Enabling Aztlán: Arturo Islas Jr., Disability, and Chicano Cultural Nationalism

Drawing from disability theory and Chicana/o feminist and queer theory, this essay argues that the novels The Rain God and Migrant Souls by Arturo Islas Jr. produce a vision of Chicana/o community that circumvents the exclusions on which cultural nationalisms are often predicated. Even as both betray uneasiness with Chicano nationalism, they embrace the drive toward community that lies at the core of nationalist impulses. Moreover, their vision of community finds expression through images of disability. The novels therefore provide an opportunity to contemplate how disability might modify and expand the construction of concepts like nation, family, and community.