Chicano/Latino Sampler

by Professor Celia Weller, Spanish

A few years ago Professor Manuel Hernández at Arizona State University and I co-taught a course on Chicano/Latino literature. Funded by a Hewlett Foundation Grant to promote diversity in the curriculum, we joined our two classes each week by video conference. We spoke to several of the authors by video conference from Arizona and both Professor Hernández and one of the authors, Kathleen Alcalá (who lives on Bainbridge Island) came to Whitman. We all had a great time and many of us read some fine pieces of literature that we might not have been able to under the constraints of other priorities.

There is a huge and rich body of literature written in English by authors of Hispanic American heritage from all over the Spanish-speaking world. Here are just a few of the works by authors of Mexican-American heritage that my students and I found most enjoyable:

* The Flower in the Skull by Kathleen Alcalá (Harvest Books, 1999). From the jacket blurb: “Deep in Mexico’s Sonoran Desert of the 1870’s, a village of Opata Indians is raided by soldiers. Along with her tribe, Concha is driven from her homeland and eventually finds her way to Tucson. . . . Her daughter Rosa’s life continues the legacy of dislocation as, raised far from her native culture, she struggles to find her place in a strange world. A brilliant exploration of the complexities of heritage, identity, and assimilation, The Flower in the Skull exposes the mysterious nature of place, spiritualism, and faith in the lives of extraordinary ordinary people.”

* Spirits of the Ordinary by Kathleen Alcalá (Harvest Books, 1998). From the jacket blurb: “At the turn of the last century, in a small village in Northern Mexico, the Caravels have been practicing their Jewish faith in secret. The father, Julio, spends his days dabbling in alchemy. His wife, Mariana, cannot speak but is clairvoyant. Their son is obsessed with his search for gold. Central to the surprising destinies of these characters are the momentous events taking place high in the mountains, at the ancient and sacred cliff dwellings of Casas Grandes. This compelling story of two cultures, and of the elusive bonds of faith and love, is dazzling in its richness and sweep.”

* The Iguana Killer: Twelve Stories of the Heart by Alberto Álvaro Ríos (University of New Mexico Press, 1984). Great stories about youth and crossing borders. Ríos captured an adolescent girl so well in one story that we asked him if he had daughters. . . . He doesn’t.

* Capirotada: A Nogales Memoir by Alberto Álvaro Ríos (University of New Mexico Press, 1999). This is the wonderfully told story of the author’s family and youth on the border between Mexico and the U.S. Their story is as tasty and complicated as “capirotada” (Mexican bread pudding which might contain any number of ingredients). His Mexican-born father met his English mother when he was a G.I. in England during World War II, so some of the stories of “culture and language clash” are delightful.

* Fragile Night by Stella Pope Duarte (Bilingual Press, 1997). Stella Pope Duarte was born and raised in South Phoenix in the barrio of Sonorita, from which many of her characters come. In these short stories her characters are often in the process of making life-altering decisions and dealing with the consequences of their choices. She had another book in progress when we spoke to her, and I am happy to see that it is due to come out in May 2002. It is titled Let Their Spirits Dance.

Celia Weller, Professor of Foreign Languages and Literatures