Recovering the U.S. Hispanic literary heritage ed. by Ramón A. Gutiérrez, Genaro M. Padilla, and: Reconstructing a Chicano/a Literary Heritage: Hispanic Colonial Literature of the Southwest ed. by Maria Herrera-Sobek, and: Infinite Divisions: An Anthology of Chicana Literature ed. by Tey Diana Rebolledo, Eliana S. Rivero, and: The Account: Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca’s Relación, and: The Squatter and the Don by María Amparo Ruiz de Burton (review)

EssayReviews Recovering the U. S. Hispanic Literary Heritage. Edited by Ramón Gutiérrez and Genaro Padilla. (Houston: Arte Público Press, 1993. 318 pages, $34.95/$17.95.) Reconstructing a Chicano/a Literary Heritage: Hispanic Colonial Literature of the Southwest. Edited by Maria Herrera-Sobek. (Tucson: University ofArizona Press, 1993. 213 pages, $29.95.) Infinite Divisions: An Anthology of Chicana Literature. Edited by Tey Diana Rebolledo and Eliana S. Rivero. (Tucson: University ofArizona Press, 1993. 393 pages, $40.00/$19.95.) The Account: Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca’s Relación. Annotated translation by Martin A. Favata and José B. Fernández. (Houston: Arte Público Press, 1993. 155 pages, $10.00.) The Squatter and the Don. By María Amparo Ruiz de Burton. Edited and intro­ duced by Rosaura Sánchez and Beatrice Pita. (Houston: Arte Público Press, 1992. 381 pages, $14.00.) The 1990s have seen a virtual explosion in the publication of texts—both critical and literary—written and edited by Latino/Latina scholars and writers. The variety in works seems unlimited, ranging from historical recuperation and translation of Spanish colonial texts from the West and Southwest to antholo­ gies containing previously out-of-print (or never before published) selections from nineteenth-century texts, Spanish language newspapers, oral stories, corridos, to poems and short stories by contemporary Latina/o writers. The diversity is not only historical and genre based, but includes distinctions be­ tween the various nationalities which compose the Latino population, such as Mexicano/Chicano, Cuban, and Puerto Rican. The burst in Latina/o publications isfueled partly by the general increased interest in multi-ethnic literature and partly by the efforts ofthe Recovering the U. S. Hispanic Literary Heritage project, directed by Nicolás Kanellos from the Center for U. S. Hispanic Literature at the University of Houston. The project initially came together in November 1990 at a conference where scholars of varying disciplines—such as American Literature, Spanish, History, Latin American Studies, and Ethnic Studies—converged to bring together their work and to plan this extensive program to fill the “large gap which exists in Ameri­ can literature: the Hispanic contribution.” Considering the centuries-long Spanish/Mexican influence upon the his­ 148 WesternAmerican Literature tory, culture, and literature of the West and Southwest, the conception of this project is long overdue, most welcome, and an exciting opportunity for scholar­ ship and research. Such a project could potentially reshape our concept of American literature in general, and American literature of the West and multi­ ethnic literature in particular. While Arte Público has taken the lead as the main publisher of these Hispanic literary texts, some university presses (e.g., Arizona, Wisconsin, and New Mexico) have begun to show a marked interest and commitment to publishing new works and issuing critical editions of recovered texts. The five recently published texts covered in this review demonstrate the range ofgrowth in the field of Chicano literature and anticipate the multiple directions of current scholarship. Two ofthese texts are collections of critical essays defining the parameters, intentions, and complexities of the project to recover this literary heritage. Another text is a much needed anthology of Chicana writers, focusing on the active role of women in history and in literature. The last two are new critical editions of out-of-print books. Recovering the U. S. Hispanic Literary Heritage (hereafter RHLH) is the first volume of a series by the same name published by Arte Público with Julián Olivares as general editor. This first volume does a thorough job of providing the foundation and necessary historical background for the proposed series. The editors, Ramón Gutiérrez and Genaro Padilla, have tackled a daunting task and achieved mixed success with the broad, occasionally erratic coverage of­ fered by this collection of essays. The descriptive statement on the book’s back cover sums up its macroscopic intention: to acquaint both expert and neophyte with the work that has been done to date on this literary history, to outline the agenda for recover­ ing the lost Hispanic literary heritage and to discuss the pressing questions of canonization, social class, gender and identity that must be addressed in...