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".

must make the Chicano aware of his social surroundings along

vwith his valuable historic heritage. Whereas Amiri Baraka viewed the black aesthetics as a cultural agent in the destruction of the Anglo social and political order, Chicano aesthetics' revolutionary natonalism aims at the spiritual sphere. Aztlán does not promote anti-Anglo violence, but affirms cultural and historic roots. Contrary to the centrifugal dynamics of black aesthetics, its Chicano counterpart displays centripetal tendencies. Instead of "teaching white men their deaths and cracking their faces open to the mad cries of the poor" (Baker 90), Chicano aesthetics struggles to create the New World Person, a global, historic actor taking part in the oppressed's struggle for social and economic improvement. yillareal's "Clemente Chacon" reinforces this centripetality: "I am a Mexican and I am an American and there is no reason in the world why I can't be both" (Shirley and Shirley 101). On the other hand Max Martinez echoes the views of Baraka and is close to cultural disengagement in his description of the Chicano as a "bronze skinned avenger" (Shirley and Shirley 154). Similarly, Oscar Zeta Acosta's notion of the Chicano as a "brown buffalo" firmly embedded in an Aztec-Mexican cultural context rejects Judeo-Christianity referring to Jesus as "strung-up man," and searches for ethnic identity demanding a name and language for his race (Shirley and Shirley 169). Martinez views Chicano culture in a dyad with the colonizer Anglo civilization. The "bronze skin" is not only a reference to the Brown Power Movement but an invocation of the heroic Aztec past. The "avenger" is a Hispanic superhero who as an equivalent to his numerous Anglo counterparts demonstrates the viability of Chicano culture. Acosta's "brown buffalo" carries a double meaning as well, as besides an obvious reference to the physical appearance of MexicanAmericans, the notion of the buffalo, the basic source of sustenance for Native Americans virtually made extinct, establishes a link with the Amerindian world. Whereas contrary to its African-American counterpart Chicano aesthetics follows the guidelines of the discipline more closely, its 81