Review of a Professional Resource: Chicano/Chicana Literature

Kaup, Monika. "Rewriting North American Borders in Chicano and Chicana Narrative." Modern Language Quarterly 64(2003): 508-13.

In this article, the idea of the transformation of the Chicana role in American society is addressed. The article discusses some main points of difference in the roles of Chicana women. One role is that of the Texas Chicana, in which the woman is just over from Mexico and is not part of American culture. This woman is seen as the other and has not conformed nor does she wish to conform to the ways of life of Americans. This Chicana women chooses to hold on to her traditions and her heritage and resists assimilating to American ways of life.
Another type of woman addressed is a Chicana woman who came to America in the 1940’s after the civil rights movement had begun. These women are not in the same group as the ones who were already here because they did not have to deal with the same discriminations.
During studies of the Chicana woman in the 1970’s many scholars decided that any woman who was Chicana was the same as any other woman who was Chicana. A one-dimensional mold was put in place for all of these women to be crammed into. Kaup is in favor of this classification and argues that in order to move forward Chicano’s need to assimilate to American culture and leave their pasts behind because there is no going back. After reading this article, I realized how important it is that there be various representations of Chicana women in literature so that people can see past stereotypes. This article seemed to argue that in general, all Chicana women are the same and after reading three different texts about Chicano peoples that had Chicana women in them, I could not put all of them into one category. There are traits that might be similar between them, but like all people Chicana women are individuals and literature similar to that which follows is critical in educating and informing people about others. This type of literature provides some insight into their lives without trying to teach or promoting stereotypes.