I am working right now on a Chicano literature paper. Actually I have one of those in the works and another which is on postapocalyptic literature which includes a look at Mexican-Americans’ portrayal.
I feel a bit uncomfortable in the genre because I am not Mexican-American. I have no Spanish heritage at all. Zip. And I know that some people who work in this area would say that this means I should not work in it. However, if only Latinos read Latino literature, then a great portion of the reading population will miss some inspiring works.
I don’t want to contribute to the marginalization of chicano works. I would like to help make them more available.
When I was doing some research earlier, in English on Google, a major author whose work I wanted to write about didn’t come up at all. I don’t even know when he wrote the work, because I only have a book that it was reprinted in. Google has failed me. And it also says that chicano literature is marginalized, when Google doesn’t know it.
It’s an interesting conundrum.
Will it end in 2045 when the Hispanic population is the majority in the United States? That will be in my lifetime. I wonder how much of a difference that will make.
Who will be marginalized then?