This American Autopsy: Poems. By José Antonio Rodríguez. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2019. Volume 23 in the Chicana & Chicano Visions of the Americas Series, 76 pp. $14.95, ISBN 978-0-8061-6396-3.
Reviewed by Teresa Carrasco, Washington State University
In This American Autopsy: Poems, José Antonio Rodríguez presents readers with a poetry collection of intimate memories and moments of violence, death, dreams, and family. Readers are confronted with imagery and contemporary issues regarding immigration, state violence, murder, and capitalism. Rodríguez references events and tragedies such as the Challenger explosion, Bonnie and Clyde, Lincoln’s assassination, caged children in McAllen, TX, Gone With the Wind, Ferguson, and the police murder of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, thus constructing a tangible American autopsy. Reading through this collection of poems, this reader began to question if they were reading an autopsy, or perhaps a vivisection, with the corpse still clinging to life. There is no easy way around hard histories and painful realities of the nation-state. Yet, although the subjects Rodríguez engages and vividly portrays are intense and complex, there exists a tenderness in the delicate ways he crafts the intricate realities within each poem.
The book is divided into two sections: “morphology” and “etiology” with poems flowing from one part to the next. Written in Spanish, English translations can be found in the conclusion of the book. The poems of part two are significantly longer in verse and more intense than those in the opening pages. Here the reader encounters wet sheets, white sofas, and chrome rails as they flicker before you in the dreams Rodríguez describes. The imagery lingers long after setting the volume down. One poem in particular lingered with this reader and, not ironically, stands as representative of the larger work: “Cuando Me Besan/When They Kiss Me.” Here Rodríguez writes, “El frio que…/Se cola por entre los olanes/De las cortinas floreada/Sin orugas ni mariposas,” “The cold…/Sifts through the curtains’/Floral folds absent of/Catepillars and butterflies.” Rodríguez’s sharp images will draw you in and hold you in their gaze, as you feel the cool air wafting from this American Autopsy.
Titles were submitted to NACCS Chair for Noticias de NACCS
Land Uprising: Native Story Power and the Insurgent Horizons of Latinx Indigeneity by Simón Ventura Trujillo
Simón Ventura Trujillo (Assistant Professor, NYU English) has published his first scholarly monograph entitled Land Uprising: Native Story Power and the Insurgent Horizons of Latinx Indigeneity (University of Arizona Press, 2020). The book engages with New Mexican land grant struggles to rethink the relationship between Indigenous land reclamation and Latinx and Chicanx Indigeneities.
Special issue on the 50th anniversary of Ethnic Studies for the Ethnic Studies Review edited by Dr. Xamuel Bañales and Dr. Leece Lee-Oliver
The special issue on the 50th anniversary of Ethnic Studies for the Ethnic Studies Review, published by the University of California Press, was released in December of 2019. Co-edited by Dr. Xamuel Bañales and Dr. Leece Lee-Oliver, the special issue features over twenty essays that engage with the foundations, meanings, and/or futurity of Ethnic Studies, illustrating critical dialogues and efforts to maintain the field as a liberatory project. The journal features essays from a variety of activists, artists, and scholars engaged in Chicano/a/x-Latino/a/x Studies, including: Ysidro Macias, Jennie Luna, Malaquias Montoya, and Nelson Maldonado-Torres. To access the journal please visit https://esr.ucpress.edu/content/42/2?current-issue=y.
The Tenure-Track Process for Chicana and Latina Faculty: Experiences of Resisting and Persisting in the Academy edited by Patricia A. Perez
This anthology addresses the role of postsecondary institutional structures and policy in shaping the
tenure-track process for Chicana and Latina faculty in higher education. Major topics include the importance of early socialization, intergenerational mentorship, culturally relevant faculty programming, and institutional challenges and support structures. The aim of this volume is to highlight practical and policy implications and interventions for scholars, academics, and institutions to facilitate tenure and promotion for women faculty of color. Patricia A. Perez is Professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies at California State University, Fullerton. 20% Discount Available – enter the code FLR40 at checkout. https://www.routledge.com/The-Tenure-Track-Process-for-Chicana-and-Latina-Faculty-Experiences-of/Perez/p/book/9780367225810
Mexicanos: A History of Mexicans in the United States (3rd. Ed.) by Manuel G. Gonzalez
Responding to shifts in the political and economic experiences of Mexicans in America, this newly revised and expanded edition of Mexicanos provides a relevant and contemporary consideration of this vibrant community. Emerging from the ruins of Aztec civilization and from centuries of Spanish contact with indigenous people, Mexican culture followed the Spanish colonial frontier northward and put its distinctive mark on what became the southwestern United States. Shaped by their Indian and Spanish ancestors, deeply influenced by Catholicism, and often struggling to respond to political and economic precarity, Mexicans play an important role in US society even as the dominant Anglo culture strives to assimilate them. With new maps, updated appendices, and a new chapter providing an up-to-date consideration of the immigration debate centered on Mexican communities in the US, this new edition of Mexicanos provides a thorough and balanced contribution to understanding Mexicans’ history and their vital importance to 21st-century America.
