Contracting Chicano Culture
Keywords:
Chicano culture, legal discourse, academic institutions, cultural capital, Michel FoucaultAbstract
This article analyzes the combative dialogue between Chicano culture and legal discourse, exploring how academic institutions condition and transgress this dynamic. The author contends that while academia provides a platform for discussing Chicano culture, it also perpetuates an unequal distribution of cultural capital. This study examines Oscar Zeta Acosta’s novel 'Revolt of the Cockroach People' as an example of how academics authorized the recognition of Chicanos as a social group, often at the expense of subordinating Chicanas under patriarchal values. The paper explores Michel Foucault's influence on institutional analysis and critiques his undervaluation of everyday practices. De Certeau’s response to Foucault is highlighted, emphasizing the interaction between institutional forces and historical change through subtle processes of repetition and struggle. This work investigates how cultural insights are appropriated by academic institutions, making them available as 'cultura' while potentially sacrificing the authenticity of everyday practices.
(The abstract and keywords were prepared retrospectively for indexing purposes using AI-assisted tools and editorial review, based on the original article. They did not appear in the original publication.)
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