Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
The first anthology to focus specifically on the topic of Chicana expressive culture, Chicana Traditions features the work of native scholars: Chicanas engaged in careers as professors and students, performing artists and folklorists, archivists and museum coordinators, and community activists.
Blending narratives of personal experience with more formal, scholarly discussions, Chicana Traditions tells the insider story of a professional woman mariachi performer and traces the creation and evolution of the escaramuza charra (all-female precision riding team) within the male-dominated charreada, or Mexican rodeo. Other essays cover the ranchera (country or rural) music of the transnational performer Lydia Mendoza, the complex crossover of Selena's Tejano music, and the bottle cap and jar lid art of Goldie Garcia.
Framed by the Chicana feminist concept of the borderlands, a formative space where cultures and identities converge, Chicana Traditions offers a lively commentary on how women continue to invent, reshape, and transcend their traditional culture.
Synopsis
Chicana Traditions features essays from professionals engaged with a broad and ever-expanding Chicana expressive culture. Professors and students, performing artists and folklorists, and archivists and activists merge personal experience with formal discussion to share fascinating inside stories. The topics include a professional woman mariachi performer; the creation and evolution of the escaramuza charra (all-female precision riding team) within the male-dominated Mexican rodeo; the ranchera music of the transnational performer Lydia Mendoza, the complex crossover of Selena's Tejano music, and the bottle cap and jar lid art of Goldie Garcia.
An eye-opening journey through a borderland where cultures and identities converge, Chicana Traditions reveals how Chicanas continue to invent, reshape, and transcend their traditional culture.
Table of Contents
Chicana life-cycle rituals / Norma E. Cantâu -- Art of the santera / Helen R. Lucero -- The indita genre of New Mexico : gender and cultural identification / Brenda M. Romero -- Danger! children at play : patriarchal ideology and the construction of gender in Spanish language Hispanic/Chicano children's songs and games / Marâia Herrera-Sobek -- Caminando con la llorona : traditional and contemporary narratives / Domino Renâee Pâerez -- Indianizing Catholicism : Chicana/India/Mexicana indigenous spiritual practices in our image / Yolanda Broyles-Gonzâalez -- Las que menos queria el niäno : women of the Fidencista movement / Cynthia L. Vidaurri -- Transgressing the taboo : a Chicana's voice in the mariachi world / Leonor Xâochitl Pâerez -- Meeting la cantante through verse, song, and performance / Câandida F. Jâaquez -- Ranchera music(s) and the legendary Lydia Mendoza : performing social location and relations / Yolanda Broyles-Gonzâalez -- Mounting traditions : the origin and evolution of la escarmuza charra / Olga Nâajera-Ramâirez -- Cruzando frontejas : Selena, Tejano music and the politics of "crossover" / Deborah R. Vargas -- Goldie Garcia : la reina de South Broadway y rasquache / Tey Marianna Nunn.