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The Dialectics of Transculturation in Chicano/A Literature Von Der

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The Dialectics of Transculturation in Chicano/A Literature Von Der The Dialectics of Transculturation in Chicano/a Literature Von der Philosophisch-Historischen Fakultät der Universität Stuttgart zur Erlangung der Würde eines Doktors der Philosophie (Dr. Phil.) genehmigte Abhandlung Vorgelegt von Marie-Florence Baur aus Stuttgart Hauptberichter: Prof. Dr. Walter Göbel Mitberichter: Prof. Dr. Renate Brosch Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 19.07.2012 Institut für Literaturwissenschaft der Universität Stuttgart 2013 Contents 1) Introduction 1 2) Approaches to Chicano Literature 12 2.1) A Short Outline of the Socio-Cultural and Political Situation of Mexicans in the US from 1846 until Today 12 2.2) Chicano Literature and Postcolonial Discourse 21 2.3) Chicano Literature as Ethnic Literature 26 2.4) The Cultural Function of Ethnic Literature 29 2.5) The Practice of Stereotyping and Cultural Effacement 32 2.6) The Theory of Transculturation 37 3) A Clash of Cultures: George Washington Gomez 46 3.1) Introduction 46 3.1.1) The Corrido As Form of Resistance: A Short Introduction 48 3.1.2) Jonesville-on-the-Grande: Establishing a Contact Zone 52 3.2) Form as Manifestation of Transculturation 53 3.3) From Rebellion to Compromise 62 3.4) Life in the Contact Zone: Erecting Borders 71 3.5) Transculturation as Process of Cultural Effacement 75 3.6) Mexico vs. America: The Lure of the American Dream 85 4) Richard Vasquez’ Chicano: The Struggle to Find a Collective Identity 87 4.1) Introduction 87 4.2) The American Dream as Cause for Transculturation 90 4.3) Tradition vs. Assimilation: A Conflict of Generations 94 4.4) Transgressing Cultural Borders: The Beginning of Assimilation 101 4.5) Machismo vs. Emancipation: The Fight for a New Female Role 106 4.6) An Attempt at a Cultural Mediation 109 5) Richard Rodriguez’ Hunger of Memory: Education as an Instrument for Assimilation 115 5.1) Introduction 116 5.2) Private vs. Public Voice: The Role of Language in Identity Formation 119 5.3) Public Life as Cause for Alienation 123 5.4) Brown Skin and the Impossibility of Assimilation 129 5.5) Assimilation and Cultural Effacement: The Loss of Home 132 5.6) Affirmative Action and Bilingual Education as “Ethnic Markers” 135 6) Luis J. Rodriguez: Always Running-Gang Days in L.A.- Gangs and the Formation of a Collective Identity 140 6.1) Introduction 142 6.2) Lost in Systems: The Impossibility of Crossing Borders 144 6.3) Homelessness and a Lack of Role Models: Gangs as Family Replacement 151 6.4) A New Home: The Gang as Foundation for a New Identity 155 6.5) The Chicano Movement: Finding a New Chicano Self 161 7) Helena Maria Viramontes: Under the Feet of Jesus- The Struggle for a Collective Identity 165 7.1) Introduction 167 7.2) Transculturation as Manifestation of Power 170 7.3) Crossing Cultural Borders: A Battle for Survival 176 7.4) Finding a Home During the Process of Transculturation 181 7.5) Feminism as Element of Transculturation 185 8) Conclusion 196 Bibliography Appendix 1) Introduction “On April 10th, 2006 half a million illegal immigrants marched through the streets of Washington D.C., Seattle and New York demanding US citizenship. A large number of the protesters were Latinos who uttered their wish in English and presented the pledge of allegiance raising their American flags. Spectators could have perceived this event as a fourth of July celebration due to the national attachment with the US, which was shown on that day. The protesters were low paid workers, who slowed down a wide range of industries depending on low paid labor across the nation. Rallying on this day in April also meant a critical loss of wages for them. In spite of that, they showed up in numbers of 500,000 at a time to make people aware of their cause. The Mexican "illegals" demonstrating were so interesting because they seemed as if they were as much in the midst of an internal as well as an external struggle. One could see it and hear it as they momentarily looked proud, then uneasy, then excited. It was as if, in those moments of joining a demonstration, they were coalescing as a collective, navigating their way into "becoming" something other than what they had been. They turned from illegals to citizens, from Mexicans to Americans. But they were also fighting to retain something else that they did not want to leave behind.”1 The protest marches in various big cities in the US in those days reflect the clear desire on the Mexican side to become Americans. The reasons for this change of citizenship and, with it, of identity are economic forces. Having a job, even if at low pay, and having the ability to achieve upward mobility, are the main reasons for making themselves heard. Actions such as openly waving American flags, speaking English and Spanish, presenting the pledge of allegiance and having the confidence to stand up for their cause in a country where they are 1 For diverse coverage of this event see Avila, Oscar, Olivo, Antonio, A