Culture Across Borders : Mexican Immigration and Popular Culture

by Maciel, David R.; Herrera-Sobek, Maria

• ISBN13: 9780816518333
• ISBN10: 0816518335
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-04-01
• Publisher: Univ of Arizona Pr

Summary

For as long as Mexicans have emigrated to the United Statesthey have responded creatively to the challenges of making a new home. But although historical, sociological, and other aspects of Mexican immigration have been widely studied, its cultural and artistic manifestations have been largely overlooked by scholars--even though Mexico has produced the greatest number of cultural works inspired by the immigration process. And recently Chicana/o artists have addressed immigration as a central theme in their cultural productions and motifs. Culture across Bordersis the first and only book-length study to analyze a wide range of cultural manifestations of the immigration experience, including art, literature, cinema, corridos, and humor. It shows how Mexican immigrants have been depicted in popular culture both in Mexico and the United States--and how Mexican and Chicano/Chicana artists, intellectuals, and others have used artistic means to protest the unjust treatment of immigrants by U.S. authorities. Established and upcoming scholars from both sides of the border contribute their expertise in art history, literary criticism, history, cultural studies, and other fields, capturing the many facets of the immigrant experience in popular culture. Topics include the difference between Chicano/a and Mexican representation of immigration; how films dealing with immigrants are treated differently by Mexican, Chicano, and Hollywood producers; the rich literary and artistic production on immigration themes; and the significance of immigration in Chicano jokes. As a first step in addressing the cultural dimensions of Mexican immigration to the United States, this book captures how the immigration process has inspired powerful creative responses on both sides of the border.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Culture across Borders	p. 3
"What Goes Around, Comes Around": Political Practice and Cultural Response in the Internationalization of Mexican Labor, 1890-1997	p. 27
Undocumented Crossings: Narratives of Mexican Immigration to the United States	p. 67
Telling Images Bracket the "Broken-Promise(d) Land": The Culture of Immigration and the Immigration of Culture across Borders	p. 99
The Celluloid Immigrant: The Narrative Films of Mexican Immigration	p. 149
Jokelore, Cultural Differences, and Linguistic Dexterity: The Construction of the Mexican Immigrant in Chicano Humor	p. 203
The Corrido as Hypertext: Undocumented Mexican Immigrant Films and the Mexican/Chicano Ballad	p. 227
Contributors	p. 259
Index	p. 263
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