Donny Leveston

What are Some Differences in African American and Mexican American Literatures?

            Throughout the semester our class has reviewed several texts that show a connection between African American and Mexican American Literatures.  One of the main connections amongst these groups, according to Mary Louise Pratt, is that they must meet the dominant culture group (Anglo-Americans) within the “contact zone.”  And, as Blau and Brown state, “African Americans may not be so easy to adapt to the dominant culture,” as oppose to Mexican Americans.  This essay will focus on some of the differences amongst these two groups and how they present their literature and their differing ideologies in relation to the dominant culture.

            Upon entering the “contact zone,” African Americans may withdraw from adopting the ideas of the dominant culture because they are not bound by the “social contract,” that is, they did not volunteer to come over to America in the first place, therefore the rules of immigration does not apply to them.  On the other hand, Mexican Americans did choose to come to America, at least modern America, thus they are bound by this “social contract.”  Subsequently, these two groups’ literatures express varying ideas of what is “American” or not?  For the African American, it is the minority experience; for the Mexican American, it is the immigrant experience.  With the ideas of these experiences in mind, it is clear that the “contact zone” for these two groups is totally different from each other.   

African American writers usually focus their literature on the oppressive state of African Americans within the dominant culture of America through slave narratives, folk tales, and, litanies that usually call for peace and equality.  For example, unlike Mexican-Americans, African Americans often face tyrannical power of the dominant culture because Blacks are the minority, therefore, most black literature does not glorify the idea of the “American Dream,” but, it highlights the idea of the “American Nightmare.”  In addition, alterity, alien to cultural orientation, allows Blacks to remain true to their own diverse culture as oppose to assimilating to the dominant culture, which in some instances may be oppressive in itself.  In contrast, “African Americans may assimilate through self-assertion, and on no other terms,” according to Winfried Siemerling (329).  This self-assertion through African American literature is not in line with the dominate culture; it aligns itself with the historicity of African Americans.    

            Mexican American literature is different from African American literature because Mexican Americans are considered immigrants, at least by our course’s description of immigrants.  Mexican American literature usually focuses on the “American Dream” idea in contrast to the “American Nightmare” of African Americans.  As a result, Mexican American literature tends to lean towards the idea of assimilating to the dominant culture because of the expectations the “American Dream” inculcates in the Mexican American.  In a recent interview with the scholar Rosalva Martinez de Jordan, who holds a Master’s of Art in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, I asked her, “What is the biggest difference between African American and Mexican American literatures?”  She replied, “Mexican American literature tends to focus on economic opportunity and conformity to the American idea of ‘success,’ whereas African American literature often depicts negative social and economic conditions of African Americans.”  Mexican American literature reflects the ideas of “Americanism,” more so, than African American literature, mainly because of assimilation to the dominant culture.               

            Our course has shown that African American and Mexican American literatures are analogous because they center around the idea of the “contact zone;” they are also divergent because they move in different directions within the “contact zone.”  For example, African American literature typically does not include the “melting pot” or “social contract,” whereas Mexican American literature does.  African American literature focuses more on the oppressive nature of the dominant culture towards African Americans, unlike Mexican American literature that focuses on economic advancement and assimilation.      

Work Cited

Winfried, Siemerling.  “W.E.B. Du Bois, Hegel, and the Staging of Alterity.”  Callaloo, Vol. 24, No. 1. (Winter 2001), pp. 325-33.  JSTOR: W.I. Dykes Library: Houston, Texas.  <http://www.jstor.org/browse>. 22 April 2006.