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- All Subjects: Latin American literature
- All Subjects: Immigrants in literature
- All Subjects: Violence in literature
- Genre: Masters Thesis
- Creators: Alarcón, Justo S.
Description
ABSTRACT This thesis aims to demonstrate the validity of political violence in contemporary Chicano and Peruvian American narratives as a reflection of the sociopolitical situation of immigrants and their descendants in the United States (U.S.). The thesis explores the various ways in which contemporary Chicano and Peruvian American narratives present the political violence in the U.S. towards Mexican and Peruvian immigrants and Chicanos and Peruvian Americans examining the intersections that exist between the resistance and violence discourses and its sociopolitical consequences. Although the topic of political violence has been previously studied in U.S. and Latin American narratives throughout its history, its analysis has been insufficiently explored as far as contemporary narratives of the XXI century are concerned. With this in mind, two texts will be used to study this discourse of violence in Chicano and Peruvian American literature: Alejandro Morales' "Pequeña nación" (2005) and Daniel Alarcón's "Guerra en la penumbra" (2005). The thesis examines the immigrant as a center of discourse exploring the conflict between them and the institutions or groups in power that instigate this political violence. The first chapter covers the socio historical background regarding Mexican and Peruvian migration flows to the United States in the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The second chapter introduces "The Triangle of Violence" proposed by Norwegian mathematician and sociologist Johan Galtung as the basis for the theoretical framework and approach of this analysis. Chapter three analyzes the Chicano short story "Pequeña nación" by Alejandro Morales. The analysis of the Peruvian American short story "Guerra en la penumbra" by Daniel Alarcón follows in chapter four. The conclusion emphasizes the problem of political violence experienced by immigrants in the U.S. in contemporary Chicano and Peruvian American narratives and possible solutions contained therein, protesting a problem that can hinder immigration policy reforms and the defense of human rights.
ContributorsSifuentes, Ana (Author) / Rosales, Jesus (Thesis advisor) / García-Fernández, Carlos J. (Thesis advisor) / Alarcon, Justo (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Addressing the pending problem of understanding and interpreting the baroque discourse and multiple symbols in the third part, Realización, of the trilogy Crisol (1984) by Justo S. Alarcón, this study compares the vision of mestizaje, or miscegenation, in the said trilogy part and La Raza Cósmica (1925) by José Vasconcelos. To do this, we examine existing research on the two authors and we particularized the conception of mestizo, taking into account its expression in Mexico and the United States (U.S.). To analyze the text by Alarcón, our critical framework is based on fables and their didactic function as represented by the parables in the Bible and their moral functions as personified in the fables by Aesop and other writers. Although both authors predict the birth of a new race, we found that Vasconcelos, in a Utopian way, claims it would rise in Mexico. This new race, according to Vasconcelos, will be the product of hybridization between four races: white, yellow, red or Native American, and black. Justo S. Alarcón, on the other hand, suggests in Realización that such hybridization will take place in the United States, specifically the Southwest. Using analogies, allegories, and parables, the narrator presents several Aesopian characters that engage in massive and repeated migrations that ultimately produce a new crisol or melting pot. Such new hybridization takes place in the U.S. This study draws attention to the origin of the Chicano and the issue of identity. Future work could focus on both issues
ContributorsDuran, David (Author) / Hernández-G, Manuel (Thesis advisor) / Rosales, Jesus (Committee member) / Alarcón, Justo S. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012