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".

The vaquero holding his own during a cattle drive incident demonstrates that Mexican-American culture is equal to Anglo civilization, and the very foundation of the latter's most cherished myth is of Hispanic origin. Gregorio Cortez and Jacinto Trevino first appear to be reversals of the American frontier hero, but both sacrifice themselves for the notion of compadrazgo. "The Disobedient Son" demonstrates the superiority of the community and family over individual pride. Both JFK and César Chávez had to confront their immediate surroundings: geopolitics and labor relations respectively, to promote the cause of the Mexican and greater Latin American community. In all cases the protagonist's victory is the community's triumph as well, presenting an opposing paradigm to Anglo-American individualism. One of the defining images of Chicano poetry is the notion of liminality, or the sense of being suspended, or caught between two cultures. Whereas the corrido born from the vortex of Anglo-Mexican cultural conflict anticipates this trope, it does not yet suffer from Padilla's "orphan complex:" a notion of alienation from the U.S. and a lack of spiritual link to Mexico (Perez

—Torres 65). The spiritual connection is present in the protagonists' sacrifices for the community and as Tomas Rivera asserts "the corrido ... is the primary vehicle through which a more spiritual totality is explained" (Leal and Barrón 17). Whereas the corrido places Mexican-American culture in a dualist framework, it fails to form a bridge between Chicano and Anglo cultures. In the merger of the aesthetic and the socio-cultural an "antidote to the disease of cultural and spiritual conquest" is provided (Pérez—Torres 47). The corrido also functions as the forerunner of multiculturalism and postmodernism. Pérez—Torres distinguishes two types of multiculturalism: the neotraditional view is a backlash against modernism, and the resistant school emphasizes inequality concentrating upon how different cultures function (15). The corrido's protagonists continuously face the unequal social and economic 68