In This Issue

Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies In This Issue Response to our first issue has been overwhelmingly positive. We are pleased that our journal seems to respond to the needs of scholars whose work charts innovative and alternative paths. We believe that this issue of the Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies will add to the field. We have added to our array of features in an attempt to make our publication more responsive to the changes taking place in our discipline . Our web page is now a point of contact at which readers and authors can continue the debate about issues raised in our pages and where we can provide an open forum for a wider-ranging debate about Cultural Studies in the Hispanic world in general. We also hope to make our web page a convenient place for finding the most up-to-date information and links to other sites for those with an interest in Cultural Studies. Visit our site at http://gg.russian.arizona.edu/arizonajournalofhispaniccultural studies/home.htm. If a common theme links the essays in our second volume it is identity. Perhaps no other term is more related to the way Cultural Studies is helping to reread Hispanism and our relationship to the world at large. George Mariscal opens this issue with a look at Spain's position in race theory and how it relates to recent debates on English-only policies in the United States. Exploring similar issues is Arturo J. Aldama, who contributes to the field of border studies by exploring the relationship between discourse, violence and the body as framed in the global contexts of colonialism and neocolonialism, focusing specifically on how these circuitries of power affect ChÃ-canos. David K. Herzberger studies changes in the representation of identity through a reading of three novels by Antonio Muñoz Molina, one of Spain's most widely-read contemporary writers. He argues that the transition to democracy after the fall of dictatorship in Spain with the death of Francisco Franco raised new questions about what it means to be Spanish. Beatriz Celaya analyzes the construction of lesbian identity as it is played out in three Spanish magazines . Joseba Gabilondo tackles the issue of national identity within the Spanish state in his study of how recent Basque fiction presents a version of Basque identity. Daniel Chavez's essay offers an interpretation of the popular resistance movement El Barzón in Mexico. In an increasingly global economy new alliances are being formed across class lines, with ties symbolically strengthened by traditional Mexican cultural expressions such as the corrido to perform acts of civil disobedience. Rosalia Cornejo-Parriego s article ties together the discourses of identity and sick- Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies ness in the novels of the Spanish author Juan Goytisolo, situating the relationship between the two on both the individual and national levels. Javier Escudero studies the recent transformation of Spanish culture in the work of two important cultural figures: the novelist Rosa Montero and the filmmaker Pedro Almodovar, whose work reflects the transformation of urban identity in Madrid in the 1980s known as h movida. The Catalan novelist Montserrat Roig is the subject of Akiko Tsuchiyas study of the writing of history in Catalan narrative. We are privileged to include a contribution by Henry A. Giroux in this issue. He has published extensively on the possibilities of teaching students at all levels—from grade to graduate school—to be critical thinkers . Most recent in his long list of publications are books such as Border Crossings: Cultural Workers and the Politics of Education (1992), Counternarratives: Cultural Studies and Critical Pedagogies in Postmodern Spaces (1996) and Pedagogy and the Politics of Hope: Theory, Culture, and Schooling (1997). In his article in this issue he discusses the causes and implications of the collapsing spheres of entertainment and formal education , focusing specifically on the Walt Disney Corporation's growing interest in schools as profit-making ventures. We hope that his contribution will encourage others to share their pedagogical perspectives on Cultural Studies with our readers in future issues. We are also pleased to be able to include in this issue interviews with two writers...