Chicano Discourse: Socio-Historic Perspectives


Book Description

Examines factors which contribute to the bilingualism found in the Mexican American community of the Southwest.




Starving for Justice


Book Description

Focusing on three hunger strikes occurring on university campuses in California in the 1990s, Ralph Armbruster-Sandoval examines people's willingness to make the extreme sacrifice and give their lives in order to create a more just society.




Chicano Poetics


Book Description

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.




Chicana Discourse


Book Description




Chicano-Anglo Conversations


Book Description

This groundbreaking book--about differences in communication practices between Mexican-American underclass residents in an East Los Angeles housing project and white, middle-class literacy tutors who worked with them--makes an important contribution to research on the sociolinguistics of the Chicano gang culture. More specifically, this work adds substantially to research on understanding linguistic politeness theories, the use of epistemic modals for negative politeness, and evidentiality. It refines, and in a number of cases, defines, function categories for epistemic modals through a rigorous grammatical analysis. This book is also distinctive in that the author subjects the language of middle-class Anglos to the same type of scrutiny that is often reserved for non-mainstream groups. Youmans contends that the differences between the Chicano and Anglo speakers are the result of the two groups’ different sociocultural circumstances, including historical and current living and working patterns and the relative value placed on familialism and communalism versus individualism and independence. (The terms Chicano and Anglo are used as a kind of shorthand in this book--not to raise larger sociocultural issues implied by these terms.) Although the number of participants in the study limits the applicability of the findings as they might be extrapolated to all Chicanos/as, or all Anglos when reporting sociolinguistic observations, the main argument advanced is that language use may provide insights into beliefs, attitudes, and practices in the larger society. This volume is directed to researchers and graduate students in the areas of sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, discourse analysis, and cross-cultural communication, and will also interest language and linguistics educators and grammarians.




Speaking Chicana


Book Description

Previous studies in the fields of applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, and gender studies have focused upon Chicano linguistic communities as a monolith or have focused entirely upon male-centered aspects of language use, leaving a tremendous gap in works about Chicanas, for Chicanas, and by Chicanas as they pertain to language-related issues. Speaking Chicana bridges that gap, offering for the first time an extensive examination of language issues among Chicanas. Flowing throughout this collection of essays are themes of empowerment and suppression of voice. Combining empirical studies and personal narratives in the form of testimonios, the editors expand the boundaries of linguistic study to include disciplines such as art, law, women's studies, and literature. The result is a multifaceted approach to the study of Chicana speech—one that provides a significant survey of the literature on Chicanas and language production. Ten contributors—from linguistic to lawyer, from poet to art historian—discuss language varieties and attitudes; bilinguality; codeswitching; cultural identity and language; language in literature and art; taboo language; and legal discourse. Speaking Chicana celebrates the complexity and diversity of linguistic contexts and influences reflected in Chicana speech. Various essays explore the speech of rural women; the evolution of linguistic forces over time; the influence of U.S. public education; linguistic dilemmas encountered by literary authors and women in the legal profession; and language used by pachucas and pintas.Speaking Chicana represents a significant contribution, not only to sociolinguistics, but also to other fields, including women's studies, Chicana/o studies, anthropology, and cultural studies. Contents Part 1. Reconstruction: Language Varieties, Language Use, and Language Attitudes 1. Crossing Social and Cultural Borders: The Road to Language Hybridity, María Dolores Gonzales 2. Fighting Words: Latina Girls, Gangs, and Language Attitudes, Norma Mendoza-Denton Part 2. Reflection: Testimonios 3. Speaking as a Chicana: Tracing Cultural Heritage through Silence and Betrayal, Jacqueline M. Martínez 4. The Power of Language: From the Back of the Bus to the Ivory Tower, Christine Marín 5. Challenging Tradition: Opening the Headgate, Ida M. Luján 6. Mexican Blood Runs through My Veins, Aurora E. Orozco Part 3. Innovation: Speaking Creatively/Creatively Speaking 7. Searching for a Voice: Ambiguities and Possibilities, Erlinda Gonzales-Berry 8. Sacred Cults, Subversive Icons: Chicanas and the Pictorial Language of Catholicism, Charlene Villaseñor Black 9. Caló and Taboo Language Use among Chicanas: A Description of Linguistic Appropriation and Innovation, D. Letticia Galindo 10. Máscaras, Trenzas, y Greñas: Un/Masking the Self While Un/Braiding Latina Stories and Legal Discourse, Margaret E. Montoya




Building with Our Hands


Book Description

This is the first interdisciplinary collection of articles addressing the unique history of Chicana women. From a diverse range of perspectives, a new generation of Chicana scholars here chronicles the previously undocumented rich tapestry of Chicanas' lives over the last three centuries. Focusing on how women have grappled with political subordination and sexual exploitation, the contributors confront the complex intersection of class, race, ethnicity, and gender that defines the Chicana experience in America. The book analyzes the ways that oppressive power relations and resistance to domination have shaped Chicana history, exploring subjects as diverse as sexual violence against Amerindian women during the Spanish conquest of California to contemporary Chicanas' efforts to construct feminist cultural discourses. The volume ends with a provocative dialogue among the contributors about the challenges, frustrations, and obstacles that face Chicana scholars, and the voices heard here testify to the vibrant state of Chicano scholarship. Trenchant and wide-ranging, this collection is essential reading for understanding the dynamics of feminism and multiculturalism.




Movements in Chicano Poetry


Book Description

Studies the central concerns addressed by recent Chicano poetry.




Cultural Studies


Book Description

Featuring new essays by such prominent cultural theorists as Tony Bennett, Homi Bhabha, Donna Haraway, bell hooks, Constance Penley, Janice Radway, Andrew Ross, and Cornel West, Cultural Studies offers numerous specific cultural analyses while simultaneously defining and debating the common body of assumptions, questions, and concerns that have helped create the field.




Latino/a Thought


Book Description

Latino/a Thought brings together the most important writings that shape Latino consciousness, culture, and activism today. This historical anthology is unique in its presentation of cross cultural writings—especially from Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban writers and political documents—that shape the ideology and experience of U.S. Latinos. Students can read, first hand, the works or authors who most shaped their cultural heritage. They are guided by vivid introductions that set each article or document in its historical context and describe its relevance today. The writings touch on many themes, but are guided by this book's concern for a quest for public citizenship among all Latino populations and a better understanding of racialized populations in the U.S. today.