Resumen de Chicanos: Stereotypes and search for self-dentity as seen through literature

Ángel Francisco Sánchez Escobar

• español

  Este trabajo analiza, a través de textos literarios, los estereotipos atribuidos a los chícanos. Muchos escritores norteamericanos se acercan a este tema con nociones preconcebidas de los emigrantes mexicanos y perpetúan dicha caricaturización. Al chicano se le describe, por un lado, realizando trabajos como jornalero, boxeador, jefe de bandas, navajero y revolucionario; y por otro, como vago, ignorante, y analfabeto. El escritor chicano, sin embargo, hace una representación real de su cultura -una cultura alienada por ciertos sectores de la sociedad norteamericana

• English

  This paper will analyze the stereotype of Chícanos by examining some of the literature written about them by Anglo and Chicano writers. Many Anglo writers approach this subject with preconceived notions of Mexicans which perpetuate the already existing sterotypes. They portray Chícanos, on the one hand, as farm-workers, boxers, gang leaders, knife-fighters, and revolutionaries, and, on the other, as lazy, ignorant, and illiterate people. A counter image is illustrated by the Chicano writer. He delineates a true representation of their traditional culture -a culture alienated by some segments of American society-.