Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1996. [Vol. 3.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 23)

STUDIES - András Tarnóc: Ethnic Consciousness in Chicano Literature: The Voice of "La Raza".

public discourse. The "black legend," an Anglo-Saxon generated image symbolizing the cruelty of conquistadors toward Native Americans in the 16th century, resulted in the wholesale condemnation of the Spanish legacy: Spain has been tried and convicted in the forum of history. Her religion has been bigotry ... her statesmanship has been infamy: her diplomacy, hypocrisy: her wars have been massacres: her supremacy has been a blight and a curse, condemning continents to sterility, and their inhabitants to death. (Hunt 58) The "black legend" not only projected a negative attitude to a nation, but also led to stereotypical descriptions of Hispanic/Latino males culminating in the infamous "greaser" image. Jeremiah Clemens' Texas Romances emphasize the greasy appearance of the American Southwest: "The people look greasy, their houses are greasyeverywhere grease and filth hold divided dominion" (Rocard 11). Willa Cather's "The Dance at Chevalier's" points to the greasiness of a Mexican's hand and O.Henry accused the Mexican as the "greaser of the nation" (Rocard 11). Charles Fletcher Lummis described New Mexico as the "anomaly of the Republic, a land of poco tiempo," (Moquin 316) employing such soon to be time-worn images as selfsacrificing hospitality, and romantic savagery: "Last of all, the Mexicans; in-bred and isolation-shrunken descendants of the Castilian world-finders; living almost as much against the house as in it; ignorant as slaves, and more courteous than kings; poor as Lazarus and more hospitable than Croesus" (Moquin 318). The Development of Chicano Literature Leal and Barron's pre-Chicano literature period comprises both of Moquin's "Hispano-Indian synthesis" (1) and the literary activity of the "Mexican Southwest" (161). This period is dominated by historical descriptions of the Southwest, including Gaspar Perez de Villagra's 65