A Study Guide For Pat Mora S Legal Alien

A Study Guide for Pat Mora's "Legal Alien," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Poetry for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Poetry for Students for all of your research needs.

Migration and continuity have shaped both the Chicano people and their oral and written literature. In this pathfinding study of Chicano literature, Teresa McKenna specifically explores how these works arise out of social, political, and psychological conflict and how the development of Chicano literature is inextricably embedded in this fact. McKenna begins by appraising the evolution of Chicano literature from oral forms—including the important role of the corrido in the development of Chicano poetry. In subsequent chapters she examines the works of Richard Rodriguez and Rolando Hinojosa. She also devotes a chapter to the development of the Chicana voice in Chicano literature. Her epilogue considers the parallel development of Chicano literary theory and discusses some possible directions for research. In McKenna's own words, "I believe that the future of this literature, as that of all literatures by people of color in the United States, rests largely on its being effectively introduced into the curricula at all levels, as well as its entrance into the critical consciousness of literary theory." This book will be an important step in that process.

This book is designed to be used at a master’s level for a degree in curriculum and instruction, teacher education or educational leadership. It could be used as a primary or a supplementary text. The book is divided into three parts: The first section focuses on the contributions of noted educators to the field of education: Florence Stratemeyer, (Haberman and Corrigan) Hilda Taba (Barbara Stern), Alice Miel (Jennifer Deets), Booker T. Washington (Karen Riley), Ralph Tyler (Gerald Ponder and Dixie Massey) and John Dewey (William Schubert and Heidi Schubert). The authors of these chapters focused on contributions that were “less: known, but particularly important in thinking about education. The second section of the book focuses on curriculum movements that were politically motivated and their impact on curriculum applications in the schools: Cold War/Sputnik (Peggy Moch), Civil Rights (William Ayers), Women’s Rights (Susan Brown), Bilingual/multicultural education (Gloria Contreras and Ron Wilhelm), and the growing economic divide (William Watkins). The last section of the book provides perspectives on factors that affected curriculum implementation as seen through the eyes of authors who have done considerable research in these areas: Social Justice (William Gaudelli and Dennis Urban), Integrated Curriculum (Lynne Bailey), The Comprehensive High School (Marcella Kysilka), Technology in the Curriculum (Gretchen Schwarz and Janet Dunlop) and Inclusive Curriculum (Allison Dickey) The book could be used in Alternative Certification Programs as well as the chapters focus on issues that are common in the public school sector. The chapters are short and meaty and provide a thorough understanding of the people, politics and perspectives of the times.

"Sonia Saldívar-Hull's book proposes two moves that will, no doubt, leave a mark on Chicano/a and Latin American Studies as well as in cultural theory. The first consists in establishing alliances between Chicana and Latin American writers/activists like Gloria Anzaldua and Cherrie Moraga on the one hand and Rigoberta Menchu and Domitilla Barrios de Chungara on her. The second move consists in looking for theories where you can find them, in the non-places of theories such as prefaces, interviews and narratives. By underscoring the non-places of theories, Sonia Saldívar-Hull indirectly shows the geopolitical distribution of knowledge between the place of theory in white feminism and the theoretical non-places of women of color and of third world women. Saldívar-Hull has made a signal contribution to Chicano/a Studies, Latin American Studies and cultural theory." —Walter D. Mignolo, author of Local Histories/Global Designs: Coloniality, Subaltern Knowledges, and Border Thinking "This is a major critical claim for the sociohistorical contextualization of Chicanas who are subject to processes of colonization--our conditions of existence. Through a reading of Anzaldua, Cisneros and Viramontes, Saldívar-Hull asks us to consider how the subalternized text speaks, how and why it is muted? How do testimonio, autobiography and history give shape to the literary where embodied wholeness may be possible. It is a critical de-centering of American Studies and Mexican Studies as usual, as she traces our cross(ed) genealogies, situated on the borders." —Norma Alarcon, Professor of Ethnic Studies, University of California, Berkeley.

El Paso, the pass to the north, lies between vast stretches of desert. This is a geographic accident. Yet like everywhere, people live, love, marry, grow old and die. They also rejoice and despair. These poems relate all these experiences ? but in the magical presence, the telluric force, of the desert. Two women poets sing here, one in the guise of the desert, the other in the figure of Pat Mora. Together they intone Chants. The desertÍs beauty is perceived in subtle gradations of color and texture, in stark contrasts between light and darkness. It speaks as a magical force, as a lonely woman and, for our patience, offers flowers. Like the desert, Pat Mora speaks with muted tones, weaves incantations; she invests her poetic space with magical figures, yet from her loneliness come as well fear, resentment and despair. But she learns the peaceful solitude of the desert. From their dialogue, words become blossoms, fragile in desert rhythms..