English 113 Midterm
La "mancha de plátano" (Gloria Vando)
Similar to "tienes el nopal en la frente"
Orality and print. Discuss the tension between these two in KC
The stories that are written tend to be different then the ones from orality, details are different for the same stories or outcomes are different.
The Gadsden Purchase
United States paid Mexico 10 million for a piece of land that is now known as Arizona geographical/historical border
Discuss the stylistic and social aspects of code-switching in E. Vigil-Piñón's "Me caes sura, ése, descuéntate"
3 diff languages - span/eng/ calo mocking because he has ability to move with style and language not lack of artistry but urgency in the message--militant attitude
The Sanctuary Movement and its role in Demetria Martínez's work.
A religious and political campaign in the United States that began in the early 1980s to provide safe-haven for Central American refugees fleeing civil conflict. It responded to federal immigration policies that made obtaining asylum difficult for Central Americans. In her poem "Nativity: For Two Salvadoran Women, 1986-1987" Martinez discusses pregnancy as a way of bringing in "refugees" and allowing them to stay.
3. What role does nature play in Chicano/a poetics, as far as these poems are concerned (see Pat Mora's "Desert Women" and Jimmy Santiago Baca's "Roots")
Chicanos are compared to nature, in "Desert Women" the women are compared to cactuses in the desert, while in "Roots" the father is compared to a cottonwood.
The chronotope: space and time in Comezón
Chronotope: How the novel organizes space and time. In Comezón the novel keeps going to the same places with the same characters, but the reader knows time has passed. Sense of circularity.
Tomás Rivera defined Chicano/a literature as "life in search of form." Discuss the ways in which Gary Soto transforms life experiences into artistic images in "Daybreak"
Gary Soto uses more complex imagery by using the "rain's broken fingers" to connect it to the way the onion pickers get their hands hurt from the hard work they do. He turns a common life experience of Chicanos into a more complex image.
Geography of the impossible: discuss the blend of history, geography, and culture in Gloria Vando's "New York City Mira Mira Blues."
Here we see some aspects of tropicalization in the way aspects of the island are used to describe things not in the island, such as buildings. The mix of history and culture from FDR to Julia De Burgos to Henry Ford.
Nuyorican space: the island, New York, and the enclave: How are these spaces represented in Algarín's "A Mongo Affair," Laviera's "Jesús Papote," and Piñero's "A Lower East Side Poem"
In "A Mongo Affair" New York is represented as a place of poverty and suffering for the Puerto Ricans, where they are ripped off, living off government assistance and feel like a minority. The island is represented as a place that lost its people and where Puerto Ricans are a minority due to the exodus of puertorriquenos.
How is identity represented in Laviera's "Tito Madera Smith" and "AmeRícan"?
In "Tito Madera Smith" the character is portrayed as a man who knows a lot about different cultures, the way a Puerto Rican who lives in the US knows about many things from American and Puerto Rican culture. This is the same in "AmeRícan" were an AmerRícn is someone with knowledge of both culture and is not represented by just one.
2. How is the barrio portrayed in this poetry. Compare Alurista's "Tarde sobria" with Ricardo Sánchez's "Barrios of the World"
In Alurista's "Tarde Sobria", the barrio is presented in detail as one is passing through where as in Sanchez's "Barrios of the World" it is presented vaguely, explaining how in the real world the poor and the rich life separately, but doesn't offer details and instead reminds the reader that change is coming to the barrio.
Intergenerational connections in Chicana poetry create "a family of women" in which wisdom, protection, and love are emphasized over violence and abuse. Illustrate this idea by discussing C. Tafolla's "Marked," and/or Alma L. Villanueva's "There Were Times"
In Marked we see the instructions of generations for the younger women, to leave their mark to be remembered and never look back, regret, or erase a thing. In "There Were Times" the only thing that doesn't ever pass is love, protection as they only ate what they could, and wisdom as her mother raised her and in turn raised her own daughter.
insularismo vs internationalism (Colon)
Insularismo: The effects and byproduct felt by people residing in an island/colony with a cultural retrenchment who foster in an isolationist mentality. condition of being on the island fact that PR is an island is important because it's isolated, forcing people to look within themselves, lack desire of being part of a larger entity VS other parameters that connect you to other people of the world - connections surpass nationality bond more to class than to country not aligning yourself to a nation but everyone like you The state or process of being international.
What role does code-switching (bilingualism) play in this poetry? [Non-Spanish speakers: you can still answer this question by addressing the way in which you are able to read the poem or not]
It adds authenticity to the poems, as a Spanish speaker I know there are many words that do not exactly translate to English. These words tend to describe a situation better than the English translation. It also shows how Chicano life is because Chicanos often times switch from one language to the other.
1. Chicano/a poetry as militant art. Discuss Abelardo Delgado's "Stupid America" and raúlsalinas's "Los caudilloss"
Militant: Combative and aggressive in support of a political or social cause, and typically favoring extreme, violent, or confrontational methods. It is as militant art in the way of pinto poetry (poetry written in prison) with aggressive language to minimize ignorance on the role of Chicanos in the U.S. Aggressive language help establish a sense of urgency. In "Stupid America" aggressive language and imagery is used to describe nonaggressive Chicanos, such as the man with a knife who wants to carve Christ figures. In "Los Caudillos" various Chicano political figures are shown, a call to the reader to stand up for its people is implied.
