Research Report: Hispanic Immigrant Literature

By Evelyn Ramirez-Mancilla, Team 3B  

     1. Abstract.

The association between one's land of origin and the United States is common in literature written by Hispanics. Literary plots that with this association can be categorized into three literary positions: native, immigrant, and exile. In this book, Kanellos’  defines and creates the immigrant position by comparing charcteristics with the two other positions (exile or native) Hispanic writers can take while writing a text about a character leaving their homeland.  

     2. Description.

Kanellos' leads the Hispanic Literary Heritage project which makes the literary and historical legacy of Hispanics in the United States accessible in educational institutions and communities. The project group organizes, classifies, and describes the documents. Basing his book on this archive, Kanellos' defines immigrant literature,"as literature written by immigrants in their native language" (9). This means that works written by Sandra Cisneros, Luis Valdez, Pedro Pietri and Ana Castillo cannot be categorized as immigrant literature because all these authors were born in the United State and write in English. The literary works that these authors created are instead classified under the native literary position. Even though Kanellos' immediant definition only discusses origin and language, the choices in language and character outlooks onthe U.S. also play a huge role in categorizing the literary position of Hispanic authors.

The image below (from the book) is an outline of the schema of the three literary positions Kanellos' refers to while explaining immigrant literature:

By identifying the differences between immigrant, native and exile literature, Kanellos justifies his categorization of immigrant literature. The book, provides an in depth discussion on the importance of each point he has made in the image above for immigrant literature.  For example, point number two under immigrant literature, is analyzed in depth in terms of language.  Kanellos' states that the uses of the term "renegado" (fear of identity loss) to label a rejected hispanic character is often used and can distinguish twentieth century immigrant literature because it emphasizes the dangers of assimilation to other immigrants (52).

     3. Commentary.

My project group will be analyzing  the language, topics, and locations found in the  exile, immigrant, and native categories of Hispanic Literature.   The book written by Kanellos aids our research because it provides a guide to accurately categorize the books we will use for our research. After defining the categories our books fall under, we will be able to reinforce the definitions Kanellos has provided or argue against them. This will help us define or further explore some of our research questions, could it be possible that there is a hybrid category?  Can books written by Hispanic authors pertain solely to one category? Or do some books exhibit characteristics of two of the categories?  In the book Kanellos strongly believes that every particular book falls exactly into one of his 3 definitions. There is no middle. The books can be classified as black or white.  He provides multiple counter arguments to strengthen and show the accurateness of his theory. Even though Kanellos goes out of his way to prove this, his beliefs can be restricting to our project and should be questioned. Since Kanellos is not very objective about his definitions we will be comparing his work with other authors who have decided to define these categories as well. As a result Yulissa and I will be able to have a better understanding of the commonly identified criteria for each definition. By identifying reoccurring criteria , we will also be able to point out and decide the criteria we feel is off or nonessential. Ultimately by going through this process we will be able to create our own definitions for each category.

     4. Resources for Further Study.

      Kanellos, Nicolás. Hispanic Immigrant Literature El Sueño Del Retorno. Austin: U of Texas, 2011. Print.

     Caminero-Santangelo, Marta. "Contesting the Boundaries of "Exile" Latino/A Literature." World Literature Today: 507. JSTOR. World Literature           Today. Web. 23 Nov. 2014. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/40155817?confirm=add>.

     "News & Events." - University of Houston. Web. 23 Nov. 2014. <http://www.uh.edu/class/news/archive/2014/september/diversity-award/>.