LA FRONTERA, BORDERS and TRANSBORDERS. REFLECTIONS of the BORDERLANDS in CHICANA LITERATURE (Early 20Th-21St C.)

LA FRONTERA, BORDERS and TRANSBORDERS. REFLECTIONS of the BORDERLANDS in CHICANA LITERATURE (early 20th-21st c.) Tesis doctoral realizada por Maialen Antxustegi-Etxarte Aranaga Dirigida por Dra. Amaia Ibarraran Bigalondo Departamento de Filología Inglesa, Alemana y Traducción e Interpretación Vitoria- Gasteiz, 2015 Contents Acknowledgments Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1 1- Narrating the West, Creating la frontera .................................................. 25 2- Fronterizas Calling out from the Southwest .............................................. 82 3- Surviving the Border, Inhabiting the Borderlands ................................... 185 4- Queering the City, Rewriting Chicanidad ............................................... 281 5- Conclusion ............................................................................................. 388 Works Cited …………………………………………………………………………410 Esker onak Lehenengo eta behin, eskerrak emon nahi deutsedaz nire tesi zuzendari izan den Amaia Ibarraran Bigalondori. Hasieratik, eta ni ezagutu barik, bide luze honetan laguntzeko prest agertu zalako eta, alkarregaz, aspaldi hasitako bidea amaitzea posible egin dabelako. Urteotan erakutsi dozun pazientzia eta umoreagaitik, eskerrik asko. Baita Euskal Herriko Unibertsitateko Ingeles eta Alemaniar Filologia departamentuari, tesia burutu bitartean arlo ezberdinetan emandako laguntzagaitik. Bestalde, Berkeley-n irakasle den Genaro M. Padillari be eskerrak zuzendu nahi deutsedaz, bihotz-bihotzez, ikerketa egonaldian nigaz erakutsitako eskuzabaltasunagaitik. Chicanoen eskarmentua paperetik errealidadera ekarteagaitik eta berbarik berba lanari ekiteko gogoak berpizteagaitik. Gainera, Urbana-Champaign-eko Richard T. Rodríguez irakasleari be eskertu nahi neuskio tesi honen hazia, jakin barik be, ereiteagaitik. Bestalde, lan hau neure aita eta amari eskaintzen deutset nigan neuk baino gehiago sinisteagaitik sarritan, eta makaldu nazenean “akuiluegaz” hantxe egon zarielako. Baita eskerrik asko neure ahizta Olatz eta Eiderreri zuen laguntasun eta euskarriagaitik. Ahaztu barik koadrilako lagunak be aipatu nahi dodaz, batez be azken txanpan, nigaz euki dozuen pazientzia itzelagatik. Azkenik, liburu artean pozik galtzeko aukera ederra eskaini deusten Austin-eko eta Berkeley-ko unibertsitateak eskertu nahi dodaz, eta, batez be, liburutegiko Adrian Johnson eta Lillian Castillo-Speed beren laguntza guztiagaitik. Introduction A borderland is a vague and undetermined place created by the emotional residue of an unnatural boundary. It is in a constant state of transition. The prohibited and forbidden are its inhabitants. Los atravesados live here. (Gloria Anzaldúa in Borderlands/La Frontera) Borders, political and conceptual, have regained centrality in our globalized world and their meaning has changed together with the economic demands of the times. The 19th century marked the establishment of clear political national borders, which directly defined the agenda of nationalisms all around the world. In the following centuries, improved technologies eased the rapid increase of “free” transnational exchange, which depended on the geography of a borderless commerce. In the last years, however, national borders have acquired complex and contradictory implications. While the economy of most of the nations depends on the constant flow of goods, the movement of a certain type of individuals is discouraged and criminalized. For that purpose, some national borders, which block human migration, have been built, while worldwide economies survive on the premise of multinational exchange. The case of the U.S.-Mexican border is a clear example of such contradictory interpretation of borders. This geopolitical site is at the center of current North American politics; hence, in order to understand its repercussions, it is necessary to study its history as well as its role in the collective experience of the Mexican American population in the U.S. What is more, the border and its many conceptualizations have been central to the progress of a political 1 Mexican American identity. In this context, it is among one of the aims of this dissertation to study the different interpretations of this frontera as the means to analyze the development of border Chicana literature throughout U.S. history. On February 2, 1848, the U.S.