Part of the American Literatures Initiative Series
Chicano Nations argues that the transnationalism that is central to
Chicano identity originated in the global, postcolonial moment at the
turn of the nineteenth century rather than as an effect of contemporary
economic conditions, which began in the mid nineteenth century and
primarily affected the laboring classes. The Spanish empire then began
to implode, and colonists in the "new world" debated the national
contours of the viceroyalties. This is where Marissa K. López locates
the origins of Chicano literature, which is now and always has been
"postnational," encompassing the wealthy, the poor, the white, and the
mestizo. Tracing its long history and the diversity of subject positions
it encompasses, Chicano Nations explores the shifting literary forms
authors have used to write the nation from the nineteenth to the
twenty-first centuries.
López argues that while national and global tensions lie at the
historical heart of Chicana/o narratives of the nation, there should be
alternative ways to imagine the significance of Chicano literature other
than as a reflection of national identity. In a nuanced analysis, the
book provides a way to think of early writers as a meaningful part of
Chicano literary history, and, in looking at the nation, rather than the
particularities of identity, as that which connects Chicano literature
over time, it engages the emerging hemispheric scholarship on U.S.
literature.