The Movement for Reproductive Justice: Empowering Women of Color Through Social Activismby Patricia Zavella I am pleased to announce the publication of my new book, The Movement for Reproductive Justice: Empowering Women of Color Through Social Activism, which is based on ethnographic research in multiple sites. It will be published by New York University Press in May of 2020 (https://nyupress.org/9781479812707/the-movement-for-reproductive-justice/). Here is the book blurb: “Shows how reproductive justice organizations’ collaborative work across racial lines provides a compelling model for other groups to successfully influence change.
“Patricia Zavella experienced first-hand the trials and judgments imposed on working professional mothers: her commitment to academia was questioned because of her pregnancy; she was shamed for having children while ‘too young;’ and when she finally achieved a tenure track position in 1983, she felt out of place as one of the few female faculty members with children.
These experiences sparked Zavella’s interest in the movement for reproductive justice. In this book, she draws on five years of ethnographic research to explore collaborations among women of color engaged in activism on behalf of reproductive justice. Many organizations focused on reproductive justice activism are racially specific, such as the California Latinas for Reproductive Justice or Black Women for Wellness. Yet Zavella documents how many of these organizations have built cross-sector coalitions, sharing resources and supporting each other through different campaigns or struggles. While the coalitions are often regional—or even national—these organizations have specific constituencies diverse by race, sexual identities, legal status, or ethnicity, presenting unique challenges and opportunities for the women involved.
Zavella argues that these organizations provide a compelling model for negotiating across differences within constituencies. In the context of the “war” on women’s reproductive rights and its disproportionate effect on women of color, The Movement for ReproductiveJustice demonstrates that a truly intersectional movement built on grassroots organizing, culture shift work, and policy advocacy for women’s human rights can offer visions of strength, resiliency, and dignity for all.”
Patricia Zavella is Professor Emerita, Latin American & Latino Studies Department, at University of California, Santa Cruz.
Cabañuelas by Norma Elia Cantú
Nena leaves Laredo, Texas, and moves to Madrid, Spain, to research the historical roots of traditional fiestas in Laredo. Immersing herself in post-Franco Spain and its rich history, its food, music, and fiestas, Nena finds herself falling for Paco, a Spaniard who works in publishing. Nena’s research and experiences teach her about who she is, where she comes from, and what is important to her, but as her work comes to a close, Nena must decide where she can best be true to her entire self: in Spain with Paco or in Laredo, her home, where her job and family await her return.
Meditación Fronteriza: Poems of Love, Life, and Labor by Norma Elia Cantú
The poems are a celebration of culture, tradition, and creativity that navigates themes of love, solidarity, and political transformation. Deeply personal yet warmly relatable, these poems flow from Spanish to English gracefully. With Gloria Anzaldúa’s foundational work as an inspiration, Meditación Fronteriza unveils unique images that provide nuance and depth to the narrative of the borderlands.
meXicana Fashion: Politics, Self-Adornment, and Identity Construction edited by Aida Hurtado & Norma E. Cantú
Fifteen scholars examine the social identities, class hierarchies, regionalisms, and other codes of communication that are exhibited or perceived in meXicana clothing styles.