-Mexican border was established with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Although this U.S. Southwest- Mexican border runs along a 1,950-mile area, this dissertation will pay special attention to the case of the Texas-Mexico stretch, as most of the literary works gathered in this study are located in this borderland. For this purpose, the particularity of this area is essential in order to understand the drastic socioeconomic and ideological changes brought by this political construct. The Treaty forced Mexico to yield great part of its northern states, which are now known as California, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Texas, to the U.S. In this new geopolitical context, the original Mexican inhabitants were offered the possibility of moving back to Mexico or staying in the U.S. territory with the assurance of acquiring full citizenship. Most of them chose to stay in their homeland with the hope of reestablishing their lives as they were before the war. However, the new political reality brought severe social, economical and cultural changes that directly contradicted the spirit of the Treaty. The sociopolitical relationships that were established after the agreement revolved around a key element: the land. The source of these acute social changes, then, must be located in the new settlers’ greedy disposition in relation to acquiring valuable lands. Anglo newcomers were well aware of the strategic importance of the Rio Grande as the means to establish a highly profitable commerce, which would connect the north Mexican trade with the rest of the world. This is why the land delimited by the Nueces River and the Rio Grande 2 was the source of many conflicts since 1836 and until the beginning of the Mexican-American War a decade later. The advantageous economical possibilities offered by the control over the Rio Grande show the crucial role played by land ownership, which also secured the access to water, natural resources, and claims over cattle and sheep. In this trend, the forceful expropriation of land-related wealth from Mexicans paved the way for the forging of an overt discriminatory ethnocentric ideology spreading throughout the U.S. Southwest. Nationalist discourses revolve around the notion that there is a legitimizing connection between community and a demarcated extension of land. In this sense, this dissertation also aims to analyze the different processes of identity construction acquired through different geographical appropriations present in the historical and literary narratives of the U.S.-Mexican border. In order to do so, diverse conceptualizations of the U.S.-Mexican Borderland will be presented and studied. U.S.-Mexico Border Studies claim that since the Treaty, various understandings of this Borderland have been present in relation to the development of the Mexican American identity. More specifically, this thesis focuses on the particular case of the creation of a Chicana identity, as it has been reflected in border Chicana literature. The role that the hegemonic discourse played in the discrimination of the Mexican population throughout the U.S. is highly important. Narratives of past events and memories of frontier battles ingrained and strengthened the Anglos’ distrust towards the original inhabitants of the area. Different battles from border history were included in prejudicial narratives, where biased accounts of historical events justified Mexican discrimination. The real fact and the more 3 ambiguous instances of history were dismissed, and, instead, a self-celebratory and non-controversial version was accepted as the real report. These stories proved to be widely effective in promoting and maintaining unequal social, economical and ideological divisions between the Anglo and the Mexican population. Thus, the relevance of site-specific narratives in the establishment of the relationship between the communities is paramount. Following this line, the centrality of land (of its ownerships or of the lack of it) was absolute in the development of the Mexican identity during the previous years to the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. One’s land conveyed a birthright and, thus, a lifestyle that defined the way Mexicans identified themselves. This value system corresponded to the fact that they either owned land or did not own it (as was the case of rancheros, peones or vaqueros). In other words, land property defined the notions that formed the Mexican identity. After the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, their conceptualization as individuals and as a community was dramatically altered. Becoming “Americans” made them victims of the dispossession of their land-related notion of identity, and the several social and economical changes introduced by the newcomers turned them into aliens in their own home. Anglo settlers viewed land as a material possession that secured a profit, so they did not grant as much attachment or ideological value to it as Mexicans did. From this perspective, the American Southwest, as delimited by the Treaty, was regarded as an exciting and profitable venue by the Anglos. Hence, their ideological

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