There
are a number of contemporary books available that can enrich our awareness of
the history and culture of our homeland, the Llano Estacado. Places
Left Unfinished At The Time of Creation (first published in 1999) is one
such book. In relating the stories of
his extended family on both sides of the political and physical border of the
Rio Grande, author John Phillip Santos tells of the struggles of immigration,
assimilation, and pursuit of the American dream. Evoking the roots of his ranchero background,
Santos’ stories create a highly detailed mural in which new connections are
made with every viewing.
Until recent
years, Hispanics have been greatly under‑represented in English print. Texas has a long history of conflict between
Anglo and Hispanic members of the community.
Anglo culture of the last 150 years has often been cruel in its drive to
establish dominance over the multicultural mestizo
traditions of Aztlan (a Nahuatl term meaning Paradise, which is often used in
Chicano folklore to describe that portion of Mexico that was taken over by the
United States after the Mexican-American War of 1846). As this country matures and learns to respect
other traditions, a number of voices have begun to speak out with pride.
Santos’
"magical realism" style (reminiscent of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ One Hundred Years of Solitude)
transports the reader to "el inframundo" -- that mystical limbo in
which all that has been forgotten lives on in the subconscious of culture. According to Santos, "The ranchero life
is as old as the New World itself. Out
of its origins in the fierce horsemanship of the Españoles, and the Indians'
knowledge of the terrain, a rich culture emerged, built with mesquite, leather,
rope, corrugated tin, and an infinitude of barbed wire.”
Along
with Santos’ work, a substantial body of literature by Hispanic residents of
the southwest border region of the United States has arisen to express the
viewpoint of the disenfranchised, indigenous peoples of this country. Gloria Anzuldua’s fiercely defiant Borderlands in which the concept of
"borders” (which are set up to “...distinguish us from them”) is compared
to “borderlands” (“…a vague undetermined place created by the emotional residue
of an unnatural boundary…which can be either psychological or rhetorical in
nature…”), and Aristeo Brito’s The Devil
In Texas” (which describes modern‑day tensions in Presidio), though coming
from a different perspective, offer a hope similar to that of Rudolfo Anaya's
wonderful stories of the Llano Estacado to go beyond the mere cataloguing of
tragedies and suffering.
As Santos says,
"The strength of our democracy will rest on our collective understanding
of the innate worth of each other's oldest stories. This is our true manifest
destiny."
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