Table of Contents

Introduction, by Cristina García

Prelude: SAMUEL RAMOS excerpt from “The Use of Thought”

EARLY INFLUENCES

ALFONSO REYES
“Major Aranda’s Hand”

RAMÓN LÓPEZ VELARDE
“My Cousin Agueda”
“In the Wet Shadows”

JUAN RULFO
excerpt from Pedro Páramo

XAVIER VILLAURRUTIA
“L.A. Nocturne: The Angels”

CHICANO/A VOICES I

GLORIA ANZALDÚA
“How to Tame a Wild Tongue”

RICHARD RODRIGUEZ
“India”

JIMMY SANTIAGO BACA
“Mediations on the South Valley: Poem IX”

RUDOLFO ANAYA
“B. Traven Is Alive and Well in Cuernavaca”

CONTEMPORARY MEXICAN VOICES

CARLOS FUENTES
excerpt from The Death of Artemio Cruz

ELENA POONIATOWSKA
introduction from Here’s to You, Jesusa!

OCTAVIO PAZ
“The Day of the Dead”
“I Speak of the City”

ROSARIO CASTELLANOS
excerpt from The Book of Lamentations

CHICANO/A VOICES 2

ANA CASTILLO
“Daddy with Chesterfields in a Rolled Up Sleeve”

SANDRA CISNEROS
“Never Marry a Mexican”

DAGOBERTO GILB
“Maria de Covina”

RUBÉN MARTÍNEZ
excerpt from Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail

IGNACIO PADILLA
“Hagiography of the Apostate”

ÁNGELES MASTRETTA
“Aunt Leonor”
“Aunt Natalia”

CARLOS MONSIVÁIS
“Identity Hour or, What Photos Would You Take of the Endless City?”

CORLA BRACHO
“Fish of Fleeting Skin”

Note About the Authors
Permissions Acknowledgments

About the Author

Cristina García was born in Havana and grew up in New York City. Her first novel, Dreaming in Cuban, was nominated for a National Book Award and has been widely translated. Ms. García has been a Guggenheim Fellow, a Hodder Fellow at Princeton University, and the recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award. She lives in Napa with her daughter and husband.

Reviews

“A marvelous introduction to some of the most luminous and illuminating voices to be found in the Chicano/a and Mexican literary traditions, offering a fascinating and resonant dialogue among them.”  
–Rafael Pérez-Torres, Professor of American Literature and Chicano Studies, UCLA

"In an age that reduces lo mexicano to a nefarious stereotype, this assortment of literary delights will allow shrewd readers to appreciate the richness of a millenarian civilization." –Ilan Stavans, Professor of Latin American and Latino Culture, Amherst College