Jesús Rosales - Böcker

Thinking en español captures conversations with leading Chicana and Chicano literary critics. This unique book consists of interviews with founding members of Chicano criticism conducted by the author, Jesús Rosales, who, through his conversations with leaders such as Luis Leal, María Herrera-Sobek, Tey Diana Rebolledo, and Juan Rodríguez, shows the path of criticism from 1848 to the present.The twelve critics interviewed for this project share certain characteristics. For each one, Mexico plays an essential role in his or her personal and academic background, and each is bilingual and bicultural, having received formal literary education in Spanish graduate programs. As products of the working class, each scholar here shares a sense of social consciousness and commitment that lends an urgency to their desire to promote Chicano literature and culture at the local, regional, national, and international levels. They serve as a source of inspiration and commitment for future generations of scholars of Chicano literature and leave a lasting legacy of their own.Thinking en español legitimizes Chicana/o criticism as an established discipline, and documents the works of some of the most important critics of Chicano literature at the turn of the twentieth and into the twenty-first century. This timely book immortalizes literary historical figures and documents the trajectory of Chicano criticism.

Celebrating more than forty years of creative writing by Chicana author Margarita Cota-CÁrdenas, this volume includes critical essays, reflections, interviews, and previously unpublished writing by the author herself to document the lifelong craft and legacy of a pioneering writer in the field.Nicknamed “La Plonky” by her family after a made-up childhood song, Cota-CÁrdenas grew up in California, taught almost exclusively in Arizona, and produced five major works (two novels and three books of poetry) that offer an expansive literary production spanning from the 1960s to today. Her perspectives on Chicana identity, the Chicanx movement, and the sociopolitical climate of Arizona and the larger U.S.-Mexico border region represent a significant contribution to the larger body of Chicanx literature. Additionally, the volume explores her perspectives on issues of gender, sexuality, and identity related to the Chicanx experience over time.Divided into three major parts, this collection begins with an introduction, followed by two testimonial essays written by the author herself and a longtime colleague, as well as an interview with the author. The second section contains nine essays by well-established literary critics that analyze Cota-CÁrdenas’s literary output within a Chicano Movement literary context and offer new readings of Cota-CÁrdenas’s fiction and poetry. The third part presents poetry and fiction from Cota-CÁrdenas, including an excerpt from a work in progress. As a whole, the collection aims to affirm Margarita Cota-CÁrdenas’s significant role in shaping the field of Chicana literature and emphasizes the importance of honoring a celebrated author who wrote a majority of her works in Spanish--one of the few Chicana writers to do so.ContributorsLaura Elena BelmonteMargarita Cota-CÁrdenasJosÉ R. FloresVanessa Fonseca-ChÁvezCarolyn GonzÁlezGabriella GutiÉrrez y MuhsManuel M. MartÍn-RodrÍguezKirsten F. NigroMargarita E. PignataroTey Diana RebolledoJesÚs RosalesCharles St-GeorgesJavier Villarreal