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ag radecimientos This book is the product of several years of research aimed at establishing intercultural connections among three literatures and cultures. The immediate time period on which it focuses is 1965 to 1973, eight crucial years in the historical evolution of modern Puerto Rican, African American, and Chicano literature. I look back at these literatures from the perspective of the events that transpired during the past thirty years and in the belief that to understand the historical evolution of Puerto Rican, African American, and Chicano literatures and cultures in the United States, it is crucial to study them in relation to each other and to U.S. ethnic white cultures as well. Every book emerges out of collective effort and support. This one is no different. Just as the literatures and cultures I am examining did not develop as discrete units, so this book was not conceived or written in isolation. I received sustained encouragement and support from my colleagues at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), my intellectual home for twenty-five years where I taught and researched Chicano and Chicana literature. The germinal form of this book probably took place in the classroom, with my undergraduate students. My two-quarter stay at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), Humanities Research Center allowed me time to delve into the topic more deeply. There I had the opportunity to share my ideas with scholars from other University of California campuses. In ways I could not know then, my discussions with Jeffrey Belnap, Karen Christian, Raúl Fernández, Katherine Kinney, Shirley G. Lim, George Lipsitz, and Vince Raphael shaped the intellectual direction of my book. They directed me to useful sources and offered me exciting ideas. I deeply appreciate the generous sharing of their time, knowledge, and expertise. The University of California awarded me a President’s Research Fellowship in 1992–1993 that afforded me valuable release time to continue x “Shakin’ Up” Race and Gender the research I began at UCI. I thank the UCSD Humanities Research Center for a grant to advance the writing of the book. The Academic Senate at UCSD provided funding to prepare my book manuscript for final submission to the University of Texas Press. I am grateful to Provost Gabriele Wienhausen for the opportunity to contribute to the founding of Sixth College at UCSD. I also thank Provost Cecil Lytle at UCSD for the opportunity to serve and contribute to the Preuss Charter School. It is my hope that strong leaders will emerge from Preuss to lead future generations. All the material in this book, with the exception of chapter 2, is published here for the first time. Chapter 2 is a revision of “La Malinche at the Intersection: Race and Gender in Piri Thomas’sDown These Mean Streets,” published in PMLA in January 1998. It is reprinted here by permission of the Modern Language Association of America. I thank all my undergraduate students for keeping me rooted in the importance of teaching, itself an intercultural experience. Their questions , curiosity, and fresh responses to the texts we studied in class taught me more than they will ever know. Ed Avila, Jo Brinkman, Dolores C de Baca, Lillian Carrazco, Mai Nasif, Rachel Pimental, George Ramírez, and Linda Yaron were especially important in my exploration of the ideas presented here. I am indebted to my graduate students who shared ideas with me about teaching and subject matter: Adrian Arancibia, Juli Barry, Jewell Castro, Yu-Fang Cho, Norienne Fauth, Carlton Floyd, Martha Gonzáles, Jason Homer, Hellen Lee, Rubén Murillo, Elva Salinas, Gregory Stephens, and Filemon Zamora-Suchilt. My thanks to Hellen Lee and Jake Mattox, also a doctoral candidate at UCSD, for their help in the last stages of the computer preparation of the manuscript and for being meticulous and engaging editors in both form and content. The friendship and support of my colleagues in the Spanish section of the Department of Literature at UCSD—Carlos Blanco, Jaime Concha , Susan Kirkpatrick, Misha Kokotovich, Jorge Mariscal, Max Parra, and Rosaura Sánchez—has been priceless. I am also grateful for the support of Linda Brodkey, Charles Chamberlain, Steve Cox, Michael Davidson , Stephanie Jed, Todd Kontje, Fred Randel, Kathryn Shevelow, Nicole Tonkovich, Don Wayne, Donald Wesling, and Ana Celia Zentella, who have been outstanding colleagues. Carlos and Iris Blanco have a special place in my heart for making it possible for me to come to UCSD as a graduate student in 1970. I owe...

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