Hecho en Tejas: An Anthology of Texas Mexican Literature / Edition 1

by Dagoberto Gilb

Overview

Once an independent nation, Texas has always been proud of its unique culture. The literature of the Lone Star State has long attracted local, regional, and national audiences and critics, yet the state's Mexican American voices have yet to receive the attention they deserve.

Hecho en Tejas is a historic anthology that establishes the canon of Mexican American literature in Texas. With close to one hundred selections chosen, the book reaches back to the sixteenth-century exploration narrative of Texas's first Spanish-speaking writer, Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca. It features prose by Américo Paredes and Jovita Gonzalez, Rolando Hinojosa and Tomás Rivera, Estela Trambley Portillo, and Sandra Cisneros. Among the poets included in the anthology are Ricardo Sánchez, Carmen Tafolla, Angela de Hoyos, and Abelardo "Lalo" Delgado. Hecho en Tejas also includes corridos from the turn of the century and verses sung by music legends such as Lydia Mendoza and Santiago Jimenez, Sr., Freddy Fender, and Selena. In addition to these established names, already known across the United States, Hecho en Tejas introduces such younger writers as Christine Granados, Erasmo Guerra, and Tonantzin Canestaro-Garcia, the famous Tejano authors of tomorrow.

In assembling this canonic reader, Dagoberto Gilb has created more than an anthology. Read cover to cover, Hecho en Tejas becomes not only a literary showcase, but also a cultural and historical narrative both for those familiar with Texas Mexicans and for outsiders. Hecho en Tejas is a mosaic portrait of the community, the land and its history, its people's sorrows and joys, anger and humor and pride, what has been assimilated and what will not be.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826341266
Publisher:	University of New Mexico Press
Publication date:	04/30/2008
Series:	Southwestern Writers Collection
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	544
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Dagoberto Gilb spent sixteen years working as a construction worker, twelve as a highrise carpenter with the United Brotherhood of Carpenters. He is the author of The Magic of Blood (University of New Mexico Press), which won the 1994 PEN/Hemingway Award and was a PEN/Faulkner finalist, The Last Known Residence of Mickey Acua, Woodcuts of Women, and Gritos, which was a finalist for the National Books Critics Circle Award. He has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Whiting Writers' Award. His work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Threepenny Review, Harper's, and The Best American Essays. His latest novel, The Flowers, is due out at the end of the year. Born in Los Angeles, he made his home for many years in El Paso and now lives in Austin, Texas.

Editorial Reviews

.,."breaks new ground on the old battlefields of race, culture, language, and genre."

.,."[an] extraordinary book of Texas-Mexican writings...There is an absence in these pages of the pretentious experimentation for its own sake that controls much of American poetry and fiction today."

.,."[a] handsome volume...a wide, inclusive and nonjudgmental view of a peculiarly Texas cultural phenomenon with a long history... One could expect that a book like this would open the gates to an increasing and continuous flood of Tejano writing."

.,."Gilb's anthology invitingly and officially allows us "all" to join him as we go 'Onward y adelante!' It's about time."

"Hecho en Tejas" at last makes the convincing case that the body of works written by Texans of Mexican descent is neither incidental nor peripheral to Texas literature. This is a masterwork of Texas literature that belongs to all of Texas."

"A prolific and accomplished writer, Gilb presages this unique, lively collection with a unique, jaunty introduction—a fine example of the blend of gravity and levity in Texas Mexican literature...One finds familiar texts and voices, delightful surprising inclusions, and recent voices...Highly recommended."

"Gilb's anthology boasts a list of truly remakable authors—not just 'Mexican-American' authors but 'authors' without the minority label."

"This anthology shatters stereotypes, offers insightful historical and cultural reflections and showcases Tejano writers, some very much alive and mostly of the 20th century."

.,."the wealth of information, the style and degree of importance placed on each sample of writing, photography, and artistic images found in ["Hecho en Tejas"] serves as priceless treasure to be consumed within its own treasure chest...["Hecho en Tejas"] is here to stay, hopefully like a seed planted in the feritle minds of its readers."

From the Publisher