Download or read book Somos Tejanas! written by Jody A. Marín and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2025-02-11 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This anthology, much like Norma Cantu's previous edited volume with us, Entre Guadalupe y Malinche: Tejanas in Literature and Art, brings together an impressive collection of poets, writers, scholars, and artists. But whereas Entre was an anthology of primary source material such as art, poetry and literature collected from the past century, "¡Somos Tejanas!" brings together poets, writers, artists, and academics to share contributions that rethink what Tejana identity and Tejanidad is, and could be, as a scholarly field of study (which they name Tejane studies) and as a way of being for readers both in the classroom and the general public. There is a mixture of critical essays on culture (including music, dance, and art) alongside poetry and short stories, offering nuanced texts rooted in Tejana culture. Part I includes poetry and personal narratives that explore the heterogeneity of Tejana identity. Part II focuses on cultural production and investigates the hidden transcripts of activism via cultural expression. Through the lens of these movidas, or sociopolitical movements, they are able to take a fresh look at how music, dance, material culture, and storytelling, identify them as Tejana. Part III considers the theme of resilience as a key aspect of Tejanidad in the past and present. Essays contemplate the history and memory of segregation in Texas and challenges to education in the past and present. Other essays take a historical look back at women's athletic participation in La Liga Hispano Americana Femenina and consider the struggles of surviving the historic winter storms and blackouts of 2021 during the COVID pandemic. Migration in and out of Texas is explored both in terms of the possibility of greater opportunities for Tejana women, but also in terms of displacement as de-territorialized existences. For instance, in the personal essay "Crossing the Border to Better Times" María Luisa Ornelas-June's reminisces about the fluidity of border crossing that outlined her teenage years in Laredo that is no longer possible due to drug cartel violence in Mexico and the ever-tightening border restrictions in the U.S. The final section on artwork explores visual representations of Tejana embodiment in all of its unique forms"--