Chicana Memoir and the DREAMer Generation : Reyna Grande’s The Distance Between Us as Neo-colonial Critique and Feminist Testimonio

• Authors: Marion Christina Rohrleitner
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Reyna Grande’s 2012 memoir The Distance Between Us exemplifi es the ongoing infl uence of the Latin American testimonio on contemporary life writing by immigrants to the United States from the Southern hemisphere, in order to effect social change. Specifi cally, Grande’s text aims to mobilise readers to facilitate immigration reform for the so-called Dreamers, undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as minors. The memoir further showcases how Mexican immigrant writers such as Grande continue genreblending traditions in Chicana feminist literature in an effort to fi nd an appropriate expression for their complex experiences with migration as gendered, raced, and classed individuals. In doing so, Grande produces a unique form of life writing that is equally inspired by oral narrative, testimonio, autobiography and memoir.

Keywords

EN

Chicana memoir; testimonio; undocumented immigrants; Reyna Grande

Discipline

• SOCIOLOGY: SOCIOLOGY

• Publisher: Institute of Sociology, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Gender a výzkum / Gender and Research
• Year: 2017
• Volume: 18
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 36-54
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Marion Christina Rohrleitner

• Gender a výzkum / Gender and Research Sociologický ústav AV ČR, v.v.i. / Institute of Sociology CAS, Jilská 1, 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic

Identifiers

DOI

10.13060/25706578.2017.18.2.370