Welcome to the Chicano and Latino Literature Web page at UT. A little background history may help us to understand the terms "Chicano" and "Latino," how they differ from one another, and where they overlap in usage. The history of the word "Chicano" is both social and economic, and bears heavily on the identities represented in selected literature. First of all, Mexicans living in what is now the Southwest became U.S. citizens after the U.S.-Mexico War. In 1848, both countries signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which stated that Mexico would cede the Southwest to the United States for $15 million. The U.S., in turn, promised to respect the cultural and property rights of Mexicans living in the territory.
In spite of this agreement, more than a century passed, and most Mexican Americans remained in the same vexed position they were immediately after the War--without land. During the 20th-century, Mexican Americans embarked on a renewed struggle for land with the United Farm Workers Movement. Fighting against diverse forms of discrimination and institutionalized racism, Mexican Americans, many of whom who by the 1960s identified themselves as Chicano, created both grass roots and national organizations to reclaim their property rights and, in many ways, their cultural heritage.
At various points in time, Mexican Americans have been called Hispanic, Chicano and, on Census forms, "other." The word Chicano, in particular, has become celebratory and a term of resistance, but it also marks differences between older Mexican Americans and a younger, more political generation.
If the term Chicano refers to a political and cultural movement, then the term Latino may be considered a more general term that includes immigrant and many kinds of Spanish-speaking populations. Latinos may be Mexican Americans, or Cuban American exiles, Puerto Rican translocators, Guatemalan political refugees, or even South American immigrants.
As we shall see in this course, the debates over land, class, language, and self-expression continue for both the Chicano and Latino people. In order to acknowledge the complexities of Chicano and Latino writers, and especially their complicated engagement with mainstream American culture, I first situate the syllabus within a Latin American context. The course is then divided thematically into four parts. Part I: The Americas offers critical perspectives of Spanish colonialism and points to the constructed nature of history. In Part II, we read the work of Peruvian writer Jose Mariategui and Cuban critic Roberto Retamar in order to explore how issues of race, class, and land are manifest in selected literary texts. In Part III, we look at representations of gender in the home and in the community. This section is especially important because it shows similarities and differences among Latino cultures-- Mexican American, Cuban American, and Dominican American.
We "conclude" the course in Part IV: BORDERS REAL AND IMAGINED. Students complete two main projects: the family narrative and research essay. The former gives rhetorical validity to personal experiences and individual voices; the latter offers students an opportunity to participate in a pre-existing discourse about Chicano and Latino subjectivity.
II. STRUGGLES OF THE LAND AND
ISSUES OF RACE
III. COMMUNITY AND THE HOME
IV. BORDERS: REAL AND IMAGINED