Hecho en Tejas: An Anthology of Texas Mexican Literature

Dagoberto Gilb

UNM Press, Apr 30, 2008 - Literary Collections - 544 pages

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.

Contents

• Juan Seguín San Antonio Letter in his defense: 8
• El corrido de Texas: 15
• Jesús Cadena Chavela San Antonio: 23
• Contrabandistas Tequileros Del Rio: 30
• Capitán Charles Stevens Rio Grande Valley: 38
• Lydia Mendoza Houston La Pollita: 45
• Don Pedrito Jaramillo: 51
• Dime sí sí sí: 57
• part three: 59
• Chelo Silva Brownsville Mal Camino: 83
• Santiago Jiménez Sr San Antonio Ay Te Dejo en San Antonio: 92
• Los mexicanos que hablan inglés: 104
• Desde México he venido: 118
• Freddy Fender San Benito Before The Next Teardrop Falls: 124
• John Rechy El Paso El Paso del Norte: 134
• Amado MuroChester Seltzer El Paso Cecilia Rosas: 144
• Sunny Ozuna San Antonio Talk to Me: 155
• José Angel Gutiérrez Crystal City from The Making of a Chicano Militant: 164
• Esteban Steve Jordan San Antonio El corrido de Jhonny el Pachuco: 170
• part seven the 1970s: 181
• Tino Villanueva San Marcos Scene from the Movie GIANT: 196
• Santiago Jiménez Jr San Antonio Qué bonito es San Antonio: 210
• Trágico Fin de Alfredo Gómez Carrasco: 223
• Angela de Hoyos San Antonio The Feeling is Mutual: 236
• Reyes Cárdenas El Paso I Was Never A Militant Chicano and For Tigre: 251
• Conjunto Aztlan Austin Yo soy tu hermano yo soy chicano: 270
• raúlrsalinas Austin A Trip Through the Mind Jail and A Walk Through: 284
• Laura Canales San Antonio Cuatro Caminos: 293
• Rosemary Catacalos San Antonio La Casa: 302
• Arturo Islas El Paso from Migrant Souls: 311
• La Sombra Corpus Christi Sancho: 320
• Pat Mora El Paso Elena and Now and Then America: 327
• Evangelina VigilPiñón San Antonio por la calle Zarzamora: 333
• Ruben Ramos Austin El Gato Negro: 342
• Tish Hinojosa San Antonio Las Marías: 363
• part nine the 1990s: 373
• Tony Díaz Houston Casa Sánchez: 380
• Arturo Longoria Mission El Cuervo: 389
• Octavio Solis El Paso The Day of Whack: 395
• Richard Yañez El Paso IM Plumbing: 403
• Tammy Gomez Fort Worth Mexicano Antonio and On Language: 411
• John Philip Santos San Antonio from Places Left Unfinished: 417
• Sergio Troncoso Ysleta A Rock Trying to Be a Stone: 426
• Manuel Luis Martínez San Antonio from Drift: 434
• Elva Treviño Hart Pearsall from Barefoot Heart: 443
• part ten the 2000s: 455
• Erasmo Guerra Mission Once More to the River: 462
• Tonantzín CanestaroGarcía Houston CaveWoman I and: 468
• Oscar Casares Brownsville In the Year 1974: 482
• Grupo Fantasma Austin Laredo: 488
• Chingo Bling Houston See Ya at the Pulga What Did He Said?: 498
• Macarena Hernández La Joya One Family Two Homelands: 506
• permissions and acknowledgments: 517

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.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Hecho en Tejas: An Anthology of Texas Mexican Literature; Southwestern Writers Collection
• Editor: Dagoberto Gilb
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: UNM Press, 2008
• ISBN: 0826341268, 9780826341266
• Length: 544 pages
• Subjects: Literary Collections / American / General; Literary Collections / Caribbean & Latin American; Literary Collections / General; Literary Criticism / American / Hispanic & Latino; Social Science / Ethnic Studies / American / Hispanic American Studies