Tropicalization
PR look back at island life and how beautiful it was
Operation Bootstrap
Puerto Ricans were needed as workers shifted PR's economy from an agricultural one to an industrial one "bootstrap" reference to PR and how they are forced to become second class citizens
The de/colonial imaginary: writing about the other & writing as the other
Reference to the king and queen evokes time when reports were addressed to the Spanish Royals Comezon's situation in a contested territory as a reminder of border changes produced by conquest and colonization 1992 ultimate symbol of decolonialization
Analyze the role of magical elements in Victor Hernández Cruz's "The Physics of Ochún"
Religious syncretism: the blend of religions In this poem there is a mixture of Santeria with African religious figures. The scientists represent epistemology, they try to explain the irrational magical elements. The women represent anthology.
Contemporary Chicana poetry is characterized (among other things) by a rather direct language unafraid of addressing taboos. Illustrate that feature by discussing A. Gaspar de Alba's "Confessions" and/or D. Martínez's "Hit and Run"
Taboo: a social or religious custom prohibiting or forbidding discussion of a particular practice or forbidding association with a particular person, place, or thing. Confessions openly discusses rape, specifically by a priest, which is often try to be hidden by the Church. Hit and Run would have been a rape case, but turns it into something beautiful when she thinks of having her baby.
The Puerto Rican political status as reflected in the poems of Agüeros. Discuss his use of fantasy in "Psalm for the New Millenium" and of religious motifs in the sonnets, especially in the last one.
The use of fantasy in "Psalm for the New Millennium" is to emphasize how Puerto Ricans feel like aliens. This is because they are not treated equally and seen as outsiders even if they have lived in the US for a very long time. Use of Kronos in the "Sonnets for the Four Horsemen". Kronus was the father of Zeus who overthrew his father Uranus and was later overthrown by Zeus and imprisoned. The way the horsemen are described makes it seem like they are gods who came to bring bad things to the people. In this case it seems to describe Puerto Rican history and how the people on the island have suffered from War, Captivity, Famine, and Death.
Discuss the role of the several prefaces at the beginning of Klail City
They give an insight as to what the writer was thinking and why he wrote the way he did for a specific chapter. Often times they gave background for what was going on or background on the narrators.
Explain Lorna Dee Cervantes's statement to the fact that woman's lot is symbol (while man's may be a metaphor).
What she is trying to say is a contrast between the possibilities available to men and the fate to which women are doomed. The possibilities each gender has in life are actually quite different in our world. A man has possiblity, which is why his life can be a metaphor, a dynamic, changing thing with the possibility for bad and good, but a woman's fate is sealed, written in stone. She usually has no choice.
Hinojosa's entire work has been described as historical in nature; does KC support that idea?
Yes, because we see different times at Klail City through the narration of three different people, Rafe Buenrostro, Jehu Malacara, and P. Galindo.
Contemporary Chicano/a poetry (and literature in general) as product of the tension between roots and routes. Compare the interplay of tradition and change in these poems by paying attention to how they portray: a.food (see Bárbara Brinson Curiel's "Recipe," and Pat Mora's "Mango Juice") b.history (see Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales' "I Am Joaquín," and Pat Mora's "Desert Women") c.ancestors (see Luis Omar Salinas's "My Father Is a Simple Man," and Jimmy Santiago Baca's "Roots")
a. In Brinson's Curiel's "Recipe" we see the traditional role of the woman., the tradition sticks to the usual role of the women, in the kitchen preparing food, specifically what happens when cooking abilities are white washed and how the families feel about it. In "Mango Juice" we see a complete reversal of the role of the woman, she is not inside cooking at all, instead everyone is enjoying themselves outside, mango seen as a food free of role b. I am Joaquin, says the history of his people as his own person however in Desert Women, the history is portrayed of only women in a certain setting. c.In Jimmy Santiago Baca's "Roots" ancestors are portrayed having often dealt with unfair discriminatory happenings such as her father being taken away from his land. However, in Salinas's "My Father is A Simple Man" ancestors are seen to having lived simple lives that they conducted very well with not too many problems except the one of not being remembered.
The Small Town novel
about the community not the individual
The Small Town novel and perspectivism in KQC
centered on small communities and novel is about the community as a whole perspectivism- multiple perspectives give multiple approaches to the same reality
Nuyorican
group of PR writers in NY who ID as this group awareness working class testimonial attitudes focus on everyday attitudes
Many Chicano/a poems reflect on identity, as is the case with G. Anzaldúa's "To Live in the Borderlands Means You;" explain what kind of identity is envisioned in the metaphor of the crossroads.
identities intersect. You're not just one but all. You don't have to pick an identity (road) you are all of them (crossroad). The type of identity envisioned in the metaphor of the crossroads is an identity that is a mixture of two cultures/races and explains that to survive at the borderlands you must be the type of person that engages in both. You can not survive being just one.
4. Rascuachismo (see Jimmy Santiago Baca's "from Poem VI")
making due with what you had Professional limitations faced by young poet, combining inventiveness and a surrealist attitude
Code-switching as "transcreation"
mixture of ENG/SPAN offers new possibilities transcreation is creating in one language from the other, for example Sun rise --> Sonrisa
Ontological and epistemological approaches to the borderlands
ontological- ways of being, conceiving possibilities of all the other worlds. Knowledge is constructed EX:Arnulfo's nostalgia throughout time changed has occurred that has changed what it means to be Mexican EX: Padre Manuelito clinging to Spanish ID Espitemological- havinf to do w/ knowledge, we can build our knowledge through evidence EX: Arnulfo trying to be stereotypical Mexican- he is representing what he thinks being Mexican is
Secondary orality and the role of popular music in Comezón
secondary orality is language that is mediated through technology differ from primary orality that happens as something natural/ordinary life, a way of life ex. Jualiana and Padre Manuelito are talking on phone