With a book in their hands : Chicano/a readers and readerships across the centuries

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Information & Library Science Library

Call Number
Z1039.M5 W58 2014
Status
Available

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Summary

First Place Winner of the 2015 International Latino Book Award for Best Latino Focused Nonfiction Book



Literary history is a history of reading. What happens during the act of reading is the subject of the branch of literary scholarship known as reader-response theory. Does the text guide the reader? Does the reader operate independently of the text? Questions like these shape the approach of the essays in this book, edited by a scholar known for his groundbreaking work in using reader-response theory as a window into Chicana and Chicano literature.

Manuel M. Martín-Rodríguez has overseen several research projects aimed at documenting Chicana and Chicano reading practices and experiences. Here he gathers diverse and passionate accounts of reading drawn from that research. For many, books served as refuges from the sorrows of a childhood marked by violence or parental abandonment. Several of the contributors here salute the roles of teachers in introducing poetry and stories into their lives.

Contents

  • Acknowledgments p. xi
  • Introduction p. xiii Manuel M. Martín-Rodríguez
  • Part 1 Readers' Testimonies
  • Personal Biography: A House Full of Books p. 3 Alma Ester Cortés
  • Learning to Read p. 7 Argelia Flores
  • Learned to Read at My Momma's Knee p. 9 Carlos Cumpián
  • La Mees Chancla p. 13 Carmen Tafolla
  • On Reading: Books in My Life p. 17 Eliud Martínez
  • Holy Scripture p. 29 Ever Rodríguez
  • Storm's Impact One for the Books p. 35 Veronica Flores-Paniagua
  • Gift of Poetry, Gift of Reading p. 39 Irma Flores-Manges
  • The Bookcase p. 47 Lucía De Anda Vázquez
  • Pocho Librolandia; or, Yes We Do Read Too p. 49 Anthony Macías
  • Un juego de libros añejos p. 55 Margarita Cota-Cárdenas
  • A Set of Old Books p. 59 Margarita Cota-Cárdenas
  • Sea Fever p. 63 Maria Kelson
  • Reading Thomas Hardy p. 67 María Teresa Márquez
  • They Say That Mejicanos Don't Read p. 69 Minerva Daniel
  • In the Stacks p. 71 Monica Hanna
  • Los libros de mi padre p. 75 Shanti A. Sánchez
  • My Father's Books p. 77 Shanti A. Sánchez
  • Reading Saved Me from the Chaos p. 79 Shonnon Gutiérrez
  • The Importance of Libraries and Chicano Literature p. 81 Veronica Ortega
  • Nena p. 83 Vito De La Cruz
  • Revisiting Nancy Drew Beth Hernandez-Jason
  • Part 2 Oral Interviews from the Chicano/A Readers Oral Project
  • Introduction p. 93
  • Fernando Vázquez p. 95
  • Cuauhtémoc B. Díaz p. 105
  • Lupe Rodríguez p. 113
  • Helen Fabela Chávez p. 117
  • Part 3 Reading in the Past: Personal Libraries and Reading Histories
  • Introduction p. 123
  • El don de Olegario (Olegario's Gift) p. 125 Carlos Morton
  • Growing Up: Book Culture in the Land of Scarcity and Want p. 131 A. Gabriel Meléndez
  • The Family Library of Miguel A. Otero: An Analysis and Inventory p. 143 Manuel M. Martín-Rodríguez
  • Two Colonial New Mexico Libraries: 1704, 1776 p. 195 Eleanor B. Adams
  • Books in New Mexico, 1598-1680 p. 207 Eleanor B. Adams and France V. Scholes
  • Contributors p. 233
  • Index p. 247

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