Massacre of the Dreamers: Essays on Xicanisma - Softcover

Castillo, Ana

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0452274249 ISBN 13: 9780452274242

Publisher: Plume, 1995

Synopsis

f the Dreamers points out the omissions and challenges the misconceptions of a society that recognizes race relations as primarily a black-and-white issue. Castillo's essays analyze the 500-year-old history of Mexican and Amerindian women in this country and document the ongoing political and emotional struggles of their descendants.

About this title

About the Author

Ana Castillo is the author of "So Far From God," "Sapogonia," and "The Mixquiahuala Letters."

From Booklist

Castillo, who has earned respect for her novels--most recently, So Far from God --and poetry, here reflects on the place of Mexic Amerindian women and on the need for Xicanisma, a politically active and socially committed Chicana feminism, in national and global policy debates. In ten probing, passionate essays, Castillo explores the roles that women played in the Chicano/Latino Movimiento of the 1960s and 1970s; examines Mexicana activism in the 1986 Watsonville, California, canning strike; posits ancient Mediterranean roots for machismo; analyzes the consequences for women of the moral dualism, repression of sexuality, and fear of death that Catholicism and Communism share; assesses the "poetics of conscientizaci{¢}on"; and argues that eroticism, traditional healing and other forms of "lived spirituality," and "the mother-bond principle" represent essential elements in a Xicanisma that can speak to women and men of many cultures and need to be reintegrated into the lives of Mexic Amerindian women. The sometimes bristly, provocative essays in Massacre of the Dreamers will be a stimulating addition to ethnic and women's studies collections. Mary Carroll

Edition details

• Publisher: Plume
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0452274249
• ISBN 13: 9780452274242
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 256