This collection by Teresa Palomo Acosta--poet, historian, author, and
activist--spans three decades of her writing, from 1988 through 2018.
The collection is divided into four parts: poems, essays, a children's
story, and plays. Each work addresses cultural, historical, political,
and gender realities that she experienced from her childhood to the
present.
The plays, set in the Central Texas Blackland Prairies where Acosta was
raised, provide a unique Latina vision of memory, identity, and
experience and are a vital contribution to Chicana feminist thought. The
essays focus on Acosta's literary heroes Jovita González de Mireles,
Sara Estela Ramírez, and Elena Zamora O'Shea, important writers who
contributed significantly to Tejana literature and to Texas letters. The
children's story, "Colchas, Colchitas," is based on Acosta's most
notable poem, "My Mother Pieced Quilts," which pays homage to her mother
and the many women of her generation who employed needles and thread,
creating both practical and symbolic artifacts.
This collection is a creative and, indeed, essential expansion of
boundaries for what we think of as history, offering a unique and
compelling look into the lived experiences and interior contemplations
of a Texas artist well worth knowing. Readers will increase their
understanding of Tejana experience in the late twentieth and early
twenty-first centuries. Tejanaland promises to become an important
addition to the cultural record, informing historical perspectives on
the experiences of Tejana women and contributing significantly to the
existing body of work from Tejana writers.
