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BOOK OF THE MONTH: ENTRE GUADALUPE Y MALINCHE: TEJANAS IN LITERATURE AND ART, EDITED BY INES HERNANDEZ-AVILA AND NORMA ELIA CANTU

   
  
University of Texas Press

It’s Women’s History Month and The Latina Book Club begins its celebration with a new hot-off-the-press anthology—ENTRE GUADALUPE Y MALINCHE: TEJANAS IN LITERATURE AND ART—edited by two leading experts in Chicana and Mexican feminism, Inés Hernández-Ávila and Norma Elia Cantú.

This is a unique collection of memoirs, poetry, essays and artwork from artists such as Carmen Lomas Garza, Kathy Varga and Santa Barraza. Contributors include writers such as Celeste De Luna, Maria Limon, Laura M. Lopez, Pat Mora, Ire’ne Lara Silva, Carmen Tafolla and Terry Ybañnez.  Most of the pieces are in English, but a few are in Spanish with translations. The writers and artists discuss everything from family to friends to dreams to identity to community to women rights. Readers will find this a powerful, passionate and (sometimes) painful collection. Happy Reading.



BOOK SUMMARY:  Mexican and Mexican American women have written about Texas and their lives in the state since colonial times. Edited by fellow Tejanas Inés Hernández-Ávila and Norma Elia Cantú, Entre Guadalupe y Malinche gathers, for the first time, a representative body of work about the lives and experiences of women who identify as Tejanas in both the literary and visual arts.

The writings of more than fifty authors and the artwork of eight artists manifest the nuanced complexity of what it means to be Tejana and how this identity offers alternative perspectives to contemporary notions of Chicana identity, community, and culture. Considering Texas-Mexican women and their identity formations, subjectivities, and location on the longest border between Mexico and any of the southwestern states acknowledges the profound influence that land and history have on a people and a community, and how Tejana creative traditions have been shaped by historical, geographical, cultural, linguistic, social, and political forces. The collection attests to the rooted presence of the original indigenous peoples of the land now known as Tejas, as well as a strong Chicana/Mexicana feminism that has its precursors in Tejana history itself.


ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Inés Hernández-Ávila is a professor of Native American studies at the University of California, Davis. She is one of the founders of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association.

Norma Elia Cantú is a professor of Latina/ Latino Studies and English at the University of Missouri in Kansas City. She is the founder of the Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa and cofounder of CantoMundo, a place for Latin@ poets and poetry.  



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