"They don't understand their own oppression": Complicating Preservation in John Rechy's The Miraculous Day of Amalia Gómez

John Rechy's 1991 novel The Miraculous Day of Amalia Gómez posits the space of urban Soutwestern barrios as locations where conflicting social relations are mediated. Primary among these conflicting relations are preservation schemes that range from Chicano Movement murals to neoliberal and transnational plans to develop urban space that result in racialized marginalization. The novel demonstrates how Chicana/os mobilize home-grown cultural affirmation and preservation projects designed to counter such marginalization. Yet Rechy takes this critique a step further by portraying how male Chicano activists and state authority figures silence and marginalize Amalia as she traverses the barrio. Placing ecocritical and Latina/o studies methodologies into dialog makes visible how Rechy critiques both sanctioned state preservation efforts and Chicana/o cultural affirmation projects in order to counter Amalia's marginalization. Rechy thus draws attention to neoliberal transnational forces that coopt ethnic preservation schemes.