1. Questions for “Everyday Use”
• In what ways does your heritage define you?
• Why does Mama choose to call Dee by her preferred
name?
• What do you thing Wangeroo (Dee) means when she
says that the quilt is "priceless"?
• What do Maggie's and Dee's ways of dressing say
about their personalities?
• Why does Dee want the quilts and what does she
plan on doing with them?
• How does the mom look and who makes her feel as
though she should look different?
• Who is honoring her heritage more, Maggie, who is
using the quilts or Dee, who wants to hang the quilts?
• What finally compels the mother of the two to put
Maggie's needs and wants first rather than favoring
Dee's desires?
3. What are some of the common themes you found in Latino
writing as you assembled this collection?
First and foremost is the idea of the search for a place to call
home, individually and collectively. Are we at home in
America? What does America mean to us? And what do we
mean to America? This question of home results in tension
between rebellion and consent. A current throughout the
collection is frustration, anger and outright rebellion,
particularly during the Civil Rights era, and the quest for
validation. Then there’s the gender theme: How is gender
dealt with in Latino society? The works in the anthology also
explore the impact of poverty and alienation on a person’s
mind and spirit.
4. What defines Latino literature?
Two prominent terms, “Latino” and “Hispanic,” refer to
people living in the United States who have roots in Latin
America, Spain, Mexico, South America, or Spanish-
speaking Caribbean countries. “Hispanic” is a reference to
Hispania, the name by which Spain was known in the
Roman period, and there has always been strong
ambivalence toward Spain in its former colonies. Hispanic
was the term adopted by the government—by the Nixon
government in particular— and that made the community
feel it was being branded. The term “Latino” has emerged as
more authentic, although it’s gender specific. In any case
these two terms, at present, keep on fighting for space.
Newspapers will sometimes use both in the same article as
if editors chose not to choose.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/what-defines-latino-literature-
73399798/#CDqKiW2MybTXqbJF.99
5. AMERICAN LITERATURE: DIVERGENCE &
C0MMONALITY BY VIRGIL SUAREZ
• http://usa.usembassy.de/etexts/soc/ijse0200pp32-37.pdf
Hispanic American literature contains, within its tent, writings from
different countries and cultures. Villareal represents one of the major
Hispanic groups to contribute -- Mexican Americans. (A word of
definition is in order. Mexican Americans are distinguished from
Chicanos in that the former feel more of a national identity with Mexico;
Chicanos, on the other hand, are more culturally allied with the United
States and particularly with Native Americans.) To a great extent, their
literary tradition owes a debt to the corrido, the popular ballads of the
mid-19th century that recounted heroic exploits. These corridos were
also precursors to Chicano poetry of the 20th century, laying the
foundation for a poetics that fuses the oral and the written, music and
word. In the corrido we begin to see the mixing of the Spanish with the
English, thus creating a new language with which to express a new
reality.
6. Magic/ Mystical Realism
http://www.britannica.com/art/magic-realism
Chiefly Latin-American narrative strategy that is characterized by the
matter-of-fact inclusion of fantastic or mythical elements into seemingly
realistic fiction. Although this strategy is known in the literature of many
cultures in many ages, the term magic realism is a relatively recent
designation, first applied in the 1940s by Cuban novelist Alejo
Carpentier, who recognized this characteristic in much Latin-American
literature. Some scholars have posited that magic realism is a natural
outcome of postcolonial writing, which must make sense of at least two
separate realities—the reality of the conquerors as well as that of the
conquered. Prominent among the Latin-American magic realists are
the Colombian Gabriel García Márquez, the Brazilian Jorge Amado,
the Argentines Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortazar, and the
Chilean Isabel Allende.
7. Symbolism of Moths in the stories.
• Across a range of different cultures, most notably Latin
culture, the presence of moths represent the imminent
death of someone or something beloved.
• In many cultures moths represent incurable illness.
• The color white is synonymous with purity across almost
all cultures. In this same vain white moths are often
considered to symbolize purity, truth and cleanliness.
• Superstitions: individuals often combine this symbolism
to consider white moths to represent a pure, cleansed
soul. In this sense it is considered a blessing.
8. “The Moths” discussion questions
• What are the representations of patriarchy in this story? Is
there intersectionality? Describe the intersections.
• Who is oppressing the protagonist and why? What is a
feminist interpretation of the reasons for her oppression?
Does queer theory come into play here?
• How does she respond to her oppressors? Why?
• Where is the protagonist’s true home? How does the
relationship with her abuelita represent her spirituality? What
shows her connection with nature and how she knows that
she can give back something that her abuela needs.
• Why do you think that the story is entitled “The Moths?”
9. Mythical Performativity:
Relocating Aztlán in Chicana Feminist Cultural
Productions Alicia Arrizón
HTTP://MUSE.JHU.EDU/ARTICLE/34675
• The term "Aztlán" redefines space. Its discursive configurations,
ranging from ancient mythology to land annexation, are engaged
repeatedly in Chicano cultural studies and Chicana feminist
practices. From the "manifesto" of the nationalist Chicano
movement to the radical feminist perspectives in Cherríe
Moraga's queer configurations of space and bodies, the
genealogy of Aztlán affects cultural identity, shaping the ongoing
modifications--and sometimes, commodifications--of the
collectivity. According to myth, Aztlán is the ancestral homeland
in the north that the Aztecs left in 1168 when they journeyed
southward to found the promised land, Tenochtitlán (Mexico
City), in 1325.
10. Arrizón continued
Many Chicanas and Chicanos, in locating the US
Southwest as the geographical site of this pre-Hispanic
homeland, claim that they are descendants of Ollin
Tonatiuh (the Nahuatl name for the Fifth Sun). As Armando
B. Rendón explains, the Fifth Sun "is the very foundation of
life, of spirituality, not in the restricted sense of an
organized religion but in the nature of a common bond
among all soul creatures.” Aztlán thus represents the
spiritual power of unity among a people who see in their
common pre-Hispanic heritage and indigenous past a
source of cultural affirmation in the present.
11. Arrizón continued
For Chicano nationalists, Aztlán's spiritual reality
helps combat racism and exploitation, while its
physical reality justifies contemporary efforts to
reclaim this lost land. Gloria Anzaldúa conceptualizes
Aztlán in more complex terms as an in-between
place, coinciding with the physical and metaphysical
space of the US-Mexico border. The border is the
place where the First and Third Worlds meet in a
head-on confrontation: it is "where the Third World
grates against the first and bleeds."
12. “The Ruins”
• Discuss the intersectionality of class (The patrician Sr.
Jose Romero, Dona Luz, Don Jesus Maria Figueroa),vs.
the townspeople who have given up their heritage in
favor of the world series and, video games and the
Circle K), the city fathers (the patriarchy), the church and
the role it plays in the relationship between Alma and her
mother, and Chicano and White race.
• What and who do Alma, Dona Luz, and the ruins
represent about the value of heritage? Do you feel that
the heritage is lost? What leads you to think so? What
does the corrido symbolize?
• How does this story compare to “Everyday Use” in its
symbolism and sense of heritage and pride?
