Blood Lines: Myth, Indigenism, and Chicana/o Literature

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments I t is generally true that writing can be lonely; another truth is that few books are written in total isolation. I have benefited from an enormous amount of support and companionship while writing this book, which began when I was a graduate student in Austin, Texas, developed during a year at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts , and came to completion during my employment at Michigan State University. For some time now, I have pined for Texas, its sun, its warmth, its gente mexicana. I also have often missed a community at The University of Texas, which, although now dispersed, had an undeniable impact upon me. We plotted, argued, and drank at the Hole in the Wall and then danced in small, book-lined living rooms until the early morning. As members of the (sub)TEX Collective, many of us contributed to the publication of that independent newspaper in 1994–1995. Communities shift and change, as ours did, but there are people whom I will forever associate with that time: Marco Iñiguez-Alba, Gordon Banner, Manolo Callahan, Nick Evans, Rebecca Gámez, Brendan Guilfoyle, Salah D. Hassan, Luís Marentes, Pancho McFarland, Leopoldo Rodríguez, Natasha Sinutko, and Sandy Soto. Raúl Salinas and Resistencia Bookstore provided a crucial site for activism and literary culture in Austin. José E. Limón’s encouragement was significant in the early development of my work in Chicano studies as a graduate student at The University of Texas at Austin. I also want to acknowledge the important contributions of Mia Carter, Ann Cvetkovich, Martha Menchaca, and Charles Rossman. Although I still long for Texas, I have come to understand something x Blood Lines quite profound. El movimiento is alive and well . . . and it’s in Michigan. The political intelligence and sophistication of MSU MeXa-sponsored actions energizes me. The work of veteranas such as Diana Rivera and Theresa Meléndez is instructive and propelling. Diana Rivera has tirelessly built one of the best collections—if not the best—of Chicana/o Studies materials in the Midwest in the César Chávez Collection at The Michigan State University Libraries. As director of Chicano/Latino Studies at Michigan State, Theresa Meléndez’s intellectual confidence and activistand student-centered model of administrating reminds me that it is necessary to nurture relationships between Chicana/o Studies programs and off-campus communities. At MSU, I have also enjoyed significant support from Doug Noverr, the chair of my department, and from a number of other colleagues, but especially my dear friend, Maria Bruno. I also was fortunate to receive from Michigan State University an Intramural Research Grant, which provided me with a semester’s release from teaching. I am grateful to Rachana Kamtekar, Doreen Piano, Antonia Casta- ñeda, and Louis Mendoza who provided insightful and indispensable comments on the manuscript as it developed. Many thanks to Theresa May, editor-in-chief, University of Texas Press, for all her assistance, and to Sally Furgeson, who helped me immensely in preparing the manuscript for publication. At a more personal level, I want to acknowledge people in my extended family: my tías, Adelita Summerlin and Dolores (Lola) Gigee, mi tío, Reynaldo Flores, my cousin, Michelle Goss Poole, and my brothers, Mario Ricardo and Jason Eric. To my father, Richard Joseph Contreras, I owe my perseverance as it was he who raised me to know that I would be educated. My mother, Eloisa Flores, continues to pass to me lessons that deepen and complicate my understanding of the larger historical context that is Tejas. I have developed family ties to others in Michigan. I have been inspired by the Deardorff-Greens, Charlotte Deardorff and Don Green, and Ben, Tara, and Tenzin Green, whose garden and home in Lansing provide me and my family with a sanctuary. Mary Ann Martin of La Leche League of Lansing has seen me through my daughters’ infancies and toddlerhoods, all occurring during the writing of this book. Salah D. Hassan has rallied his intellectual resources, his generosity, honesty, and rigor—even when depleted by the demands of his own professional obligations and our shared family responsibilities—to be my Acknowledgments xi most motivating critic, my staunchest advocate, my loyal and trusted friend, my partner in life. Finally, I honor my daughters, Noor Feliciana and Paz Alejandra Hassan-Contreras, who have brought light and peace to my life in ways that I...