In the Spirit of a New People

The Cultural Politics of the Chicano Movement

• Author(s): Randy J. Ontiveros,
• Publisher: NYU Press
• Pages: 233
• ISBN_10: 0814738842
  ISBN_13: 9780814738849
  
• Language: en
• Categories: Art / General , Art / American / Hispanic & Latino , History / United States / General , Political Science / Civil Rights , Social Science / General , SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural , Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural & Social , Social Science / Ethnic Studies / General , Social Science / Sociology / General , Social Science / Discrimination , Social Science / Ethnic Studies / American / Hispanic American Studies , Social Science / Social Classes & Economic Disparity ,

Description:...

Reexamining the Chicano civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s, In the Spirit of a New People brings to light new insights about social activism in the twentieth-century and new lessons for progressive politics in the twenty-first. Randy J. Ontiveros explores the ways in which Chicano/a artists and activists used fiction, poetry, visual arts, theater, and other expressive forms to forge a common purpose and to challenge inequality in America.

Focusing on cultural politics, Ontiveros reveals neglected stories about the Chicano movement and its impact: how writers used the street press to push back against the network news; how visual artists such as Santa Barraza used painting, installations, and mixed media to challenge racism in mainstream environmentalism; how El Teatro Campesino’s innovative “actos,” or short skits,sought to embody new, more inclusive forms of citizenship; and how Sandra Cisneros and other Chicana novelists broadened the narrative of the Chicano movement. In the Spirit of a New People articulates a fresh understanding of how the Chicano movement contributed to the social and political currents of postwar America, and how the movement remains meaningful today.