Conversations with Mexican American Writers: Languages and Literatures in the Borderlands

by Elisabeth Mermann-Jozwiak, Nancy Sullivan

Overview

Interviews with writers grappling with the tensions of globalization, immigration, and assimilation

Through a series of interviews with nine acclaimed authors, Conversations with Mexican American Writers explores the languages and literatures of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands as a confluence of social, cultural, historical, and political forces. In their conversations, these authors discuss their linguistic choices within the context of language policies and language attitudes in the United States, as well as the East Coast publishing industry's mandates.

The interviews reveal the cultural and geographical marginalization endured by Mexican American writers, whose voices are muted because they produce literature from the remotest parts of the country and about people on the social fringes. Out of these interviews emerges a portrait of the borderlands as a dynamic space of international exchange, one that is situated and can only be understood fully within a global context.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781604734720
Publisher:	University Press of Mississippi
Publication date:	04/21/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	440 KB

About the Author

Elisabeth Mermann-Jozwiak is a professor of English at Texas A&M University—Corpus Christi. She is the author of Postmodern Vernaculars: Chicana Literature and Postmodern Rhetoric.


Nancy Sullivan is a professor of English at Texas A&M University—Corpus Christi. Her work has appeared in MELUS, System, and Intercultural Communication Studies, among other periodicals.

Table of Contents

Stories that must be Told An Introduction vii

"The Stuff that you Pull Out of your Kischkas" Montserrat Fontes 3

Braiding Languages, Weaving Cultures Diana Montejano 21

"You must be the Change you wish to see in the World" Pat Mora 35

Between Belonging and Exile Benjamin Alire Sáenz 46

"Muy Payasa" Sandra Cisneros 62

"You Carry the Border with you" Helena María Viramontes 79

"My Grandmother Makes the best Tortillas" and other Stereotypes Dagoberto Gilb 95

Testimonio, Reconnection, and Forgiveness Norma Elía Cantú 115

"!Ay, El Inglés Tan Bonito!" Denise Chávez 138

Index 157