Latina Legacies Identity, Biography, and Community

by Ruiz, Vicki L.; Korrol, Virginia Sánchez

• ISBN13: 9780195153989
• ISBN10: 0195153987
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-03-10
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

An extraordinary exploration of Latinas in the United States from the 1800s to the present, this collection of narrative biographies documents the lives of fifteen remarkable individuals who witnessed, defined, defied, and wrote about the forces that shaped their lives. Since the earliestperiods of Spanish American colonization, women have claimed public space and built communities, both as physical places and as cultural realms. As entrepreneurs, community activists, mystics, educators, feminists, labor organizers, artists and entertainers, many Latinas used the power of the pento traverse and transgress the social boundaries and cultural conventions of their time. Their diverse histories span two centuries and encompass a past of multiple conquests and migrations, taking into account race, region, gender, culture, and social location. Blending insights from history,literary criticism, and cultural studies, this interdisciplinary anthology re-envisions Latina history taking into consideration gendered genealogies of power as charted through grassroots' activism, literature, education, and economic enterprise. Their legacies rest on the production anddissemination of knowledge, which in turn reveals much about their own worldviews and historical agency. This anthology profiles Victoria Reid, Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton, Maria Gertrudis Barcelo, Loreta Janeta Velazquez, Luisa Capetillo, Lola Rodriguez de Tio, Teresa Urrea, Adelina Otero Warren,Jovita Gonzalez Mireles, Pura Belpre, Luisa Moreno, Carmen Miranda, Antonia Pantoja, Ana Mendieta, and Dolores Huerta.

Author Biography

Vicki L. Ruiz is Professor of History and Chicano/Latino Studies at the University of California, Irvine and Virginia Sanchez Korrol is Professor of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies at Brooklyn College. They are the co-editors of Latinas in the United States: A Historical Encyclopedia and were both named Latina Magazine Woman of the Year in Education in 2000.

Table of Contents

Contributors	ix
Introduction	3	(155)
Vicki L. Ruiz and Virginia Sánchez Korrol
1 Victoria Reid and the Politics of Identity	19	(20)
Maria Raquel Casas
2 Gertrudis Barcelo: La Tules of Image and Reality	39	(20)
Deena J. González
3 The Adventures of Loreta Janeta Velazquez: Civil War Spy and Storyteller	59	(13)
Amy Dockser Marcus
4 Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton and the Power of Her Pen	72	(12)
Rosaura Sánchez and Beatrice Pita
5 Lola Rodriguez de Tió and the Puerto Rican Struggle for Freedom	84	(13)
Edna Acosta-Belén
6 Teresa Urrea: Curandera and Folk Saint	97	(23)
Marian Perales
7 Luisa Capetillo: Feminist of the Working Class	120	(15)
Nancy A. Hewitt
8 Adelina Otero Warren: Rural Aristocrat and Modern Feminist	135	(13)
Elizabeth Solos
9 Pura Belpré: The Children's Ambassador	148	(10)
Lisa Sánchez González
10 Jovita González Mireles: A Sense of History and Homeland	158	(17)
Maria Eugenia Cotera
11 Luisa Moreno and Latina Labor Activism	175	(18)
Vicki L. Ruiz
12 Carmen Miranda: The High Price of Fame and Bananas	193	(16)
Brian O'Neil
13 Antonia Pantoja and the Power of Community Action	209	(16)
Virginia Sánchez Korrol
14 Ana Mendieta's Art: A Journey through Her Life	225	(15)
Carlos A. Cruz
15 Dolores Huerta and the United Farm Workers	240	(15)
Alicia Chávez
For Further Reading	255