Insurgent Aztlán: The Liberating Power of Cultural Resistanceby Ernesto Todd Mireles
Insurgent Aztlán: The Liberating Power of Cultural Resistance reconstructs the relationship between social political insurgent theory and Xicano literature, film and myth. Based on decades of organizing experience and scholarly review of the writings of recognized observers and leaders of the process of national liberation movements, the author, Ernesto Todd Mireles, shares a remarkable work of scholarship that incorporates not only the essence of earlier resistance writing, but provides a new paradigm of liberation guidelines for the particular situation of Mexican Americans. Mireles makes a solid case for addressing the decades-long decline of Mexican American identity within itself and broadly among sectors of American society by asserting the powerful role of culture and history, each value unable to exist without the other, in the preservation and political advancement of a people. In the case of Mexican Americans, which consists of an estimated 40 million people and boasts the highest birth rate in the U.S., they constitute “a nation within a nation”. The intellectual challenge, Mireles asserts, is connecting insurgent social political theory with the existing body of Xicano literature, film and myth. The organizing challenge is how to build an insurgent identity that fosters a “return to history” to build a consensus among Mexican Americans, who are a complex collective of culturally, educationally, politically, and economically diverse people, to reclaim their historical presence in the Americas and the world. Insurgent Aztlán must be read by students from high school to graduate studies, their professors, organizers in the fields and factories, union shops, and urban community organizations, wherever Mexican Americans sense the need to re-evaluate their goals and aspirations for themselves and their families.
Somos en Escritos Literary Foundation, Ernesto Todd Mireles, MSW., Ph.D. Social Justice Community Organizer Master program Coordinator, Frantz Fanon Community Strategy Center Faculty, Prescott College
Levi Romero was recently named the Inaugural New Mexico Poet Laureate. He is an assistant professor and Director of the New Mexico Cultural Landscapes Program in Chicana and Chicano Studies at the University of New Mexico. For more information about his work and the award, see https://www.taosnews.com/stories/new-mexicos-first-poet-laureate,62291.
Mari Castañeda, former NACCS Chair, has been appointed Dean of the Commonwealth Honors College at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Karleen Pendleton Jiménez has been promoted to full professor in the School of Education & Department of Gender and Social Justice at Trent University and will serve as the director of the Graduate Program in Education.
Murales de mi tio translated means my uncle’s murals. The uncle and artist featured in this exhibition is Daniel “Chano” Gonzalez, a muralist during the Chicano movement in the 1970s. His nephew, Fresno State instructor Phil Gonzales, has photographed and documented the work on display. This exhibition took place at Fresno State in 2018 and was planned for NACCS 2020. Phil has made a video link available to us to experience the exhibition and presentation: https://youtu.be/n2vgqMMitYg.
The Tecnológico de Monterrey and la Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla will host a Coloquio Internacional on Gloria Anzaldúa September 23- 25, 2020 in Puebla. Stay tuned for further information.
Norma E. Cantú announced that she will no longer be hosting El Mundo Zurdo, the international conference on Gloria Anzaldua held every eighteen months since 2007. More than likely the conference will be held biannually at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
At its Midyear meetings in Seattle, Washington, the NACCS Board unanimously selected the Northern California Foco nomination of Dr. Albert M. Camarillo for NACCS Scholar. Camarillo has been a pillar in the Chicano/a community, training a cadre of Chicana/o Historians and working on the front lines to create and include Chicano/a Studies within the Academy. He was part of the initial wave of Chicanos and Chicanas to attend college in the 1960s before affirmative action programs and laid the foundation for generations of students and faculty.
Professor Camarillo earned his Ph.D. from UCLA in History in 1975 and promptly became a professor in the Department of History at Stanford University where he spent his entire academic career (42 years) until his retirement this year. During his tenure at Stanford Dr. Camarillo held numerous academic and administrative positions including Special Assistant to the Provost for Faculty Diversity (2007-2019), Founding Director of the Center for Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity (1996-2002), Associate Dean and Director of Undergraduate Studies (1992-94), Founding Director of the Inter-University Program for Latino Research (IUP) (1985-88), and the Founding Director of the Stanford Center for Chicano Research (1980-1985).
Professor Camarillo taught thousands of students at both graduate and undergraduate levels. Among his students are Antonia Castañeda, (Ph.D. 1990), David G. Gutierrez, Monica Perales, Stephen J. Pitti, Vicky L. Ruiz, George J. Sanchez, and William Deverell. It is fitting to note that in many ways Dr. Camarillo has paved the way for students to become historians in his numerous leadership roles in the Organization of American Historians, the American Historical Association, the Urban History Association, and in the National Association for Chicano Studies (sic). He served as a co-editor of the 1979 NACS proceedings “Work, Family, Sex Roles, Language” along with Francisco Hernandez and 1999 NACCS Scholar Mario Barrera.
