Hispanic Immigrant Literature: El sueño del retorno (review)

Nicolás Kanellos, an outstanding and prolific scholar, provides an insightful study of the development and characteristics of Hispanic immigrant literature written in both English and Spanish. Hispanic Immigrant Literature: El sueño del retorno contends that Spanish-language immigrant narratives often contain more historical authenticity than the English-language ethnic autobiographies written by the children of immigrants. The book supports this claim by providing instances in which Spanish-language immigrant novels more accurately present the evils of American society such as oppression of the working class, racial discrimination, the underworld and the underclass cultures, and a capitalism that erodes Hispanic identity. According to Kanellos, by presenting these evils, Spanish-language immigrant literature opposes and deconstructs the myth of the American Dream, which permeates in English-language ethnic autobiography. The reader will find delineated in the book's introduction the ethos and pattern characteristic of literature of immigration.

The first chapter outlines specific traits in literature generated by Hispanics in the United States. The thesis of this first chapter is that US Hispanic literature has always been a transnational phenomenon, constructing more than one national identity, at times deconstructing and rejecting national identities, but having in perspective the land of origin and the land of reception. This chapter can be criticized, however, for presenting only three kinds of US Hispanic cultures—namely, the native, the immigrant, and the exile cultures—with a somewhat rigid characterization per culture delineated in the chapter. Perhaps a clearer provision for exceptions to this categorization could be a welcome addition to this chapter.

The second chapter is a sixteen-page narrative on the evolution of Hispanic immigrant literature, while the third chapter analyzes diverse themes that this literature offers. The second chapter provides a wealth of historical reference information for scholars interested in this genre; the chapter concludes by predicting that the literature of immigration will continue in newspapers, Spanish language publishing houses, and even in oral form through Latino music. The third chapter examines themes such as the dreamed return home, cultural hybridity in a foreign nation, and the conflicts of feeling culturally and geographically deterritorialized by financial needs.

In the fourth chapter, Kanellos examines the idea of nation in a state of diaspora, an idealized notion of nation found in this literature that eliminates abuse and exploitation and includes better education and empowerment of the mestizo people. The chapter argues that in some literature of immigration, American and Mexican cultures embrace each other in a state of hybridity that becomes a part of the immigrant entity while being set within a multicultural society. Conversely, the chapter studies how other literature of immigration promotes the preservation of an original national culture while identifying itself with American national myths. Some immigrant literature analyzed in chapter 4 suggests that immigrants are able to maintain their culture while at the same time assimilating the new one of the host country.

Chapter 5 highlights the militancy of women during periods of conflict in Mexico, women as political exile writers presenting ideas from the southwest, particularly through the means of essays. This chapter provides a needed exposition of Hispanic people who, through their written activism, contributed to the social changes that shaped America during the first half of the twentieth century, particularly women's right to vote, the right of migrant women to be educated, and the role of women in the home and the society at large.

The sixth chapter presents how the crónica served as a main reading genre among Hispanic immigrants and was used to battle American culture and Protestantism with humor and burlesque characters. A large portion of this chapter focuses on the writings of Julio Arce. Kanellos presents Arce's writings as a reaction to the feminist movement and as a defense of traditional gendered family structures. Although the book mentions that this defense often has an opposite effect when presenting the rights of male dominance in the home, particularly on the husband...