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Life and Letters
English Faculty Featured in Life & Letters
Department of English Faculty Featured in Life & Letters, Vida y Cartas Winter 2007-08 Edition.
Gateway to the Americas and Changing U.S. Demographics
“We will introduce you to the researchers, professionals, students and friends of the college who are defining the role of Liberal Arts in the 21st century…In the ‘Changing U.S. Demographics’ portion of the magazine, Cristina Cabello de Martinez and Peter Ward explain the cultural significance of the Dia de los Muertos celebration, and Domino Perez sheds light on the legend of La Llorona,” said Randy Diehl, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts.
In the Latino Landscapes Section of Life and Letters titled “Preserving the Past and Preparing for the Future: Hispanic Faculty Shape Scholarship in Fields from Spanish to Slavic Studies”, Christian Clarke Cásarez wrote on the Center of Mexican American Studies (CMAS) where our very own José Limón is the Director. “Scholars across the university are providing insight into the Mexican and Mexican American experience,” says Limón. “They not only help us understand the broader Latino experience, they strengthen the presence of Mexican Americans and other Latinos in the intellectual terrain nationally and internationally.”
Rolando Hinojosa-Smith is highlighted in the article, “Texas Heritage: Hinojosa-Smith Earns Lifetime Achievement Award” by Jennifer McAndrew.
“During the 2007 Texas Book Festival, Rolando Hinojosa-Smith, the Ellen Clayton Garwood Professor of Creative Writing, was one of two Texas authors honored with the Bookend Award for lifetime achievement and contributions to Texas literature.” “The presentation of the Bookend Award to Rolando suggests that the Texas literary establishment has finally recognized what Rolando has known for decades: that the culture and literature of the Texas-Mexico borderlands have become a central part of the state’s sense of self,” states John M. González, Assistant Professor of English.
John M. González, Assistant Professor of English, is highlighted in "Mediating Mexican-American Identity in Literature." The article describes González's archival research about the origins of Mexican-American literature during the 1930s. Gonzalez's full-length study, "Border Renaissance: The Texas Centennial and the Emergence of Mexican-American Literature, " is forthcoming from the University of Texas Press in 2009.
Dr. Perez was recently promoted to Associate Professor of the Department of English and the Center for Mexican American Studies. Her analysis reveals the ways in which the Weeping Woman legend resonates for different groups within the Mexican American community. So while some see the tale as simply a form of entertainment, “many feminist scholars reinterpret the narrative as resistance to patriarchy,” she explains. “By focusing on the agency of women to both create and end life, women can revise and transform the tale into one of empowerment instead of despair,” says Dr. Perez. Her book There Was a Woman: Cultural Readings of La Llorona From Folklore to Popular Culture is set for release July 2008.
Oscar Casares, Assistant Professor of English, is highlighted in “A Border Story: Writer Explores Brownsville and Fútbol”.
He is currently writing a novel set in South Texas that tells the story of his family’s migration from Mexico to Texas in 1850. His story, “Are You Ready for Some Fútbol?” appeared in The Best of American Sports Writing (2007).
James Cox, Assistant Professor of English, describes his new book project, "Indigenous Mexico in Native American Storytelling Traditions: Immigration, Nationalism, Revolution." Cox will consider how writing about Indigenous Mexico by Native American authors contributes to twenty-first century discussions of immigration and border security.
TEXAS
—after the Spanish of Jorge Luis Borges
Here as well. Here, as at the other
End of the hemisphere, an endless
Plain where a lone call-to-arms
Dies out. Here too the lasso, the Indian,
And the colt . . . as well as the bird
That no one sees singing over the roar
Of history to keep a single afternoon
Memorable. Here too the mystic
Alphabet of stars dictating to my pen
Names the unceasing labyrinth
Of days has not effaced: San Jacinto
And that other Thermopylae, the Alamo.
Here as well the utterly unfamiliar,
Anxious and brief thing called life.
—translated by Kurt Heinzelman, English Professor, from "Black Butterflies" (Mulberry Press, 2004)