Critical Essay | Critical Essay by A. Robert Lee

Critical Essay by A. Robert Lee

SOURCE: “Chicanismo as Memory: The Fictions of Rudolfo Anaya, Nash Candelaria, Sandra Cisneros, and Ron Arias,” in Memory and Cultural Politics: New Approaches to American Ethnic Literatures, edited by Amritjit Singh, Joseph T. Skerrett Jr., and Robert E. Hogan, Northeastern University Press, 1996, pp. 320–39.

In the following excerpt, Lee explores the complex matrix of historical, geographic, and cultural legacies that underlies Chicano identity, as well as the significance of memory and remembrance in Chicano literature, particularly in Bless Me, Ultima.

To John J. Halcón and María De La Luz Reyes

For those of us who listen to the Earth, and to the old legends and myths of the people, the whispers of the blood draw us to our past.

—Rudolfo A. Anaya, A Chicano in China

Mexican, the voice in his deep dream kept whispering. Mejicano. Chicano.

—Nash Candelaria, Memories of the Alhambra

I'm a story that never ends. Pull one string and the whole cloth unravels.

—Sandra Cisneros,...
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