s ethnic allegiance and the subversive quality of her pre-1935 folklore.
The Science of Folklore: Aurelio Espinosa on Spain and the American Southwest
The Journal of American Folklore, 2014
Aurelio Espinosa (1880-1958) studied folklore in the American Southwest and Spain. Espinosa was one of the first academic folklorists to work with American materials and the first scholar to write about Mexican American culture. This paper is an attempt to re-insert this forgotten figure into the history of folklore studies. At the same time, drawing on new archival sources, this study will show that Espinosa’s active support of Franco in Spain contributed to his theory of cultural transmission in the American Southwest.
The Occurrence of Beliefs and Legends in Selected Chicano Literature from 1959-1979
1981
Six Chicano anthologies, five novels, and one poem written between 1951' and 1979, selected for their usefulness as texts for a Chicano literature course, were investigated fcr ccaurrence of folk beliefs and legends. The 1959 novel "Pocho" contained one reference to a belief. In the 1967 poem "I Am Joaquin" were references which suggested the influence of legend. Doc folk beliefs appeared in the'noyel "Chicano" (1970).. One selection in the anthology "The Chicanos" (1971) featured four folk beliefs. The 1972 novel "Bless Me, Ultima" presented the reader with the greatest number and most skillful use cf folkloric motifs, as well as witchcraft, curses and a legend from the Indian heritage cf New Mexico. The anthology "Aztlan" (19712) contained references to legends about Joaquin Muriieta and la Llorona, a ghOst. Anotber anthology, "Mexican-American Authors" (1972), contained only two examples Of legends. Two legends appeared in another anthology, "Songs 6 Creams" (1972). Three beliefs and legends were found-in "Yearnirgs," a companion anthology. Some excellent beliefs and legends appeared in the anthology "We Are Chicanos" (1973). The novel "Heart of Aztlan" (1976} was an excellent source of New Mexican folklore. The novel "TortUga" (1979) contained several reliefs and mentiOnind '.a porona.
2000
In their introduction editors Manuel G. and Cynthia M. Gonzales claim their task is to examine the diversity and complexity of "Chicano history" from the sixteenth through the twenty-first centuries. This is an ambitious undertaking, and they acknowledge that "the story is too varied and complex to be incorporated under a single rubric" (xi). Still, the effort is certainly worthwhile and in this case fairly effective. The sheer volume of chronologically arranged articles (thirty-one) is impressive, as is the roster of contributors. Topics such as Tejano life in Texas, land grant adjudication, labor unrest in California, beet workers on the Great Plains, Mexican American education, Texas-Mexican music, and Chicana feminist discourse are addressed by such eminent scholars as Frank Jesus de las Tejas, Arnoldo De Leon, Dennis Nodin Valdes, Guadalupe San Miguel, and Carlos Munoz Jr. Providing readers with information on Mexican American life and labor in many areas of...
Whither the Nuevomexicanos: The career of a southwestern intellectual discourse, 1907–2004
The Social Science Journal, 2006
Since the end of the Mexican American War in 1848, the Hispanic natives of New Mexico have been part of the greater Mexican American category, but at the turn of the 20th century, many of them began denying their Mexican heritage, ideologically claiming to be "Hispanos," or "Spanish Americans," instead. This renaming movement precipitated a debate among academics and social researchers over the true ethnic heritage of the Nuevomexicanos. This article reviews the major statements in this "discourse of intellectuals" since it began in 1907, noting the moments when ideas reflected the temper of their times, and highlighting the different conceptual standpoints that were taken in the aim of defining Nuevomexicano heritage. It concludes by cautioning about theory which would presume to define essential ethnicity.