Show of Strength: Thousands March to Loop for Immigrants’ Rights in: Chicago Tribune, March 2006, Page, Clarence, The Foreign Flag Rule in: The Baltimore Sun, April 2006 and Prengaman, Peter, Protesters Work to Change Image in: Associated Press, Long Beach, April 2006 1 residing illegally are significant for a desired and determined transition from one culture to the other and for finding a place of belonging in a seemingly borderless world. These illegal immigrants showed an eagerness and willingness to become American although this could result in a partial or complete loss of their native culture. This mind-set describes a steady and loyal commitment to one nation and its culture and provides an alternative approach to dealing with a global world and constant transitions between different cultures. These forces seem to create a longing for a home, for a place of belonging and a culture one can identify with and be rooted in. The nation as a “controlled and bounded territory with a more or less unified core culture”2 leads Chicanos to think of themselves as United States citizens accepting the “old logic of identity” perceived as stable and protective space against the intrusion of capitalism by many Chicanos/as. This struggle, which often results in cultural effacement and evokes assimilation and/or resistance, is reflected in the cultural productions by Chicanos/as. In my work I will show that binary oppositions between Americans and Chicanos, stereotyping, assimilation and resistance towards different nations and cultures as well as in-betweeness and hybridity influence the formation of identities. These concepts have always been and still are present everywhere in US society and presented in Chicano/a literary productions starting in the early 1900s until today. In my work I will analyze and interpret literary texts by Chicano/a writers ranging from 1940 until 1995 in order to show that the situations, sentiments and alignments described above have remained stable even while global forces are changing national and cultural alignments all over the world. In an ever-changing world, first generation lower class and working class immigrants as well as 2 See Hall, Stuart, “Old and New Identities, Old and New Ethnicities”, in: Culture, Globalization, and the World System: Contemporary Conditions for the Representation of Identity, ed. Anthony King (Minneapolis, 1997), p. 41.68 2 Americans of Mexican descent in later generations are seeking a stable national and cultural identity in order to survive or to improve their social status. Additionally, the (re)surgence of ethnic nationalisms can be detected especially among lower and working class Chicanos, resulting in the eruption of gangs and national clubs and open discrimination of Americans in their own country.3 The grappling and struggling for identity and the resulting sentiments towards a dominant culture are part of a process called transculturation. The term, coined by Fernando Ortiz in his revolutionary work Cuban Counterpoint describes the clashes and negotiations of different cultures encountering one another. Ortiz divides this cultural coming-to-terms with one another into five different phases, explaining clearly which transformations and changes happen during the process of forming a national and cultural identity. His work has been a key factor in developing contemporary models by which to understand the dynamics of culture in terms of adjustment, incorporation, acquiescence and resistance. Mary Louise Pratt, for example, incorporates Ortiz‘s model of cultural transformation. In her 1992 study on travel writing, she discusses how ethnographers have used the term to describe how subordinated and marginal groups select and invent from materials transmitted to them by a dominant or metropolitan culture. Pratt notes that transculturation takes place in what she has famously termed ”contact zones“. These are ”social spaces where disparate cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in highly asymmetrical relations of domination and subordination - like colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths as they are lived out across the globe today.“ (Pratt, 1992: 519) Her view of transculturation depends entirely on the relation between cultures that occupy different positions of power. Both Ortiz and Pratt focus on the 3 One example for open anti-American sentiment is a soccer game between Mexico and the US at the Los Angeles memorial Colloseum in L.A., where “the American players quickly found out…that playing in Los Angeles is not a home game for the United States national team.” After the game the US players “were pelted with debris and cups of water, beet or worse. It was an ugly sight…” 3 struggle between different cultures and their works have been widely discussed. Ortiz describes transculturation as a process of assimilation eventually resulting in integration, whereas Pratt defines this process as a selection from the other culture in order to form an individual identity and in order to integrate into the other culture.
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