Spilling the Beans in Chicanolandia

Cover

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Title Page, Copyright Page

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Contents

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pp. v-vi

Acknowledgments

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pp. vi-

I wish to acknowledge but a few of the many scholars who have supported my own work over the years: Henry Abelove, Robert Alter, Chadwick Allen, Mary Pat Brady, Herbie Lindenberger, John Christie, Susann Cokal...

Introducing a Second Wave of Chicano/a Visual/Verbal Artists

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pp. 1-

Juan Bruce-Novoa’s Chicano Authors: Inquiry by Interview, which identified a first wave of post–1960s/1970s writers, was followed by a deluge of new Chicano/a voices. Today, Chicano/a visual and verbal artists—novelists,...

Francisco X. Alarc�n

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pp. 37-51

In 1954 Francisco X. Alarcón was born in Wilmington, California. This small agricultural town would not be his final destination, however. As he grew up, he and his family moved back and forth across the U.S.–...

Alfred Arteaga

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pp. 53-68

Alfred Arteaga was born in 1950 and was raised mostly by his mother in East Los Angeles. At a young age, he discovered he had a keen ear for poetic rhythms and lyrical lines, so as soon as he had the means, he took up the guitar. He started playing in a band in his teens. In the late 1960s, Arteaga put his musical career on the back burner to turn...

Ricardo Bracho

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pp. 69-78

Born July 18, 1969, in Mexico City, Ricardo Bracho was swiftly transplanted to Los Angeles—the city where he would grow up, come into his Chicano sensibility, and become a successful playwright. Raised in the multi-classed and multiracial West L.A. of the...

Denise Ch�vez

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pp. 79-94

Born in 1948 in Las Cruces, New Mexico, Denise Chávez grew up swaddled in her mother’s vibrant stories of family adventures along the U.S.–Mexico border. At an early age, Chávez found herself drawn to storytelling. As a young girl, to better understand her aches...

Lucha Corpi

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pp. 95-106

Born in 1945 in J�ltipan, Mexico, Lucha Corpi grew up in a small town enveloped by rich tropical sounds. As a child she heard more than the noises of birds and animals: she heard the syncopated rhythms of people speaking Zapotec and Spanish. She was especially attentive to her...

Dagoberto Gilb

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pp. 107-118

Dagoberto Gilb was born in Los Angeles in 1950 and was raised by his Mexican single mother. In high school, he worked in an industrial laundry, in a warehouse as a shipping clerk, and as a graveyard shift janitor. During college, he worked as a stock boy and a salesman...

Jaime Hernandez (of Los Bros Hernandez)

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pp. 119-128

The Hernandez brothers, Jaime (born October 10, 1959) and Gilbert (born February 1, 1957) are from the farming community of Oxnard, California, where they were raised along with their older brother,...

Juan Felipe Herrera

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pp. 129-142

Juan Felipe Herrera was born in 1948 in a small farming town in California. Raised by parents who migrated from Chihuahua, Mexico, Herrera defi ed his farmworker destiny when, as an adolescent, he discovered a passion for music and a love of poetry....

Richard Montoya (of Culture Clash)

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pp. 143-152

Richard Montoya is one of the three performance artists who make up Culture Clash; the other two are Herbert Siguenza and Ric Salinas. Richard was born in San Diego on August 16, 1969, and raised in the Sacramento area of California. (Richard is the son of poet Jos�...

Pat Mora

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pp. 153-166

Born in 1942, Pat Mora grew up in El Paso hearing the stories told by her grandmother, her mother, and her Aunt Lobo. This storytelling matrilineage planted the seeds that would later blossom as Mora found her voice as a poet, memoirist, and children’s book author....

Cherr�e Moraga

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pp. 167-176

Cherr�e Moraga was born in Whittier, California, in 1952. She grew up in the San Gabriel Valley, learning from an early age to negotiate her bicultural experiences and biracial identity. Although her Anglo (British/Irish /French) father was present when she was growing...

Alejandro Morales

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pp. 177-186

On October 14, 1944, Alejandro Morales was born in Montebello, California. Raised by first-generation Mexican �migr�s from Guanajuato, Morales spent his childhood and teenage years in East Los Angeles. With unusual drive and scholarly aptitude, Morales made...

Michael Nava

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pp. 187-198

Michael Nava was born in 1954 in Stockton, California. His family soon moved to a barrio in Sacramento in search of employment and a better life. A precocious and sensitive child, Nava spent...

Daniel Olivas

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pp. 199-214

Daniel A. Olivas was born in Los Angeles on April 8, 1959. Along with his four siblings, Olivas was raised by fi rst-generation Mexican �migr� parents with an overwhelming sense of the importance of education. They helped drive Olivas to do well in school and eventually...

Cecile Pineda

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pp. 215-226

In 1942 Cecile Pineda was born to a Swiss-French mother and a Mexican father. As a single child growing up in Harlem with largely absent parents (the father physically and the mother emotionally), she...

Lourdes Portillo

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pp. 227-234

Born in Chihuahua, Mexico, in 1944, Lourdes Portillo moved with her parents and four siblings to Los Angeles when she was thirteen. Her father worked as a newspaper administrator in Mexico, and Portillo was exposed from an early age to stories. As one of the oldest of her siblings, Portillo soon took on the role of family interpreter in

Luis J. Rodr�guez

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pp. 235-250

Born in El Paso in 1954, Luis Rodr�guez found himself swiftly uprooted when his parents decided to move to Watts, Los Angeles, in search of a better life. By the time Rodr�guez was nine, his family...

Benjamin Alire S�enz

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pp. 251-260

Benjamin (Ben) S�enz was born on August 16, 1954, in a farming community just outside Las Cruces, New Mexico. S�enz grew up in a family of humble means; to make ends meet and feed their seven children, his mother worked as a cook and his father as a cement...

Luis Alberto Urrea

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pp. 261-276

Luis Urrea was born in Tijuana, Mexico, on August 20, 1955, and spent his early childhood there. After his father’s early death, he spent his remaining childhood and teenage years living with his mother in San Diego. Urrea learned to cope with the harsh realities of living in a San Diego...

Alfredo V�a Jr.

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pp. 277-286

In 1950 Alfredo V�a was born to a teenage mother at the edge of Phoenix, Arizona. Raised by his grandparents and by the Filipino and Mexicano migrants that made up this community, V�a learned early about the power of language and the Yaqui worldview that would allow him to...

Alma Luz Villanueva

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pp. 287-294

Alma Luz Villanueva was born on October 4, 1944, in Lompoc, California. Raised in San Francisco’s Mission District by her Yaqui maternal grandmother, Villanueva learned early of the trials and tribulations Mexican women face within a sexist and racist society...