Luis Valdez creates anomalous realities in two of his plays, "The Shrunken Head of Pancho Villa" and "The Mummified Deer," in order to defy dominant expressions of reality as well as classifications of "Chicano" and "Mexican." The anomalous realities, represented primarily by a bodiless head in the first play and an eighty-four-year-old Yaqui…

Despite their differences in place and time, the woman-centered Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral and the Chicana lesbian feminist writer Gloria Anzaldua both looked to a transnational intellectual American history that frequently connected discourses of esotericism, indigenismo, and mestizaje. My comparative approach shows how both women used these…

One must undertake multi-institutional efforts that include universities, archives, museums, libraries and community-based arts organizations and the artists to preserve Latino art history. Arts infrastructure can be strengthened by various Chicano Studies Research Center projects that are concerned with archive building and scholarship, and with…

The Frontera Digital Archive is an impressive and invaluable research tool for multidisciplinary scholars of Chicana/o studies and Latin American studies. The archive preserves rare Mexican vernacular musical recordings and provides convenient access to these recordings via Internet.

The way in which economic and cultural trends have led cultural institutions to go away from grassroots constituencies toward better ones and multiple debates within the world of U.S. Latino/a culture and the arts is described. The debate over the El Museo, which in the larger context affected the categorization, promotion and exhibition of Latin…

Focuses on variations in perceptions and conceptions of machismo within Mexican and Latino culture. Studies how Latino fathers living in United States perceive machismo, utilizing data from in-depth interviews. Identifies two models of masculinity, one as compensation for powerlessness, the other grounded in ethics, honor, and courage. (TES)

This essay chronicles the career of pioneering Mexican rock band Maldita Vecindad y los Hijos del 5 [degree] Patio. I argue that in a post-Chicano movement period, Maldita has become a borderless cultural institution influencing a generation of Mexicans on both sides of the border. Maldita has sought linkages with Mexicans from north and south…

Examines uses of history writing in the United States, assessing it for Mexican-American stereotyping. Describes development of Chicano history, a rejection of perspectives based on values of dominant Anglo society. Assesses Chicano historians' accounts of colonialism in American Southwest, once Mexico. Describes colonialism as socioeconomic…

Applies palimpsest as model for recognizing Chicano cultural diversity. Promotes interdisciplinary approach to Chicano studies. Examines Aztlan (Aztec homeland) as historical place and nationalist symbol obscuring Chicano identity and Mesoamerican diversity. Encourages use of palimpsest as conceptual tool for Chicano studies, cultural identity,…

The general conversation today about the USA PATRIOT Act and its historical and legal significance must be contextualized with reference to a series of 1970s U.S. Supreme Court decisions regarding the U.S. Border Patrol that directly undergird the PATRIOT Act. The Supreme Court long ago turned the U.S. borderlands adjoining Mexico into a permanent…