Challenges Give Meaning to Our Lives: Francisco Jiménez and Social Justice

ALAN Review, Fall 2004 by Carlile, Susan

Using Obstacles as Building Blocks

As a writer, Jiménez sees himself in the tradition of other Latin American writers. "That's why I majored in Latin American Literature. One of the characteristics of Latin American literature is that it has a strong theme of social justice. And I think that carries over into a lot of literature written by Latinos and other ethnic groups. They come from a culture that has not been totally accepted or appreciated or has not been treated justly. That backdrop fuels one's vision for what one wants for the future ... for what one wants for our children and our children' s children. I realize that 1 am generalizing, but I see that that is the case with many U.S. Latino writers, like Rudolfo Anaya and Sandra Cisneros. Anaya was the one who suggested that I send the manuscript to the University of New Mexico. I admire Sandra Cisneros too. In The House on Mango Street, Esperanza says that she writes for her community. She voices the community from which she comes. Sabine R. Ulibarri, who has now passed away, is another writer who has documented the life of what he calls 'Hispanic societies' in New Mexico. His goal was to preserve the traditions that existed for centuries, from settlers from Spain. He is not as well known, but he wrote a collection of stories titled Tierra Arnarilla: Stories of New Mexico, the region in New Mexico that he was from."

Jiménez's career has been dedicated to incorporat ing different ethnic literatures into the canon of literature associated with the United States, which is often referred to as "American literature."

"In 1974 I proposed an ongoing discussion group at thi MLA on Chicano literature, with the idea of helping inte grate Mexican-American literature in American literature But when I proposed it, they placed it as part of Latin Ameri can literature. That was an uphill battle. I purposely invited Luis Leal, a Mexican literary critic who also has done a lot work on Chicano literature, to deliver a paper in the firs session. I also invited Tomás Rivera, Rolando Hinojosa Smith, and José Antonio Villareal, who wrote Pocho (1959) which is considered one of the first Mexican-American nov els published by a mainstream publisher; and Joseph Sum mers, a Latin American literary critic who had done a lot of work on Mexican literature. I titled the panel The Identifi cation and Analysis of Chicano Literature,' and Joseph Sum mers said, 'Francisco, I don't know if you want me on this panel because I am not Chicano.' I said, 'I am asking you to serve because you are a well-known literary critic. It would be silly for anyone to say that I cannot read Argentinean literature and write critical articles because I am no Argentinean.' He said, 'Well, not everyone thinks that way.' I said, 'Well, we have to be the models and break this nar row view.' Our goal was to try to get Mexican-American literature into the American canon so it would be recog nized and valued. We also believed that professors who an not Mexican-American did a wonderful job of teaching these works. Eventually our ideas took hold and now Mexican American literature, African-American literature, and so many others, are taught in English Departments.