Offers a comprehensive overview of the most important authors, movements, genres, and historical turning points in Latino literature. More than 60 million Latinos currently live in the United States. Yet contributions from writers who trace their heritage to the Caribbean, Central and South America, and Mexico have and continue to be overlooked by critics and general audiences alike. Latino Literature: An Encyclopedia for Students gathers the best from these authors and presents them to readers in an informed and accessible way. Intended to be a useful resource for students, this volume introduces the key figures and genres central to Latino literature. Entries are written by prominent and emerging scholars and are comprehensive in their coverage of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. Different critical approaches inform and interpret the myriad complexities of Latino literary production over the last several hundred years. Finally, detailed historical and cultural accounts of Latino diasporas also enrich readers' understandings of the writings that have and continue to be influenced by changes in cultural geography, providing readers with the information they need to appreciate a body of work that will continue to flourish in and alongside Latino communities.

From East L.A. to the barrios of New York City and the Cuban neighborhoods of Miami, Latino literature, or literature written by Hispanic peoples of the United States, is the written word of North America's vibrant Latino communities. Emerging from the fusion of Spanish, North American, and African cultures, it has always been part of the American mosaic. Written for students and general readers, this encyclopedia surveys the vast landscape of Latino literature from the colonial era to the present. Aiming to be as broad and inclusive as possible, the encyclopedia covers all of native North American Latino literature as well as that created by authors originating in virtually every country of Spanish America and Spain. Included are more than 700 alphabetically arranged entries written by roughly 60 expert contributors. While most of the entries are on writers, such as Julia Alvarez, Sandra Cisneros, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Oscar Hijuelos, and Piri Thomas, others cover genres, ethnic and national literatures, movements, historical topics and events, themes, concepts, associations and organizations, and publishers and magazines. Special attention is given to the cultural, political, social, and historical contexts in which Latino literature has developed. Entries cite works for further reading, and the encyclopedia closes with a selected, general bibliography. Entries cite works for further reading, and the encyclopedia closes with a selected, general bibliography. The encyclopedia gives special attention to the social, cultural, historical, and political contexts of Latino literature, thus making it an ideal tool to help students use literature to learn about history and cultural diversity.

U.S. Latino Literature is defined as Latino literature within the United States that embraces the heterogeneous inter-groupings of Latinos. For too long U.S. Latino literature has not been thought of as an integral part of the overall shared American literary landscape, but that is slowly changing. This dictionary aims to rectify some of those misconceptions by proving that Latinos do fundamentally express American issues, concerns and perspectives with a flair in linguistic cadences, familial themes, distinct world views, and cross-cultural voices. The Historical Dictionary of U.S. Latino Literature contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has cross-referenced entries on U.S. Latino/a authors, and terms relevant to the nature of U.S. Latino literature in order to illustrate and corroborate its foundational bearings within the overall American literary experience. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about this subject.

There is growing awareness of the tremendous impact Latino writers have had on the recent literary scene, yet not all readers have the background to fully appreciate the merits and meanings of works like House on Mango Street, Line of the Sun, Bless Me Ultima, and In the Time of Butterflies. Offering analysis of their most important, popular, and frequently assigned fictional works, this book surveys the contributions of eight notable Latino writers: Julia Alvarez, Rodolfo Anaya, Sandra Cisneros, Junot Díaz, Christina Garía, Oscar Hijuelos, Ortiz Cofer, and Ernesto Quiñonez. Each chapter gives biographical background on the author and clear literary analysis of the selected works, including a concise plot synopsis. Delving into the question of cultural identity, each work is carefully examined not only in terms of its literary components, but also with regard to the cultural background and historical context. This book illuminates such themes as acculturation, generational differences, immigration, assimilation, and exile. Language, religion, and gender issues are explored against the cultural backdrop, along with the social impact of such historical events as Operation Bootstrap in Puerto Rico, the early days of Castro's Cuba, and the Trujillo Dictatorship in the Dominican Republic. Students and teachers will find their reading experiences of U.S. Latino works enriched with the literary and cultural perspectives offered here. A list of additional suggested reading is included.

Employing a comparative and cross-ethnic approach, this book provides a sophisticated literary and cultural analysis of texts by Mexican American, Puerto Rican, Cuban American, and Dominican American women writers. As she engages contemporary feminist, political, postcolonial, and psychoanalytic theory, Fatima Mujčinović investigates how selected U.S. Latina narratives have proposed a rethinking of minority subject positioning under the postmodern conditions of cultural hybridization, gender objectification, political oppression, and geographic displacement. In its emphasis on gendered, diasporic, exilic, and geopolitical identities, this book specifically examines works by Ana Castillo, Cristina García, Graciela Limón, Demetria Martínez, Rosario Morales, Aurora Levins Morales, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Helena María Viramontes, and Julia Alvarez.

