Synopses & Reviews
Poet, novelist, journalist, and ethnographer, Amandeacute;rico Paredes (1915andndash;1999) was a pioneering figure in Mexican American border studies and a founder of Chicano studies. Paredes taught literature and anthropology at the University of Texas, Austin for decades, and his ethnographic and literary critical work laid the groundwork for subsequent scholarship on the folktales, legends, and riddles of Mexican Americans. In this beautifully written literary history, the distinguished scholar Ramandoacute;n Saldandiacute;var establishes Paredesandrsquo;s preeminent place in writing the contested cultural history of the south Texas borderlands. At the same time, Saldandiacute;var reveals Paredes as a precursor to the andldquo;newandrdquo; American cultural studies by showing how he perceptively negotiated the contradictions between the national and transnational forces at work in the Americas in the nascent era of globalization.
Saldandiacute;var demonstrates how Paredesandrsquo;s poetry, prose, and journalism prefigured his later work as a folklorist and ethnographer. In song, story, and poetry, Paredes first developed the themes and issues that would be central to his celebrated later work on the andldquo;border studiesandrdquo; or andldquo;anthropology of the borderlands.andrdquo; Saldandiacute;var describes how Paredesandrsquo;s experiences as an American soldier, journalist, and humanitarian aid worker in Asia shaped his understanding of the relations between Anglos and Mexicans in the borderlands of south Texas and of national and ethnic identities more broadly. Saldandiacute;var was a friend of Paredes, and part of The Borderlands of Culture is told in Paredesandrsquo;s own words. By explaining how Paredesandrsquo;s work engaged with issues central to contemporary scholarship, Saldandiacute;var extends Paredesandrsquo;s intellectual project and shows how it contributes to the remapping of the field of American studies from a transnational perspective.
Review
andldquo;This is a magnificent book. Ramandoacute;n Saldandiacute;var situates Amandeacute;rico Paredes as the founder of an aesthetic and an epistemology for the world at large by those who dwell in the bordersandmdash;not just the borders between Mexico and the United States but the borders of Western imperialisms. His years of research, personal acquaintance with Paredes, and passionate scholarship have produced a work of lasting value and one that will no doubt become a canonical volume of Latino/a scholarship.andrdquo;andmdash;Walter D. Mignolo, author of Local Histories/Global Designs
Review
andldquo;A major work of literary and cultural criticism, The Borderlands of Culture weaves together an insightful and thorough study of Amandeacute;rico Paredesandrsquo;s career with sustained reflections on the larger lessons and contemporary contexts of his writing. This is an original, wide-ranging, and provocative piece of scholarship by one of the professionandrsquo;s leading scholars of transnational literature.andrdquo;andmdash;Gustavo Pandeacute;rez Firmat, Columbia University
Review
andldquo;Beautifully crafted, thoroughly researched, and well documented, this is a remarkable and important book that will no doubt become a landmark volume in the fields of American Studies, Ethnic Studies, English, Chicano Studies, Folkloristics, Borderland Studies, and Transnational Studies. The reader can look forward to learning a great deal about Amandeacute;rico Paredes, the man, the artist, the writer, and scholar. Saldandiacute;var deserves much praise for this extraordinarily nuanced and comprehensive study.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Saldandiacute;var provides a comprehensive study. . . . For historians, this book offers splendid insights into the intellectual formation of one of the finest scholars and interpreters of the borderlands experience. Saldandiacute;var provides many sophisticated and thought-provoking critiques of Paredesandrsquo; early work in fiction and journalism. . . . [I]ts clear organization and prose make this expansive work accessible and informative. However, it is the inclusion of Paredesandrsquo; own narrative of his life and the many excerpts from his body of work that, above all, make this compelling and informative reading.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Saldandiacute;varandrsquo;s work is of great value to scholars because it combines rigorous and insightful textual analysis with considerations of political and historical context in order to advance theoretical conclusions about memory, writing and identity whose relevance extends far beyond the borders of this particular study.andrdquo;
Synopsis
The definitive life and work of Americo Paredes, the native South Texan poet, novelist, journalist, folklorist, ethnographer and first U.S. theorist of the border.
About the Author
“A major work of literary and cultural criticism, The Borderlands of Culture weaves together an insightful and thorough study of Américo Paredes’s career with sustained reflections on the larger lessons and contemporary contexts of his writing. This is an original, wide-ranging, and provocative piece of scholarship by one of the profession’s leading scholars of transnational literature.”—Gustavo Pérez Firmat, Columbia University “This is a magnificent book. Ramón Saldívar situates Américo Paredes as the founder of an aesthetic and an epistemology for the world at large by those who dwell in the borders—not just the borders between Mexico and the United States but the borders of Western imperialisms. His years of research, personal acquaintance with Paredes, and passionate scholarship have produced a work of lasting value and one that will no doubt become a canonical volume of Latino/a scholarship.”—Walter D. Mignolo, author of Local Histories/Global Designs
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: In Memoriam 3
Part I. History and Remembrance as Social Aesthetics
1. andldquo;The Memory Is All That Mattersandrdquo; 23
2. A Life in the Borderlands 64
Part II. Fictions of the Transnational Imaginary
3. The Checkerboard of Consciousness in George Washington Gandoacute;mez 145
4. Transnational Modernisms: Paredes, Roosevelt, Rockwell, Bulosan, and the Four Freedoms 190
5. Paredes and the Modernist Vernacular Intellectuals: George I. Sandaacute;nchez and Emma Tenayuca 226
6. The Borders of Modernity 241
7. Bilingual Aesthetics and the Law of the Heart 264
8. Border Subjects and Transnational Sites: The Hammon and the Beans and Other Stories 289
9. Narrative and the Idioms of Race, Nation, and Identity 318
10. The Postwar Borderlands and the Origins of the Transnational Imaginary: The Occupation-Era Writings in Pacific Stars and Stripes and El Universal 344
11. The Shadow and the Imaginary Functioning of Institutions 395
Conclusion: A Transsentimental Journey 432
Notes 439
Works Cited 477
Index 503