LITR 5731: Seminar in
American Multicultural Literature: Minority
Sample Student Final Exam Submission,
Gordon Lewis
Minority Literature – Personal Reflection
Excitement. For a student, it is exciting to be mentally stimulated by a subject and begin to realize that time restrictions are a barrier that prevents you from learning all you want to learn. Minority Literature and its sister class, Immigrant Literature, redefined for me the subject of American Literature as it became clear to me that as the country itself is a melting pot of diverse ethnicities, so is its literature. The canon of literature that is part of the traditional school curriculum is heavily weighted in favor of white male authors and omits much of the literature that is examined in these courses. Even when the literature of minorities is utilized, frequently they are not identified as immigrant or minority authors which is important information for developing a student’s comprehension of the contributions of various ethnic groups to the fabric of our nation’s literature. These courses have heightened my sensitivity to the importance of this identification.
Native American Literature, including authors and titles like Black Elk Speaks, Louise Erdrich, novelist and poet, Chrystos, Leslie Marmon Silko, Samson Occom, and the origin stories and legends of the American Indians, should be the starting point for American Literature classes in that historically, the native American is the first known inhabitant of the Americas and it is appropriate that his literature be examined first. An interesting comparison presented in both classes was the comparison between the Hebrew origin stories, widely taught in this country in both Jewish and Christian traditions, and the variety of origin stories of the American Indians.
In the traditional canon, attention is paid to the Pilgrims and John Smith of Virginia, but little attention is expended on Charleston where much of the slave trade was centered and on stories relating to early Spanish/Mexican literature in Florida, New Mexico, Mexico and Texas. As one example, the history of the Virgin of Guadalupe is an integral part of the Hispanic culture, and although the Hispanic population is a plurality in several states, including Texas and California, this story is omitted from the traditional canon of literature. This omission certainly appears to be an example of Objective 2 in this course relating to the prejudice in western civilization regarding the color code. The literature of white men in the northeast who are immigrants from Northern European countries appears to be favored in the canon.
Nowhere is the color code more noticeable than in the arena of slave narratives. Phillis Wheatly, Olaudah Equiano, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Jacobs make such a substantial contribution to the understanding of the American Black minority that their writings should be incorporated into the traditional literature canon. Indeed, these readings led me to pursue additional study into the Harlem Renaissance literature and I incorporated the entire subject area into my high school teaching. I would be remiss if I did not mention Virginia Hamilton’s, The People Could Fly, as an interesting legend that comprises part of the culture of the slave narrative. This legend was introduced in the Minority Lit course.
The manner in which I shoe horned this additional material into the curriculum last year was by introducing the material in a quick summary survey and then offering the topics as choices for a mandatory research paper. The response from students was outstanding. I had students enthusiastically participating in the research project who had previously not participated in that type of assignment primarily because they became interested in the topic, particularly if the topic related to their ethnicity. This year, I plan to add Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou and the entire spectrum of Hispanic literature to this arena of exploration for students in my literature classes as I have become more proficient in teaching this literature from the exposure to the literature I have experienced in this class. Judging from last year’s exposure to the expanded offerings, I anticipate an even larger response to these additional opportunities to explore literature that relates to the student’s own heritage. My research project was a journal of minority literature designed to assist me in the process of identifying appropriate literature for students to utilize.
Insight. I did not want to leave this discussion of my personal reflection on this course without commenting on what I have come to perceive as a significant source of insight that is made available to students through the opportunity to peruse the writings of classmates and former students. Although it is impractical to identify all of the insights I have garnered in this manner, I would mention that among others, it was my good fortune to share classes with Carrie Arnett, Diane Palmer, Donny Leveston, Rosa Ortiz, and Cindy Goodson who enriched my life with their insights into issues we were all examining. I cannot count the number of times when I have been pleasantly surprised and enriched by an approach another student took to a question that I did not even recognize until I saw their paper, but after reading their paper, I then acknowledged the significance of their insight. This has been such an important part of the learning cycle for me that I intend to provide this feature for students of literature classes that I teach in the future. I would highly recommend these classes to any literature student.
