Southwestern Writers Collection
University of New Mexico Press
May 2008
On Sale: April 30, 2008
522 pages ISBN: 0826341268 EAN: 9780826341266 Paperback Add to Wish List
Once an independent nation, Texas has always been proud of
its unique culture. The literature of the Lone Star State
has long attracted local, regional, and national audiences
and critics, yet the state's Mexican American voices have
yet to receive the attention they deserve.nnHecho en Tejas
is a historic anthology that establishes the canon of
Mexican American literature in Texas. With close to one
hundred selections chosen, the book reaches back to the
sixteenth-century exploration narrative of Texas's first
Spanish-speaking writer, Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca. It
features prose by Américo Paredes and Jovita Gonzalez,
Rolando Hinojosa and Tomás Rivera, Estela Trambley Portillo,
and Sandra Cisneros. Among the poets included in the
anthology are Ricardo Sánchez, Carmen Tafolla, Angela de
Hoyos, and Abelardo "Lalo" Delgado. Hecho en Tejas also
includes corridos from the turn of the century and verses
sung by music legends such as Lydia Mendoza and Santiago
Jimenez, Sr., Freddy Fender, and Selena. In addition to
these established names, already known across the United
States, Hecho en Tejas introduces such younger writers as
Christine Granados, Erasmo Guerra, and Tonantzin
Canestaro-Garcia, the famous Tejano authors of tomorrow.nnIn
assembling this canonic reader, Dagoberto Gilb has created
more than an anthology. Read cover to cover, Hecho en Tejas
becomes not only a literary showcase, but also a cultural
and historical narrative both for those familiar with Texas
Mexicans and for outsiders. Hecho en Tejas is a mosaic
portrait of the community, the land and its history, its
people's sorrows and joys, anger and humor and pride, what
has been assimilated and what will not be.