ABSTRACT

The chapter provides an attention to form and genre adds another layer to the trans-American aesthetic productions and literary relations delineated by scholars such as Jose David Saldivar, Kirsten Silva Gruesz, Anna Brickhouse, Doris Sommer, Lois Parkinson Zamora, Ana Patricia Rodriguez, Alicia Schmidt Camacho, and Raul Coronado who have mined hemispheric connections that are not visible through the optic of nationally bounded literary studies. A partial list of Latina and Latino writers who have published in this genre includes: Daniel Alarcon, Alfredo Corchado, Francisco Goldman, Daniel Hernandez, Sonia Nazario, Mirta Ojito, Hector Tobar, and Luis Alberto Urrea. Just as genres cross borders, so do peoples. In order for students to understand contemporary Latinos/as and their cultural production, they must first acquire a historical consciousness about Latin American immigration to the United States. The chapter proposes the chronicle and the dictator novel are two highly useful genres through which people can teach such important historical and contemporary transnational issues.