Current Book

I Am Aztlán: The Personal Essay in Chicano Studies. Edited by Chon A. Noriega and Wendy Belcher.

© 2004 Paper: $19.95. 266 pp. ISBN number: 0-89551-099-5.

This anthology brings together twelve essays by scholars, writers, and artists reflecting on the role of the “I” in Chicano and Latino culture and the diverse ways in which personal voice and experience inform their research.

Rave Reviews

"This collection of essays represents an important and worthwhile contribution to the growing field of Chicano/a autobiographical and non-fiction writing. The volume brings together Chicano/a, as well as Puerto Rican and Cuban American, writers and artists who demonstrate a common interest in exploring the intersections of personal and social history. Instead of reifying Chicano/a identity into recognizable traits for the purposes of definition, this collection explodes stereotypes of a 'typical' Chicano/a experience by highlighting the internal tensions surrounding the ideological struggle to define an authentic Chicano/a experience. . ... The collection of essays concludes with a very helpful and useful bibliography of Chicano/a autobiographical and personal essays, in both English and Spanish. ...it is in many ways an ideal pedagogical tool to introduce students to the complicated nature of 'Chicano/a identity.' The range of issues explored in this collection not only highlights the diversity of the Chicano/a community, but it does so in an accessible, familiar manner. This allows for readers with different interests to take something worthwhile from the text, making it a unique and timely contribution to the field."
Carlos Gallego, "Review," Biography (March 2006)

"... this collection ... shows that the term Aztlán is much more complex than right-wing critics dare to acknowledge. ... All of the pieces are quick ... leaving readers wanting more. ... Highly recommended. All levels/libraries."

R. Acuña, "Review," Choice (Current Reviews for Academic Libraries) 43, no. 1 (September 2005).

"These twelve essays by scholars, writers and artists considers the self in Chicano and Latino cultures, and how their perceptions of self and its role affects their work. They approach the subjects of exile and going home, home and work, family, and testifying by sharing memories of first learning English and white culture, what they thought of their parents' role in culture in the past and how they perceive it now, how family secrets that transcend culture still become involved in it, how life as a Chicano/Latino is confined or liberated by conflicts in culture, how machismo is machismo, sometimes, how finding a kindred spirit in print can save a life, and how professions can be created or broken on perceptions of others. Field reports from the classroom and the US Hispanic market are included, along with a bibliography of autobiography and personal essays in Spanish and English." "Review," Book News (August 1, 2005).

Advance Praise

“This important book brings a deeper focus to the Quixotesque quests for identity that Chicano writers have been undertaking for generations now. Combining scholarship, testimonio, and chisme, the essays throw open a panoramic view onto mystic and fascinating landscapes of memory and imagination that will help readers envision the collective Latino self.”
—John Phillip Santos, author of Places Left Unfinished at the Time of Creation, National Book Award finalist

“This important book will be welcomed by students of Chicano autobiography. Its first-rate essays, full of humor, pathos, and challenges to orthodoxy, well documents contemporary scholars’ search for the collective self.”
—Genaro M. Padilla, author of the landmark study My History, Not Yours: The Formation of Mexican American Autobiography

Contents

To read the introduction or the table of contents, click here.

Max Benavidez remembers learning English, listening to his great-grandmother’s stories, reading Don Quixote, seeing the bruises on a beautiful bride, and following a Hopi Indian painter.

Harry Gamboa Jr., the artist, deconstructs the freeway, perceptual pollution, fine dining, call-in shows, solipsistic conversations, and the death of self.
Santa C. Barraza, the painter, reflects on her journey home, after a twenty-five-year absence, to the Texas town where she was born.
Chon A. Noriega writes about his father’s Mexican LPs to come to a more compassionate
understanding of the man who shaped his own career.
Frances Negrón-Muntaner, the filmmaker, presents home as an unresolved and politically charged problem to which film gives witness.
Vincent Pérez tells the story of his grandfather and the secret rape that shaped his family history.
Jerry Garcia addresses the role of cocks in his father’s life, playing with ideas of masculinity and machismo.
tatiana de la tierra provides a personal testimony on the history of two groundbreaking Latina lesbian journals in the early 1990s.
Alma Lopez, the artist, reports from the field on recent censorship attempts New Mexico against her work on Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Ruben Ochoa, the artist, responds to the glass walls and ceilings that have limited Chicano access to institutions with … a glass zoot suit!
Alvina E. Quintana offers a self-critical pedagogy through her experiences teaching mostly white East Coast students about Los Angeles.
Arlene Dávila analyzes how her access to marketing agencies and employees was mediated by their perceptions of her as a Latina.