While there are volumes that fall into the category of children’s literature, there appears to be relatively few that explore the needs of bilingual learners and the linguistic and sociocultural context of Latino children’s literature. This volume makes a needed contribution by addressing the social, cultural, academic, and linguistic needs of Latino bilingual learners who are still underserved through current school practices. We aim to conceptualize different forms of social knowledge so that they can serve as cultural resources for learning, acquiring knowledge, and transforming self and identity. This volume presents a balance of theory, research, and practice that speak to authentic multicultural Latino literature and helps ensure its availability for all students. The intended outcome of this volume then is to create a heightened awareness of the cultural and linguistic capital held by the Latino community, to increase Latino students’ social capital through the design of critical pedagogical practices, and for the formulation of a new perspective, that of Latino multicultural literature for children.

In the past ten years, literature by U.S. Latinos has gained an extraordinary public currency and has engendered a great deal of interest among educators. Because of the increase in numbers of Latinos in their classrooms, teachers have recognized the benefits of including works by such important writers as Sandra Cisneros, Julia Alvarez, and Rudolfo Anaya in the curriculum. Without a guide, introducing courses on U.S. Latino literature or integrating individual works into the general courses on American Literature can be difficult for the uninitiated. While some critical sources for students and teachers are available, none are dedicated exclusively to this important body of writing. To fill the gap, the editors of this volume commissioned prominent scholars in the field to write 18 essays that focus on using U.S. Latino literature in the classroom. The selection of the subject texts was developed in conjunction with secondary school teachers who took part in the editors' course. This resultant volume focuses on major works that are appropriate for high school and undergraduate study including Judith Ortiz Cofer's The Latin Deli, Piri Thomas' Down These Mean Streets, and Cisneros' The House on Mango Street. Each chapter in this Critical Guide provides pertinent biographical background on the author as well as contextual information that aids in understanding the literary and cultural significance of the work. The most valuable component of the critical essays, the Analysis of Themes and Forms, helps the reader understand the thematic concerns raised by the work, particularly the recurring issues of language expression and cultural identity, assimilation, and intergenerational conflicts. Each essay is followed by specific suggestions for teaching the work with topics for classroom discussion. Further enhancing the value of this work as a teaching tool are the selected bibliographies of criticism, further reading, and other related sources that complete each chapter. Teachers will also find a Sample Course Outline of U.S. Latino Literature which serves as guide for developing a course on this important subject.

This book examines the ways in which recent U.S. Latina literature challenges popular definitions of nationhood and national identity. It explores a group of feminist texts that are representative of the U.S. Latina literary boom of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, when an emerging group of writers gained prominence in mainstream and academic circles. Through close readings of select contemporary Mexican American, Puerto Rican, and Cuban American works, Maya Socolovsky argues that these narratives are “remapping” the United States so that it is fully integrated within a larger, hemispheric Americas. Looking at such concerns as nation, place, trauma, and storytelling, writers Denise Chavez, Sandra Cisneros, Esmeralda Santiago, Ana Castillo, Himilce Novas, and Judith Ortiz Cofer challenge popular views of Latino cultural “unbelonging” and make strong cases for the legitimate presence of Latinas/os within the United States. In this way, they also counter much of today’s anti-immigration rhetoric. Imagining the U.S. as part of a broader "Americas," these writings trouble imperialist notions of nationhood, in which political borders and a long history of intervention and colonization beyond those borders have come to shape and determine the dominant culture's writing and the defining of all Latinos as "other" to the nation.

The Routledge Concise History of Latino/a Literature presents the first comprehensive overview of these popular, experimental and diverse literary cultures. Frederick Luis Aldama traces a historical path through Latino/a literature, examining both the historical and political contexts of the works, as well as their authors and the readership. He also provides an enlightening analysis of: the differing sub-groups of Latino/a literature, including Mexican American, Cuban American, Puerto Rican American, Dominican American, and Central and South American émigré authors established and emerging literary trends such as the postmodern, historical, chica-lit storytelling formats and the graphic novel key literary themes, including gender and sexuality, feminist and queer voices, and migration and borderlands. The author’s methodology and interpretation of a wealth of information will put this rich and diverse area of literary culture into a new light for scholars. The book’s student-friendly features such as a glossary, guide to further reading, explanatory text boxes and chapter summaries, make this the ideal text for anyone approaching the area for the first time.

"There are also separate sections on the modernistas and postmodernismo, avant-garde poetry in the twentieth century, and the Boom novel. A final chapter is dedicated to an analysis of some recent developments within the Spanish-American literary canon, such as the post-Boom novel, with a separate section on women writers, 'testimonio', Latino literature, the gay/lesbian novel, and Afro-Hispanic literature."--BOOK JACKET.