New Mexican Narratives and the Politics of Home
Keywords:
New Mexican literature, Chicana narratives, colonial discourse, politics of home, cultural identity, Genaro PadillaAbstract
This article analyzes the evolution of New Mexican narratives and their role in shaping contemporary Chicana literature. The paper explores how Spanish colonial texts, such as those by Pedro de Castañeda and Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá, established a discourse of domination that marginalized indigenous peoples. The author contends that while Genaro Padilla argues for the persistence of this colonial imaginary in Chicano literary expressions, contemporary Chicana writing challenges this tradition. This study examines how Chicana narratives problematize the notion of 'home' as an imperializing and masculine enterprise, instead advocating a politics of relocation. The article demonstrates the significance of these literary shifts in redefining cultural identity and historical memory.
(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.)
References
Cabeza de Baca, Fabiola. We Fed Them Cactus. (The Pasó por Aquí Series on Nuevomexicano Literature) Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1994.
Chávez, Denise. The Last Of The Menu Girls. Houston: Arte Público Press, 1986.
Chávez, John R. “Aztlán, Cíbola, and Frontier New Spain.” Aztlán: Essays On The Chicano Homeland. Ed. Rudolfo Anaya and Francisco A. Lomelí. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1989.
Gonzales, Manuel G. Mexicanos: A History of Mexicans in the United States. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2000.
Gutiérrez, Ramón. “Unravelling America's Hispanic Past: Internal Stratification and Class Boundaries.” Aztlán Vol.17. No.1 (Spring 1986).
Hine, Robert V. and J.M. Faragher, Ed. The American West: A New Interpretive History. New Haven & London: Yale University Press 2000.
Jaramillo, Cleofas. Romance of a Little Village Girl. (The Pasó por Aquí Series on Nuevomexicano Literature). Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2000.
Lamadrid, Enrique R. “Entre Cíbolos Criado: Images of Native Americans in the Popular Culture of Colonial New Mexico.” Reconstructing A Chicano/a Literary Heritage: Hispanic Colonial Literature of the Southwest. Ed. María Herrera-Sobek. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1994.
Leal, Luis. “Poetic Discourse in Pérez de Villagrá's Historia de la nueva méxico.” Reconstructing A Chicano/a Literary Heritage: Hispanic Colonial Literature of the Southwest. Ed. María Herrera-Sobek. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1994.
Padilla, Genaro M. My History, Not Yours: The Formation Of Mexican American Autobiography. Wisconsin: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1993.
Padilla, Genaro. “Discontinuous Continuities: Remapping the Terrain of Spanish Colonial Narrative.” Reconstructing A Chicano/a Literary Heritage: Hispanic Colonial Literature of the Southwest. Ed. María Herrera-Sobek. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1994.
Rebolledo, Tey Diana. “The Politics of Poetics: Or, What am I, A Critic, Doing in This Text Anyhow?” Chicana Creativity and Criticism: Charting New Frontiers in American Literature. Ed. María Herrera-Sobek and Helena María Viramontes, Houston: Arte Público Press, 1988.
Rebolledo, Tey Diana and Eliana Rivero, Ed. Infinite Divisions: An Anthology of Chicana Literature. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1993.
Rosaldo, Renato. Culture And Truth: The Remaking of Social Analysis. London: Routledge, 1989/93. Stoler, Ann Laura. “Making Empire Respectable: The Politics of Race and Sexual Morality in Twentieth-Century Colonial Cultures.” Dangerous Liasons:Gender, Nation and Postcolonial Perspectives. Ed. Anne McClintock, Aamir Mufti, and Ella Shohat. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997.
Villanueva, Tino. “A Franciscan Mission Manual: The Discourse of Power and Social Organisation.” Reconstructing A Chicano/a Literary Heritage: Hispanic Colonial Literature of the Southwest. Ed. María Herrera-Sobek. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1994.
