LITR 4332: American Minority Literature

Sample Student Final Exam Answers 2005

Research Report

The origins of Mexican American Literature

            I had begun my research looking for information on Native American Literature but was not able to find what I was looking for, or rather, was not happy with what I found, so instead, I decided to stick to my roots and discover what it was that inspired Mexican American Literature in the first place and what message their literature gives to those reading it. In doing my research, I was pleased to find information on how Mexican American Literature first originated.   

As Raymund A. Paredes from the University of California states, “The literary folklore of the Mexican-American, four hundred years in the making, is extensive, and comprises not only drama, legends, and songs, but such elements as tales and proverbs.” Mexican American writers built their stories upon Mexican folklores and legends in attempts to maintain their cultural roots and use these legends as the building blocks for their most of their material even today. Most of the Mexican American literature before the 1900’s was, obviously, in Spanish and contained Mexican history and culture as a way to preserve their customs and traditions.  Some of the earliest works discovered were traveling narratives such as those of Cabeza de Vaca and Castañeda which first appeared in the early colonial period.   Paredes goes on to give a lengthy and detailed explanation of the history of Mexican American Literature which is very informative and interesting but too long to get into for the purpose of this essay. 

            “Literary forms commonly produced in frontier cultures predominate: personal and historical narratives which sought to capture the epic experiences of conquest and settlement; and, of course, poetry of various types, frequently religious and occasional” (Paredes).    Much of the early Mexican American Literature was written in the form of corridos which are narrative ballads that often appear in stanzas of four eight-syllable lines and deal with themes of struggle and adventure. “Still, corridos, even more than other folklore genres, have played a critical role in the establishment of a Mexican-American literary tradition in a time when conventional literary works were relatively scarce” (Paredes).  Mexican American literature began to undergo great changes in the 1920’s when writers finally yielded themselves to the Anglo way of life and began to write in English. Many writers actually preferred English over Spanish but faced difficulties with other Spanish speakers because of the belief that one was abandoning his culture by not speaking the native tongue and that the culture would crumble and soon disappear with Mexican Americans speaking English.  One problem with writing everything in Spanish was the readability by those of other cultures which made Mexican American literature limited to Spanish speakers. 

            “A landmark in Mexican-American literary history was reached in 1945 with the publication of Josephina Niggli's Mexican Village, an unduly neglected work consisting of ten related stories that constitute a literary chronicle of Hidalgo, a town in the northern state of Nuevo Leon” (Paredes).  The author of this book attempts to impart a piece of the culture and a sense of what it is like to be a Mexican American to the reader.  Mexican American literature has continued to change over the years and is still improving.  As a bilingual teacher, it is important to have literature for children written by Mexican American authors.  Sadly enough, in the 1980’s and 1990’s, there were only one to three Mexican American books being published a year for children.  This amounted to 1% of the 5,000 books that were being published by other major authors which led to more change in the 1990’s.  The realization that Mexican American literature was dying caused more children’s books to be published with Mexican American themes by small publishing houses.  There are many suggestions for teachers on how to incorporate the Mexican American culture into literature.  These suggestions and ideas are listed in the article written by Murray.

            It is obvious that Mexican Americans suffered much because of their conflicts with the Native Americans and then with the Anglos which is apparent in their narratives and poetry.  The themes are mostly about a struggle for power and land against white men.  The research was beneficial for me as a teacher because I was able to read about the history of Mexican Americans and am now more informed as to why they write the way they do and also why their literature is so scarce and hard to get a hold of. 

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