Firstly, I know I’m publishing this a bit late, but I was ever so busy giving thanks and eating turkey this weekend and simply couldn’t tear myself away to blog. Also, I figured everyone else was fairly similarly engaged, and probably wouldn’t be lining up to comment. 

Looking back at our curriculum thus far, I can’t believe that we’ve only read from THREE authors! I feel like there has been much more information passed around than having to do with just a handful of literary works!

I have to agree with a few of the posts I’ve just read and say that I really enjoy the course. Aside from the content, I find the classroom atmosphere relaxed and friendly….exactly what I’m looking for when I am asked to give my thoughts in Spanish! I have also enjoyed reading about Chicanos and their experiences, be them recent or from a century ago. The authors that we have read allow us to relate to their stories. I am not an immigrant (although I don’t REALLY know what being a ‘Canadian’ means…it’s kind of the old ‘mixing pot’-mosaic analogy for me), but after reading these stories I understood a few of the tribulations and triumphs that belong to these chicanos.

It was also a breath of fresh air to watch ‘The Salt of the Earth’. I’m sure that we all inwardly groaned when we saw the black and white and heard the crappy sound quality of the DVD, but the movie turned out to be better than expected. I found that it connected very well with the racial and gender issues also found in Who Would Have Thought It?; however, this heroin decided to do something drastic and dramatic about her situation. Perhaps this shows how the times have changed even between the book’s publication and the movie’s release.

I’ve already read the book (Cisneros) for our Wikipedia project and I hope that everyone will enjoy it as much as I did. I thought that it was better than any one of our first three readings!

So far i have enjoyed all the books we have discussed in class! At the beginning of each book, however, i was a bit skeptical but by the end they all were worth my while to read. Who Would of Thought It? started off a bit slow but when it picked up each short chapter was like an episode from a television drama! Also, beyond the first few chapters I saw that this comedy of romance was about a family on the surface and that its important issues were portrayed through the irony used by the author.
Jose Marti’s works were more challenging to read because of its extensive vocabulary but his writing overall was artistic and insanely descriptive! Before reading Marti’s work I knew nothing of the Brooklyn Bridge but now I can how much it meant to some people, and especially to Marti.
Y No Se Lo Trago La Tierra was perhaps the most confusing book out of the bunch but I realized that the author made us feel the way the young boy did during his ‘lost year’. At first I had a tough time understanding the fragmented stories and trying to figure out who was speaking, but in the end i felt that it was more important to focus on what was being said, rather than focussing on exactly who said it.
Finally, the movie we watched in class “The Salt of the Earth” was very enjoyable. I liked the fact that the message of the movie was completely straight forward because it was a nice break from the books that we have been reading. Also i had a few good laughs and smiles from some overly-cheesy moments 🙂

Overall I would say that I have enjoyed the material we’ve covered in this class. It is the first time that I’ve studied Chicano literature and so far I have found it to be quite intriguing. The books we have read as well as the film we watched, together offer four different perspectives on past and present day issues including, but certainly not limited to, race, gender, society and politics.

Our first reading entitled: Who Would Have Thought It? by Maria Ruiz de Burton, disguises itself as a book about family affairs, passion, romance etc. However, underneath the surface we find that it reveals the many different societal and political hierarchies, while at the same time, highlighting a series of gendered relationships between the government as well as particular government officials and those without power. This work turns out to be a sort of “comedy of manners” on a political stage. I really enjoyed this book…it captured my attention..loved everything accept the ending!

Secondly we read a series of short stories by José Martí, including: El Puente De Brooklyn, Coney Island, Fiestas de la Estatua de la Libertad, El Terremoto de Charleston, and Nueva York Bajo La Nieve. The works of this author who fought for the independence of Cuba acted as a bridge between the Anglo-Saxon and Latin-American worlds. (I plan to reread these stories though…because I am still somewhat lost as to their content…!)

Finally, it was: Y no se lo tragó la tierra written by Tomás Rivera, that concluded our readings. This story was about the hardships faced by los campesinos in the 1950’s. Rivera is able to weave the stories of particular campesinos into that of the main character and his struggle to overcome the oppression of religion as well as racial and classist discrimination. This book delivered such a strong message of a need for justice and redemption in this corrupt world of ours…I thought it was very well-written.

Now for the film: Salt of the Earth written by Michael Wilson. (Unfortunately I was only able to see the second half of it.) This video has to do with a lower class community of Mexican American and Anglo miners and their families, all of which who fight for better working conditions. In this film, class transcends gender and racial differences, as this mixed community is able to unify themselves to achieve their common goal.

Well that’s all for now…til next time…!