His dissertation, “The Making of the Chicano Community: A History of the Chicanos in Santa Barbara, California, 1850-1930”, was nominated in 1975 as one of the best Ph.D. theses in American History in the nation and augured the impact he would have in documenting Chicana and Chicano History in the future. Author of multiple books and articles focusing on the experiences of Mexican Americans and other racial and immigrant groups in North American Cities. Dr. Camarillo is widely regarded as one of the founders of Chicana and Chicano Studies history from his very first article and beyond.
The NACCS Scholar award was established in 1981 to recognize “life achievement” contributions of scholars to Chicana and Chicano Studies.
It is our sincere honor to welcome Dr. Camarillo as the NACCS 2020 Scholar in recognition of his life’s dedication, mentorship, and leadership in the field. We invite everyone to celebrate Dr. Albert Camarillo in Seattle, Washington at the NACCS 47th Annual Conference during the Awards Dinner on Friday evening.
The year 1968 has long been heralded as a year of global revolution. From the Tet Offensive to Tlatelolco, and from Black, Red, Yellow and Chicano Power to Brown is beautiful and the Blowouts, the stage was set for the emergence of Chicana and Chicano Studies. The following year witnessed the Santa Barbara and Denver conferences where, respectively, the blueprint for Chicano Studies and MEChA were born and for the first time Chicanas/os declared themselves a People, a Nation, a Pueblo among other Pueblos, and Aztlán itself as a Union of Free Pueblos. As we commemorate the various 50 th anniversaries of many of these events and accomplishments, as well of several respective departments, let us also heed the call of the Zapatistas for the need to rethink our cartographies and calendars. So rather than the uncritical mapping of Aztlán premised on the national-territorial borders of western colonial nation-states or the marking of yet another decade or half-century as is the hallmark of western temporalities, let us use this upcoming 2020 conference to develop the critical hindsight and conceptual clarity on the need for a New Fire – the ceremonial rebirthing ceremony that occurs every 52 years among several Pueblos of the misnamed territories currently named Mexico and the U.S. Southwest.
Building on last year’s theme to engage with the ways Indigenous knowledge informs our lives and work, we invite further exploration of building relationalities with the diverse Indigenous Nations and Pueblos of las Américas Profundas, Turtle Island, Abya Yala, Pachamama. A New Fire Ceremony is the basis for a rebirth, one that marks the end of four cycles of 13 years, which is integral to the cosmologies of several “Meso-American” and “Southwestern” Indigenous Nations and Peoples. Let us thus disobey the cartographic and temporal conventions of western disciplines and nations and reignite a New Fire within Chicana and Chicano Studies to intellectually, politically, epistemically and spiritually combat the violence, destruction, and displacement that characterize the civilization of death and its various modalities (racism, sexism, compulsory heterosexualism, patriarchy, genocide, classism, coloniality, epistemicide, Christian-centrism, eurocentrism, ableism, ageism, etc) that we have accepted as the norm.
In 2020, the Peace and Dignity Journeys, an intercontinental spiritual run to reunite Eagle and Condor nations by building on the autonomy and interrelationship of all Pueblos of the northern and southern continent, will devote its prayer to the Sacred Fire. Similarly, Mexico’s National Indigenous Congress has pointed out that, “¡Ha llegado el tiempo del florecimiento de los Pueblos!” – The time of the flowering of the Pueblos has arrived! Chicanas, Xicanos, Chicanxs, Raza of all nations, genders, colors and ages have been part of and accompanied both movements from the start. So let us revisit that original call of our own for a Union of Free Pueblos to think about how Chicana and Chicano Studies can serve to (re)light the embers and kindlings of new temporalities, cartographies, epistemologies and relationalities in Abya Yala.
Towards these “ends” or rather openings and distinct forms of walking and being in this world, we welcome papers, panels, workshops, and presentations that address the following types of questions and topics, by no means exhaustive:
How can we foreground a rigorous, yet combative spirit in our work, without losing sight of a creative and rasquache aesthetics and poetics ?
How do we dispense with pretensions to objectivity that continue delimit the possibility of decolonial imaginings and openings in academia?
How do we better elucidate the ways Chican@ Studies, Ethnic Studies, Queer Studies, and related fields produce knowledge above and beyond the limited myopic scopes, national imaginaries, disciplinarian divides and accompanying methodologies of traditional disciplines?
How can we re-ignite the fire of action research in defense of our pueblos, barrios, communities, territories, lands, bodies, waters, climate, earth?
