Full Description
An expansive volume on Tejana identity and Tejanidad told through personal narratives, poetry, and essays.
Being Tejanx is different than just being from Texas. Being Tejanx means you are a border subject. Being Tejanx means living in and from a certain history of oppression, possibility, activism, and cultural-linguistic hybridity arising within the US-Mexico borderland that is home. And being Tejanx means something in particular if you are a woman.
In ¡Somos Tejanas!, editors Norma E. CantÚ and Jody A. MarÍn assemble contemporary Tejanx writers who provide firsthand accounts of their experience of identity, enriching the field of Tejanx studies through an encounter with gender and sexuality. The contributions, including personal and scholarly essays, poems, criticism, and artworks, explore the heterogeneity of Tejana identity and the sociopolitical movements, stories, dances, music, and athletic feats that mark Tejanidad. Authors contemplate the history and memory of segregation in Texas, the struggles of surviving the unnatural disaster and blackouts of 2021 amid the global pandemic of COVID-19, and the drug-war violence and ever-tightening immigration restrictions that strangle a transborder way of life shared by millions. An unrepentant act of expression from women under attack by state policymakers, this collection dispels the silence imposed by colonial erasure.
Contents
Introduction. Documenting Tejanas: Tejana Cultural Identity within the Tejanx Ethos (Jody A. MarÍn and Norma E. CantÚ)
Part I. ¿QuiÉnes somos? Searching for and Finding Who We Are
Madre Land: An Abridged Guide for Blooming in the Borderlands by Seven Generations of Tejana Mothers & Mijas (Bonnie Ilza Cisneros)
Becoming Tejana: A Familial and Academic Genealogy of My Tejanidad (Margaret E. CantÚ-SÁnchez)
From Luby's to Graceland (Elizabeth N. Flores)
Fear, Voice, and Gritos: The Complexity of Embracing My Identity as a Tejana (Sonya Barrera Eddy)
Un puente (Crystal Silva-McCormick)
Rite of Passage (Elizabeth N. Flores)
Tejanas unidas en identidad, sacrificio, y celebraciÓn (Tejanas United in Identity, Sacrifice, and Celebration) (Kiri Avelar and Elisa De La Rosa)
Embracing Our Tejanidad: Becoming Comadres Chingonas during COVID-19 (Mayra Olivares-Urueta and Ana MartÍnez)
You Bring Out the Tejana in Me (Norma E. CantÚ)
Somos Tejanas (Celeste GuzmÁn Mendoza)
Part II. Music, Dancing, and Cultural Movidas
Tejano Music: Two Cultures, Two Genders (Miriam Romero)
Tejanidad y Conjunto: Remembrance, Performance, and Expression of Tejanidad through Conjunto Music (Jody A. MarÍn)
Dynamics of Movement: Tejana Representation and Inclusion in the Dance Community (Sophia Salgado)
"(No) soy Tejana": An Interview with Cynthia PÉrez, with an Essay on Tejana Storytelling (Romana Radlwimmer)
LoterÍa as an Expression of Tejanidad (Gabriela C. Zapata)
The SandÍa (Patricia Zamora)
Miel de mesquite (Norma E. CantÚ)
Part III. Resilience
Notas on Teaching Tejana Studies in the Twenty-First-Century Classroom (Lilia Raquel Rosas)
Unsilencing the Past and Re-membering: The Spirit Work of Movement-Era Tejanas (Brenda Sendejo)
Tejanas Remembering Segregation: Intersections of Gender, Race, and Memory (Jennifer R. NÁjera)
Los cÍrculos sociales: Tejanas in Higher Education 1925-1940s (Alberto Rodriguez and Jeffrey Glick)
A Legacy of Tejana Athleticism: Community, Civil Rights, and Belonging since 1930 (Paulina A. Serrano)
Midwest Tejanas: Navigating entre Mundos Juntas (Amanda Flores, Dianey Leal, AngÉlica Ruvalcaba, and Erika Vallejo)
Radical Self-Love: A Theory of Being (Venetia June Pedraza)
SNOVID, the Storm within the Storm (Domino Renee Perez)
Blackout: White Walkers in Winterfell, c. 2021 (Liliana Valenzuela)
Spanglish Sonnet (Dr. Lichita)
Part IV: (Im)migration
Vernix Caseosa (Dr. Lichita)
Tejas Is My AztlÁn: On Migrating from South to North and Affirming My Tejanidad (Brenci PatiÑo)
Crossing the Border to Better Times (MarÍa-Luisa Ornelas-June)
Changing Cultural Rhythms (Mary Helen PÉrez)
Los Alacranes: Una Familia's Migration Story (Susana Nevarez-Marquez)
Zapatos (Adriana DomÍnguez)
Desert Women (Alma M. GarcÍa)
Part V. Artwork
Urban Ecology (Reconquista) (Ashley Mireles)
Emma Tenayuca (Ashley Mireles)
Texans vs. Tejanos (Wendi Valladares)
Chicano Kitchen (Wendi Valladares)
Culebra Azul (Celeste De Luna)
Healing Borderland Hand (Celeste De Luna)
Soy Tejana (Mayra Zamora)
Siempre Selena (Mayra Zamora)
Frances con el Arbol de la Vida (Santa Barraza)
Acknowledgments
Contributors
Index