So far, I have been very impressed with this class. Issues surrounding Chicanos and Latinos in the United States is something that is dear to my heart as I grew up in California and have lived and worked amongst many recent migrants from south of the border, and my Mom is an ESL teacher and advocate for immagrant rights. I have been impressed with the readings and also with Jon’s refreshing non-pretentious teaching style and the insights of many students in the class.
I have found the readings interesting yet challenging. The first book provided interesting historical commentary about issues that have existed for a very long time and still continue to exist to this day. The readings in Spanish have been challenging for me as they are my first real attempts to read real literature in Spanish. Reading them has helped me expand my vocabulary and general Spanish skills as a whole, though I do not understand them as deeply as I would in English. Then again, there is always room for improvement.
I have already begun Women Hollering Creed and am thourghouly impressed with Cisnero’s poetic writing style. She has a way of becoming the diverse characters she displays in her prose and writes artistically and beautifully. So far, this is my favorite!

Since some of the authors in our reading list are not Mexican-American but are Dominican-American or descendant from parents born in other Latin American countries, they are not all Chicanos…but are they all Latinos?

Se puede decir que cada mexicano-estadounidense es un “chicano”? Creo que no…me parece que “Chicano/a” es una identidad que uno/a elige para si mismo. Del mismo sentido, se puede decir que todos los Chicanos tambien son Latinos? Que es la diferencia entre Chicano y Latino? Me acuerda de una clase de geografia aqui en ubc donde aprendimos que “chicano/a” es una identidad que tiene mas sentido politico que “latina/o” Tambien Chicano refiere solamente a gente que han nacido en los EEUU, no a los mexicanos que nacieron en mexico y viven/han vividos en los EEUU.

So, Jose Marti is not a Chicano, right? By the definitions that are commonly accepted (and according to wikipedia) Marti would not be Chicano because he was born in Cuba to Spanish parents. However, would he be considered Latino? More likely, I think. But, since he did spend some time living in Mexico and in the U.S. could he identify himself as a Chicano if he believed in the politics? Quien sabe?

Y Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton? Was she a Chicana? Maybe because of the political and feminist nature of her writings. But, if you were to base the decision solely on geography and not of politics or philosophy she would not be, since technically she was born in Mexico and moved to the U.S. … but she moved to a part of the U.S. that used to be Mexico…so now this is confusing, one of those instances where the border moved, not el pueblo.

But since Chicano/a identity is both very political and personal, ultimately it is up to the individual to define their own identity. Either way, all of the authors that we are reading in this class have a similar experience in that they have Latin American ancestry (or were born in a Latin American country) and have lived in the U.S., both of these aspects of their individual identities have a definite influence over their writing.

Okay, now I’m rambling. I have enjoyed these books…Rivera has been my favourite so far, and I look forward to reading the books to come.

i really enjoyed reading the three very differently stylized chicano books. My favourite one by far would have to be “y no se lo trago la tierra” just because of the style its written in, the point of view of a narrator who is a young child, and the highly controversial themes that arise throughout the book.

I hope though, that in the novels to come, we touch on issues like chicana feminism and the problems that arise in their lives, in contemprorary USA. i was surpised not to have found a single book or at least an article by Gloria Anzaldua, who is one of the most influential chicana women writers out there. For anyone who is interested in this literature i highly recommend reading her work. She is highly inspirational and has a very unqiue and magnificent style of writing.

Another theme that i feel we haven’t touched on as much, and perhaps its because we’ve been reading about mexico/USA in the 1950’s and earlier on, but the idea of space i find is really important when talking about chicanos. Where does one belong when he/she does not belong to either place or belongs to both. Gloria Anzaldua talks about this state called “nepantla”, which is like an in between state…kind of like limbo. I think its a really big issues that many chicanos deal with while trying to build their identity…obviously being chicano is a socially constructed identity that gives people from mexico living in the states, some identity. However, the idea of not wanting to fully assimilate to the american way of life and also trying to stay away from the traditional mexican norms (for women, for example) puts chicanos in a place where perhaps neither here nor there is good..which leaves them in this states of nepantla.

I hope the coming up books deals with feminism and space because for our class, these are important grounds to cover. and if we can throw a little Anzaldua in the way,,,that would be fabulous!!! happy thanksgiving!!!

So I know that we are just supposed to do a blog entry on our thoughts so far in the course, but I’ve already started reading the next book, and I have to say I’m really excited to start talking about it after our exam next friday. So far, I’ve enjoyed this course: the spanish debates throw me off sometimes when I cant express my thoughts properly, but I’m really gaining insight on the experiences of the chicanos in America. The books we’ve read, although I havent enjoyed them all, do complement each other really well on the topics and issues we are discussing. The movie was just the cherry on top I’d have to say. Sometimes it’s hard to sit down for a proper amount of time to give the attention a book deserves in order to fully grasp the story. This was different with the movie however, as we were forced to sit there and watch it all in 2 sittings, and that just made all the difference. Im not the kind of person that can read a book in so many fragments, but with the hectic life of university I’m finding I dont have the time to sit for 3 hours to read a book, and am instead reading it in chunks when im on the bus or have a break from classes. This doesnt impact me the way that its meant to, so I appreciate taking the time in class to discuss the more pertinent topics in the novels.