Open AccessA Chicano childhood experience
Author(s) -
Amaia Ibarrarán Bigalondo
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of english studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.115
H-Index - 4
eISSN - 1695-4300
pISSN - 1576-6357
DOI - 10.18172/jes.57
Subject(s) - confession (law) , ethnic group , gender studies , politics , sociology , mexican americans , thematic analysis , anthropology , qualitative research , political science , law
The difficult social and cultural situation that the Chicano community has suffered after the signing of theTreaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, has been overtly manifested in the Literature produced by its writers. Themes such as the social and economical conditions of the members of the Chicano community, schooling and housing, the situation of the workers in the fields, portrayals of the first organized political movements, family and domestic relationships etc., are widely found in the Literature written by Chicano authors. Chicanas, on their part, also use the novel for vindicatory purposes. Their body of Literature also deals with subjects that account for their constrained existence as members of an oppressed gender and ethnic group. The first Chicano novels are, in general terms, therefore, "adult" novels even though Monserrat Fontes¿ First Confession is one of the exceptions in which childhood and children's voices are portrayed in a novel, a thematic analysis of the novel demonstrates that many of the most recurrent themes of the female novel are present in this story.