LITR 4332 American Minority Literature UHCL Virgin of Guadalup & begin Bless Me, Ultima

historically, Virgin of Guadalupe may be connected to previous Indian fertility goddess

Can these elements of syncretism be aligned with Mexicans or Mexican American as an ambivalent identity?

(FYI, the version we're reading is one of several. The Spanish versions don't mention the Indian elements to the Virgin's appearance.)

Regardless of whether it really happened, it has survived. Therefore it meets needs of people and has a truth of its own.

Diego's hesitation at dealing with Our Lady--can this be compared to the immigrant entering a new world?

[frontier as stateless society, no protections, only strong and week, with hopes that strong are good]

my countrymen ran to me for protection against the assaults or exactions [demands for payment] of those adventurers

Syncretism, symbols, metaphors can all be means of bridging or healing difference, ambivalence.

23 Virgin’s horned moon, the moon of my mother’s people, the moon of the Lunas.

43 We all knew the story of how the Virgin had presented herself to the little Indian boy in Mexico and about the miracles she had wrought. My mother said the Virgin was the saint of our land . . . .

2 father a vaquero, even after big rancheros and tejanos came and fenced in the beautiful llano

41 “the blood of the Lunas to be quiet, for only a quiet man can learn the secrets of the earth that are necessary for planting—They are quiet like the moon—And it is the blood of the Marez to be wild, like the ocean from which they take their name, and the spaces of the llano that have become their home.”

41 She understood that as I grew up I would have to choose to be my mother’s priest or my father’s son.

Web highlight (final exams regarding American Indian literature): Starr Haun

"The origin stories, American Indian Stories and Lone Ranger all show how the Native Americans are a minority culture. They did not participate in the American Dream to become successful and prosper. In fact, many of the things that have been developed by the dominant culture have destroyed their natural way of life. The Native Americans were forced from their land onto reservations. In order to rise out of poverty they had to participate in the ways of the dominant culture. They had to start going to their schools, learning their customs, learning their creation stories, and learning how to be "civilized" peoples." [AS]

"There was no written language, which required knowledge to be passed through an oral tradition. While there are common stories, this allowed for adaptation from tribe to tribe. More importantly, said oral tradition increased bonds within the community. The elder members of the tribe were not as fast, nor as adept at gathering food, but they continued to contribute to the community through the sharing of stories. This strength of community is apparent in the stories themselves. For example, the legend of the Earth-Diver, a popular Iroquois tale of creation, involves several animals or monsters (depending on view) to help prevent the woman who will birth mankind from sinking into the underworld. These "monsters" are familiar animals, and it is finally the turtle that is successful. By using animals familiar to the environment, the story creates bonds with the land." [RL]

"The Native American narratives also share a common theme running through them. Most often, it is the theme of loss and survival, easily recognizable in the two texts studied in this course, John Neihardt's Black Elk Speaks and Sherman Alexie's The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. Although these books are from very different time periods in the history of the Native American culture, that fact only re-enforces the deep wounds that still haunt them. I believe it's important and useful for both of these books to be used [...] because they lend themselves so well to comparison/contrast of the Native experience over time. It is bitter irony that the dominant group simultaneously admires and destroys the Native American culture. In Black Elk, there is romanticizing of the Indians in some ways, but at the same time, the harsh realities of their experiences are discovered and understood. The idea of visions and Black Elk being given certain powers by the grandfathers is something that most people in the dominant group will not be able to grasp in any other way other than by romanticizing of the sacred. But the images of women and children lying butchered, "heaped and scattered along the crooked gulch" as snow fell over their bodies, creating a long white grave (270), is something that will inevitably affect every reader." [JM]

"Another example of "loss and survival" of the Native American people can be seen in Zitkala-Sa's American Indian Stories. Although her experience begins as an American Dream and her quest for an education, she soon realizes that the personal cost for her education was more than what she was willing to pay. She left her home and family to gain an education, but instead, she got humiliation and degradation. She was ridiculed by white travelers who treated her as a toy; she was disgraced when the women cut her hair. Zitkala-Sa speaks of losing her spirit during her sufferings, however, that was not completely true. Because she still had the spark of her spirit, she was able to complete her education and spent the rest of her life fighting for the rights of the Native American people." [KM]