Querencia

Reflections on the New Mexico Homeland

Edited by Vanessa Fonseca-ChávezLevi RomeroSpencer R. Herrera

$34.95	Paperback	978-0-8263-6160-8	June 2020
$34.95	E-book	978-0-8263-6161-5	June 2020

$34.95
Paperback
978-0-8263-6160-8
June 2020

$34.95
E-book
978-0-8263-6161-5
June 2020

Details

Overview

New Mexico cultural envoy Juan Estevan Arellano, to whom this work is dedicated, writes that querencia “is that which gives us a sense of place, that which anchors us to the land, that which makes us a unique people, for it implies a deeply rooted knowledge of place, and for that reason we respect it as our home.”

This sentiment is echoed in the foreword by Rudolfo Anaya, in which he writes that “querencia is love of home, love of place.” This collection of both deeply personal reflections and carefully researched studies explores the New Mexico homeland through the experiences and perspectives of Chicanx and indigenous/Genízaro writers and scholars from across the state. The importance of querencia for each contributor is apparent in their work and their ongoing studies, which have roots in the culture, history, literature, and popular media of New Mexico. Be inspired and enlightened by these essays and discover the history and belonging that is querencia.

Subjects: Cultural StudiesSouthwestLASA21

Contributor Bios

Vanessa Fonseca-Chávez is an assistant professor of English at Arizona State University and the coeditor of Spanish Perspectives on Chicano Literature: Literary and Cultural Essays.

Levi Romero, the inaugural Poet Laureate of New Mexico, is an assistant professor of Chicana and Chicano studies at the University of New Mexico. He is the author or coauthor of several books, including A Poetry of Remembrance: New and Rejected Works and Sagrado: A Photopoetics Across the Chicano Homeland (both from UNM Press).

Spencer R. Herrera is an associate professor of Spanish at New Mexico State University. He is the author of several books and is a coauthor of Sagrado: A Photopoetics Across the Chicano Homeland (UNM Press).

Acclaim

“Querencia provides us a language for expressing and making sense of deep-seated attachments to land and to the lived environment. This absorbing book opens up a discussion about place and belonging that is long overdue and sure to endure.”—John M. Nieto-Phillips, author of The Language of Blood: The Making of Spanish-American Identity in New Mexico, 1880s–1930s

“This collection is a thoughtful and unique approach to the complex relationship between place, land, identity, and culture.”—Adriana Nieto, associate professor in the Department of Chicana/o Studies at Metropolitan State University of Denver

Contents

List of Illustrations
Foreword. Querencia, mi patria chica
Rudolfo Anaya
Agradecimientos y Reconocimientos

Introduction. Mi Querencia: A Connection between Place and Identity
Levi Romero

Part I. Community Querencias
Chapter One. The Long, Wondrous Life of Ventura Chávez, 1926–2013
Simón Ventura Trujillo
Chapter Two. Remapping Patriotic Practices: The Case of the Las Vegas 4th of July Fiestas
Lillian Gorman
Chapter Three. Critical Reflections on Chicanx and Indigenous Scholarship and Activism
Kevin Brown, Vanessa Fonseca-Chávez, Tey Marianna Nunn, Irene Vásquez, Myla Vicenti Carpio

Part II. Screening Querencias
Chapter Four. Contested Querencia in The Last Conquistador by John J. Valadez and Cristina Ibarra
Vanessa Fonseca-Chávez
Chapter Five. Deep Roots in Community: Querencia and Salt of the Earth
Karen R. Roybal
Chapter Six. New Mexico Triptych: Querencia Etched in Wood, in Media, and in Our Memory
Spencer R. Herrera

Part III. Memory as Querencia
Chapter Seven. (Re)Signifying Gender and Sexuality for the Nuevomexicana Historical Body: The Politics of Reading Place in Women’s Tales from the New Mexico WPA: La Diabla a Pie
Bernadine Hernández
Chapter Eight. Erasing Querencia from Los Alamos: Racist and Sexualized Portrayals of New Mexican Women and Place in the Television Series Manhattan
Myrriah Gómez
Chapter Nine. Mestiza Consciousness a la MeXicana in Ultima and Agueda Martínez: Bridging and Legitimizing Querencia in the Borderlans
Norma A. Valenzuela

Part IV. Cultural Landscapes of Querencia
Chapter Ten. Ak’u, Beloved
C. Maurus Chino
Chapter Eleven. Homeland Security: Sustaining Indigenous Culture and People through Narrative (Re)Remembering and Future (Re)Imagining in Simon Ortiz’s Men on the Moon and Woven Stone
Jonathan Wilson
Chapter Twelve. La Querencia: The Genízaro Cultural Landscape Model of Community Land Grants in Northern New Mexico
Moises Gonzales

Part V. Storytelling as Querencia
Chapter Thirteen. La Llorona as Querencia: Shared Stories and Sense of Place
Kelly Medina-López
Chapter Fourteen. The Revolution Begins at La Cocina!
Patricia Marina Trujillo, Corrine Kaa Pedi Povi Sanchez, and Scott Davis
Chapter Fifteen. Following the Manito Trail: A Tale of Two Querencias
Levi Romero

Contributors
Index

Extras

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Nación Genízara

Aztlán

Gangs of the El Paso–Juárez Borderland

Sagrado

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