What might be the bases for a collective and shared understanding and refoundation of a decolonial Chicana and Chicano Studies?
Topics may include, but are not limited to:
Unthinking Nation-States The history and politics of MEChA Bridging or reengaging with our various Pueblos Learning from the land Indigenous foundations of Chicana/o/x Studies Chicana/o/x, Latina/o/x, and Indigenous Relationships Internationalizing Chicana/o/x Studies Decentering state-centric migration subjectivities Returning to self, ceremonia spirit and healing Indigenous Knowledge and Language reclamation Decolonizing eating and farming Two-spirit identities Autonomies and the politics of naming The future of autonomies and sovereignties Politics of Recognition and its limits Critiques of appropriation Practices of reconciliation Reconceptualizing Aztlán Aztlán as praxis, Chicana/o/x ethnogenesis, emergence and axis mundi Aztlán as kinship, migration story, performativity, and queer nation Chicana/o/x, Latina/o/x, and Indigenous community organizing Urban Zapatismo Asambleas, caracoles and other social formations Collectivity as praxis Indigenous theory and research methodologies Indigenous feminisms Social media and technology Danza, Folklórico, and traditional dancing Youth and restorative justice Decolonizing borders The future of Ethnic Studies The Works of Early Chicano Thinkers and Writers The Historical Moment of Chicana/o/x Studies Xican@ Time Un Nosotros sin estados Xican@ futurities, or, the ashes of Chingon Politics
Sheraton Grand Seattle 1400 6th Ave Seattle, WA 98101 206.621.9000 Conference date: April 15-19, 2020 Reservation information available soon.
Conference Dates: Participants can begin their stay at the hotel starting April 13 and/or stay until April 20 with the conference rate based on availability. For additional dates and/or room options, please contact the hotel directly.
The 2020 conference will be hosted at the Sheraton Grand Seattle Located in the heart of downtown at 6th and Pike, the Sheraton Grand Seattle provides a gateway to the diverse sights and sounds of the Pacific Northwest.
Rates: (not including taxes) Reservations must be made by March 15 to guarantee the conference rate. Room Rate: $159.00. Triple/Quads rooms are limited and are in high demand. Make your reservations early.
If you plan to travel to Canada before or after the conference make sure to bring your U.S. Passport. Canada is only a ferry ride away.
The award is in recognition of a published scholarly article or book chapter of an historical orientation on the intersection of class, race, gender, and sexuality as related to Chicana/Latina and/ Native/Indigenous women. The piece must have been published in November 2018 – 0ctober 2019 by a woman who is an ABD graduate student, pre-tenured faculty member, or an independent scholar. The award is designed to promote and acknowledge scholarship of an historical orientation by Chicana/Latina and/or Native/Indigenous scholars working on issues of intersectionality. No books or creative writing considered. Deadline: November 1.
Application/Nominations Process: Both applications and nominations are encouraged. Submit a PDF copy of the published manuscript, paper, or article and a two-page curriculum vita of the applicant or nominee. The submission must include a short letter by the applicant or nominee addressing the merits of the article or book chapter’s contribution to the field. Applicants are also required to solicit a letter from a third party to that effect (e.g., from an adviser, a chair, a colleague). In all cases, applicant or nominee contact information, email address, telephone number, and mailing address, must be included in the application/nomination letter. Submissions of all materials shall be delivered electronically by the deadline directly to: CastanedaPrize@naccs.org
NACCS Board has agreed to extend the deadline to accept applications for the NACCS Beca Award from students. NACCS offers scholarships for current undocumented immigrant students who are committed to furthering the well being of Chicanas and Chicanos. Applicants must be members of NACCS, be enrolled in an accredited degree-granting institution and be an immigrant of Chicana/o heritage. The NACCS Immigrant Student Beca Fund was founded in 2008 to help Chicana and Chicano college students complete their education. The scholarships are available on a competitive basis for community college, four-year college, and graduate students. Awards range from $100 to $500. Application form at: Link Here
Noticias de NACCS is the official newsletter of the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies. Noticias de NACCS includes current comments on Chicana and Chicano Studies, news on Chicana and Chicano scholars, Association activities and more.
The publication is a copyright of NACCS.
NACCS publishes the electronic newsletter on a regular basis.
Co-Editor/Layout: Carlos Reyes Guerrero
Co-Editor, Kathryn Blackmer Reyes
Editor: Karleen Pendelton Jiménez, PhD, May 2020 - November 2020
