An expansive volume on Tejana identity and Tejanidad told through personal narratives, poetry, and essays. Being Tejanx is different than just being from Texas. Being Tejanx means you are a border subject. Being Tejanx means living in and from a certain history of oppression, possibility, activism, and cultural-linguistic hybridity arising within the US-Mexico borderland that is home. And being Tejanx means something in particular if you are a woman. In !Somos Tejanas!, editors Norma E. CantU and Jody A. MarIn assemble contemporary Tejanx writers who provide firsthand accounts of their experience of identity, enriching the field of Tejanx studies through an encounter with gender and sexuality. The contributions, including personal and scholarly essays, poems, criticism, and artworks, explore the heterogeneity of Tejana identity and the sociopolitical movements, stories, dances, music, and athletic feats that mark Tejanidad. Authors contemplate the history and memory of segregation in Texas, the struggles of surviving the unnatural disaster and blackouts of 2021 amid the global pandemic of COVID-19, and the drug-war violence and ever-tightening immigration restrictions that strangle a transborder way of life shared by millions. An unrepentant act of expression from women under attack by state policymakers, this collection dispels the silence imposed by colonial erasure.
Jody A. Marin is a full professor of English at Texas A&M University-Kingsville, where she also serves as the interim Writing Center Director. Norma E. Cantu is the Norine R. and T. Frank Murchison Distinguished Professor in Humanities at Trinity University. She has authored or edited multiple books, including co-editing Entre Guadalupe y Malinche: Tejanas in Literature and Art.
Introduction. Documenting Tejanas: Tejana Cultural Identity within the Tejanx Ethos (Jody A. MarIn and Norma E. CantU) Part I. ?QuiEnes somos? Searching for and Finding Who We Are Madre Land: An Abridged Guide for Blooming in the Borderlands by Seven Generations of Tejana Mothers & Mijas (Bonnie Ilza Cisneros) Becoming Tejana: A Familial and Academic Genealogy of My Tejanidad (Margaret E. CantU-SAnchez) From Luby's to Graceland (Elizabeth N. Flores) Fear, Voice, and Gritos: The Complexity of Embracing My Identity as a Tejana (Sonya Barrera Eddy) Un puente (Crystal Silva-McCormick) Rite of Passage (Elizabeth N. Flores) Tejanas unidas en identidad, sacrificio, y celebraciOn (Tejanas United in Identity, Sacrifice, and Celebration) (Kiri Avelar and Elisa De La Rosa) Embracing Our Tejanidad: Becoming Comadres Chingonas during COVID-19 (Mayra Olivares-Urueta and Ana MartInez) You Bring Out the Tejana in Me (Norma E. CantU) Somos Tejanas (Celeste GuzmAn Mendoza) Part II. Music, Dancing, and Cultural Movidas Tejano Music: Two Cultures, Two Genders (Miriam Romero) Tejanidad y Conjunto: Remembrance, Performance, and Expression of Tejanidad through Conjunto Music (Jody A. MarIn) Dynamics of Movement: Tejana Representation and Inclusion in the Dance Community (Sophia Salgado) "(No) soy Tejana": An Interview with Cynthia PErez, with an Essay on Tejana Storytelling (Romana Radlwimmer) LoterIa as an Expression of Tejanidad (Gabriela C. Zapata) The SandIa (Patricia Zamora) Miel de mesquite (Norma E. CantU) Part III. Resilience Notas on Teaching Tejana Studies in the Twenty-First-Century Classroom (Lilia Raquel Rosas) Unsilencing the Past and Re-membering: The Spirit Work of Movement-Era Tejanas (Brenda Sendejo) Tejanas Remembering Segregation: Intersections of Gender, Race, and Memory (Jennifer R. NAjera) Los cIrculos sociales: Tejanas in Higher Education 1925-1940s (Alberto Rodriguez and Jeffrey Glick) A Legacy of Tejana Athleticism: Community, Civil Rights, and Belonging since 1930 (Paulina A. Serrano) Midwest Tejanas: Navigating entre Mundos Juntas (Amanda Flores, Dianey Leal, AngElica Ruvalcaba, and Erika Vallejo) Radical Self-Love: A Theory of Being (Venetia June Pedraza) SNOVID, the Storm within the Storm (Domino Renee Perez) Blackout: White Walkers in Winterfell, c. 2021 (Liliana Valenzuela) Spanglish Sonnet (Dr. Lichita) Part IV: (Im)migration Vernix Caseosa (Dr. Lichita) Tejas Is My AztlAn: On Migrating from South to North and Affirming My Tejanidad (Brenci PatiNo) Crossing the Border to Better Times (MarIa-Luisa Ornelas-June) Changing Cultural Rhythms (Mary Helen PErez) Los Alacranes: Una Familia's Migration Story (Susana Nevarez-Marquez) Zapatos (Adriana DomInguez) Desert Women (Alma M. GarcIa) Part V. Artwork Urban Ecology (Reconquista) (Ashley Mireles) Emma Tenayuca (Ashley Mireles) Texans vs. Tejanos (Wendi Valladares) Chicano Kitchen (Wendi Valladares) Culebra Azul (Celeste De Luna) Healing Borderland Hand (Celeste De Luna) Soy Tejana (Mayra Zamora) Siempre Selena (Mayra Zamora) Frances con el Arbol de la Vida (Santa Barraza) Acknowledgments Contributors Index
!Somos Tejanas!, edited by Jody MarIn and Norma CantU, constructs a complex characterization of the Tejana. The works in this collection offer some common denominators, including Spanish language, immigration or migration, home and homeland, religion, freedom, family, food, song and dance, and other cultural components. The conclusion here is that there is no one way or right way to be Tejana, but together these ways comprise a beautiful composite. - Myrriah Gomez, University of New Mexico, author of Nuclear Nuevo Mexico: Colonialism and the Effects of the Nuclear Industrial Complex on Nuevomexicanos "?QuiEnes somos?" To answer this question, MarIn and CantU have curated a multidisciplinary, multi-genre, and multisensory collection of contemporary writings that trace the historical, political, and spiritual contours of a Tejana/e ethos. As a Texas transplant living in California, reading these essays felt like slipping on my favorite pair of weathered cowboy boots, evoking both the comfort of home and family and the discomfort of our colonial history. !Somos Tejanas! is an important contribution to the emerging field of Tejane Studies and to the bookshelf of Tejana transplants who need a slice of home. - Larissa M. Mercado-Lopez, California State University, coeditor of (Re)Mapping the Latina/o Literary Landscape: New Works and New Directions This book is more than an anthology - it is a manifesto of resilience and cultural preservation. By weaving together essays, testimonios, poetry, and art, the collection asserts the vitality and presence of Tejana identity in the face of systemic erasure. It is an essential text for understanding the complexities of borderland existence, offering a rich tapestry of narratives that challenge dominant histories and celebrate the power of storytelling. Through its genre-spanning approach, !Somos Tejanas! stands as a testament to the strength of a community that refuses to be silenced. (Southern Review of Books)