Option 1 Mexican American Literature and Objective 3c & 4
The Mexican American – Caught Between Two Worlds
Unlike many immigrants before them, the heritage of the immigrant Mexican American is intrinsically woven into the fabric of two nations. Objective 3c, the Ambivalent Minority and Objective 4, Assimilation or Resistance, speak to the dichotomies raised by this heritage. Previous immigrant groups were separated by distance and economic limitations in terms of travel between their home country and their new nation. This is not true of the Mexican immigrant. Frequently, Mexican families are split with the father in this country earning a living for the support of his family still in Mexico and even when the entire family has emigrated, close family relationships are often maintained with family members who remain in Mexico and regular holiday and vacation trips take the American branch of the family back to visit the Mexican branch of the family. On this side of the border there has been a merger of cultures as several southwestern states including Texas and California now have a plurality of Hispanics. The merger of the two cultures is seen in food such as the development of Tex-Mex which is somehow not quite completely either Mexican or Texan but a blend that satisfies both. Traditions such as the Quinceanera have been transported to the U.S. and the closeness of the Mexican family is noticed in the American culture and has an impact on such things as parent teacher relationships. Recently a Roman Catholic Cardinal was named for the Houston, Texas region, the first Cardinal in the Southwest, which is an acknowledgement of the growth in numbers of Roman Catholics, in large part because of the immigration of Catholics from Mexico, Central and South America.
As other immigrants have done before, Mexican Americans are adding to the literature of the nation, and in the process, there has been an increase in the understanding of the culture. The ambivalence of the culture is a theme that is well developed by Rudolfo Anaya in Bless Me, Ultima. The importance of the Virgin of Guadalupe and the mother’s devout prayers at the family altar testify to the central role of Catholicism within the culture (43). This is contrasted by the inclusion of Ultima, from whom Antonio learns the ways of the curandera (42), and by the pagan legend of the story of the carp (80). The integral part the curandera continues to play in the Mexican-American culture is illustrated by another Hispanic author, Viola Canales, who writes of the visits to her childhood home of a curandera who cured both her sister of shock and helped correct a problem she had with her eyes.
Another example of the ambivalence and the assimilation/resistance conundrum is the blend of Spanish in the texts of Anaya, Canales and Cisneros. Both Antonio, in Ultima, and Sofia in Canales’s Tequila Worm come from Spanish speaking homes and are sent to English speaking schools. Anaya captures this isolation in the following words, “We struggled against the feeling of loneliness that gnawed at our souls and we overcame it; that feeling I never shared again with anyone . . . .”(59). This language ambivalence was captured by Kim Pritchard in her 2006 essay, “Cultural Wars and the Plight of the Mexican American,”
. . . I speak Spanish as well as English, I have no problem . . . switching from one language to the other. . . . the purpose of this structure is to draw attention to . . . two cultures at war. One example . . . when Cleofilas in Cisneros’ story questions the name and background of the “arroyo one crossed on the way to San Antonio” (46). In Spanish an arroyo is a dry gulch or a creek. Cleofilas learns that the original name of the arroyo was “La Gritona,” and this word translated into English means “The Shouting Woman.” . . . no one . . . seems to know the background, and honestly, “it was no concern . . . how this trickle of water received its curious name” (46). This mixture of Spanish and English is a clever method . . . to highlight the issue of ambivalence found in the character of Cleofilas. [edited]
The ambivalence in the culture is a recurring theme appearing again in Ultima by the contrast between the farmers of the mother’s Lunas family and the father’s Marez family. Cisneros visits the theme in her story, Hollering Creek, when Cleofilas has to face the stark difference between her expectation of life in Sequin, enhanced by the Television view of American life, and the reality of the life in the barrio for a newlywed married to an abusive husband.
At some point in the process of reading this literature in this class, I moved from a position of having a minimal knowledge of Hispanic literature to an appreciation of the literature where I began to look forward to opportunities to read further and learn more. I now love the literature. This exposure has enriched my life.
The importance of minority literature was summarized by the author Viola Canales in the following reflection. “. . . we don’t want to go to the Smithsonian and see exhibits about how the Indians lived. We want to keep these communities alive. The future is not just about making everybody white.”
As a literature teacher, I plan to do my part to assist in keeping minority literature alive,
