Legal Alien

Mexican American literature began to take shape in the latter half of the 1800s. This development of the field followed the Mexican American War, which ended with Mexico ceding what is today known as the American Southwest. With the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, tens of thousands of Mexican citizens became U.S. citizens and found themselves navigating new political territory overnight.

Initially, upper-class government officials and priests writing in Spanish led the field. Some of these works took the shape of plays and oral stories that communicated folk tales and critical historical events, as well as poems reflecting the ever-changing political landscape of the American Southwest. In “Teaching Chicano Literature: An Historical Approach,” Raymund Paredes notes that poetry in this period was often “lyrical, romantic, and meditative,” but a greater deal of it was politically charged.

This tradition of expressing political dissent through poetry exploded during the civil rights era of the 1960s, which greatly influenced Mexican American literature. This era saw the advent of publishing houses that produced many influential works in the field, leading to the “Chicano Literary Renaissance” that lasted through the 1970s. During this time, many influential works were published that reflected the multicultural experience: raised in Anglo society while of Mexican descent.