Latino Literature: Poetry, Drama, and Fiction

Latino literature draws from three major sources: the world of Aztlán, the mythical homeland of the Aztecs prior to Cortez; the Spanish heritage of the national homelands of the writers; and the intersection of these two with Anglo culture. These influences create persistent themes, the most common of which are social protest and exploitation; the migratory experience; self-exploration or self-definition, including the exploration of myths and legends; and life in the barrio (the traditional Latino district of the city). Alongside these broad, shared themes, Latino literature also reflects the distinct immigration experiences of discrete groups.
Latinos are a microcosm: a sum of heterogeneous parts that form a whole. The term “Latino” (as we use it) encompasses all citizens of the United States whose heritage is Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central American, and South American, as well as descendents of those who became U.S. citizens when Mexico reluctantly gave up fifty per cent of its territories at the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848.
Mexican American prose tends to reflect social themes, given the migratory pattern of mostly agricultural workers with minimal formal education. The wave of Cuban immigration after the Cuban Revolution in 1959 brings the nostalgic voice of an educated middle class. Nuyoricans, the large contingent of Puerto Rican immigrants in New York, add to the mix their verve and creativity, freely using a mixture of English and Spanish. Salvadorans, Nicaraguans, Dominicans, and other Central and South American immigrants write about the social upheaval in their countries.
CONTENT OF THE COLLECTION
The majority of Latino Literature is in English, with selected works of particular importance (approximately 25% of the collection) presented in Spanish. The three major components deliver approximately 200 novels and many hundreds of short stories; 20,000 pages of poetry; and more than 450 plays. Authors such as Rudolfo Anaya, Cherrie Moraga, Carlos Morton, Alurista, Virgil Suarez, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Ivan Acosta, Oscar Zeta Acosta, Rolando Hinojosa, Tato Laviera, Lucha Corpi, Luis Valdez, and others are included, along with many others.
The collection begins with the works of those in the Southwest who became citizens of the United States in 1850, covering the body of early Chicano writers who began to create a distinctive literature in the early 19th century, such as Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton, Maria Cristina Mena, Josefina Niggli and Daniel Venegas. Much of this work has long been out of print and unavailable. The collection includes major writers from the Chicano Renaissance and current writers as well. The works of some Teatros created in the late '60s and early '70s are targeted for inclusion, such as El Teatro Campesino (The Farm Workers Theater) and El Teatro de la Esperanza.
Social historians will find much of value in Latino Literature. The works of Salvadorans, Nicaraguans, Dominicans, and other Central and South American writers address the social upheaval in their countries. Cubans write of exile. Chicanos write of the social oppression they experience and their efforts to gain political and economic advancement.
ALEXANDER STREET’S SEMANTIC INDEXING™ AND WORD FREQUENCY ANALYSIS
Unique methods of indexing provide a host of new ways to find, view, and analyze the material. Authors are indexed for national heritage, gender, birth and death dates, literary movement, occupation, and more. Additional subject headings make it possible to identify material dealing with family life, gender issues, experiences of discrimination, political struggles, and hundreds of other thesaurus terms created for this project.
Semantic Indexing allows the user easily to find answers to questions that otherwise are impossible to ask in an electronic database:
Show me the novels of Chicano women authors who were born in California.
Show me all drama written between 1940 and 1970 that mentions farm*.
Show me all the works of Cuban Americans who immigrated in the 1980s.
Find monologues for men in plays by writers of Mexican descent.
Find all mention of homeland in the literature.
Using a powerful Word Frequency Analysis tool, users can determine how many times Cuban authors use island or homeland versus Puerto Rican authors, or when certain Spanglish words were first used.
EDITORIAL SELECTION
Bibliographies used include:
Chicano Perspectives in Literature: A Critical and Annotated Bibliography, Francisco A. Lomelí, Donaldo W. Urioste.
U.S. Latino Literature: An Essay and Annotated Bibliography, Marc Zimmerman.
Latinos in English: A Selected Bibliography of Latino Fiction Writers of the United States, Harold Augenbraum, Hilda Mundo-Lopez, Ilan Stavans, Terry Quinn.
A Current Bibliography of Chicano Literature: Creative and Critical Writings Through 1984, Roberto G. Trujillo and Andres Rodriguez.
American Ethnic Literatures: An Annotated Bibliography, David R. Peck.
Dictionary of Literary Biography: Chicano Literature, first, second and third series.
Breaking Boundaries: Latina Writing and Critical Readings, Asuncion Horno-Delgado, Eliana Ortega, Nina M. Scott, and Nancy Saporta Sternbach.
The members of our scholarly editorial board, which includes Jorge Huerta (University of California at San Diego), Virgil Suarez (Florida State University), Judith Ortiz Cofer (University of Georgia), and Yolanda Retter Vargas (University of California at Los Angeles), have helped in the selection of the content. We have been careful to have various groups represented on the board and in the writings. Approximately 25% of the database consists of items that have never been published before.
PUBLICATION DETAILS
Latino Literature is available on the Web, either through one-time purchase of perpetual rights or through annual subscription. The collection contains more than 100,000 pages of poetry, and fiction, with more than 450 plays, and selected associated images.
Other Alexander Street titles in Diversity Literature and Postcolonial Studies are available now and cross-searchable in Alexander Street Literature.
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