"Ranging from the literature of colonialism and conquest to a contemporary look at Mexican life and letters, the book presents a cross-section of Mexican authors' thoughts on writing, including works by Carlos Fuentes, Bernardo de Balbuena, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Octavio Paz, Elena Poniatowska, and others"--Provided by publisher.

Hay Festival, the British Council and Conaculta have joined forces to bring twenty young writers under the age of forty to an international readership. These exciting new voices come together in an anthology of short pieces, giving a glimpse of Mexico's outstanding literary culture. Following in the footsteps of the likes of Octavio Paz and Carlos Fuentes, the writers capture an era of shifting boundaries and growing violence, where the country's rapid modernization is often felt to be at the cost of its artistic heritage. Broken families, a man in a birdcage, a lone swimmer - all stories betray a quest for the self when the feeling of loss pervades. Pushkin Press is proud to present these vibrant and moving narratives: Contributors: DBC Pierre, Cristina Riverza Garza, Juan Pablo Anaya, Gerardo Arana, Nicolás Cabral, Verónica Gerber, Pergentino José, Laia Jufresa, Luis Felipe Lomelí, Brenda Lozano, Valeria Luiselli, Fernanda Melchor, Emiliano Monge, Eduardo Montagner Anguiano, Antonio Ortuño, Eduardo Rabasa, Antonio Ramos Revillas, Eduardo Ruiz Sosa, Daniel Saldaña, Ximena Sánchez, Echenique, Carlos Velázquez, Nadia Villafuerte.

How did men become the stars of the Mexican intellectual scene? Dude Lit examines the tricks of the trade and reveals that sometimes literary genius rests on privileges that men extend one another and that women permit. The makings of the “best” writers have to do with superficial aspects, like conformist wardrobes and unsmiling expressions, and more complex techniques, such as friendship networks, prizewinners who become judges, dropouts who become teachers, and the key tactic of being allowed to shift roles from rule maker (the civilizado) to rule breaker (the bárbaro). Certain writing habits also predict success, with the “high and hard” category reserved for men’s writing and even film directing. In both film and literature, critically respected artwork by men tends to rely on obscenity interpreted as originality, negative topics viewed as serious, and coolly inarticulate narratives about bullying understood as maximum literary achievement. To build the case regarding “rebellion as conformity,” Dude Lit contemplates a wide set of examples while always returning to three figures, each born some two decades apart from the immediate predecessor: Juan Rulfo (with Pedro Páramo), José Emilio Pacheco (with Las batallas en el desierto), and Guillermo Fadanelli (with Mis mujeres muertas, as well as the range of his publications). Why do we believe Mexican men are competent performers of the role of intellectual? Dude Lit answers this question through a creative intersection of sources. Drawing on interviews, archival materials, and critical readings, this provocative book changes the conversation on literature and gendered performance.

For Love of the Dollar is a young writer's tale of ambitions undermined by economic forces, racial divides and artistic hubris. Hilarious, irreverent, even cynical, Servín worked in kitchens, gas stations, golf courses, and finally, as a "manny" for a dysfunctional Connecticut family. His view of the plight of the undocumented worker confronts as much what it means to be Mexican, as it does American, laying bare a version of the American dream few have had the courage to articulate.

Mexican Americans have traditionally had a strong land ethic, believing that humans must respect la tierra because it is the source of la vida. As modern market forces exploit the earth, communities struggle to control their own ecological futures, and several studies have recorded that Mexican Americans are more impacted by environmental injustices than are other national-origin groups. In our countryside, agricultural workers are poisoned by pesticides, while farmers have lost ancestral lands to expropriation. And in our polluted inner cities, toxic wastes sicken children in their very playgrounds and homes. This book addresses the struggle for environmental justice, grassroots democracy, and a sustainable society from a variety of Mexican American perspectives. It draws on the ideas and experiences of people from all walks of life—activists, farmworkers, union organizers, land managers, educators, and many others—who provide a clear overview of the most critical ecological issues facing Mexican-origin people today. The text is organized to first provide a general introduction to ecology, from both scientific and political perspectives. It then presents an environmental history for Mexican-origin people on both sides of the border, showing that the ecologically sustainable Norteño land use practices were eroded by the conquest of El Norte by the United States. It finally offers a critique of the principal schools of American environmentalism and introduces the organizations and struggles of Mexican Americans in contemporary ecological politics. Devon Peña contrasts tenets of radical environmentalism with the ecological beliefs and grassroots struggles of Mexican-origin people, then shows how contemporary environmental justice struggles in Mexican American communities have challenged dominant concepts of environmentalism. Mexican Americans and the Environment is a didactically sound text that introduces students to the conceptual vocabularies of ecology, culture, history, and politics as it tells how competing ideas about nature have helped shape land use and environmental policies. By demonstrating that any consideration of environmental ethics is incomplete without taking into account the experiences of Mexican Americans, it clearly shows students that ecology is more than nature study but embraces social issues of critical importance to their own lives.

Essential essays from “one of the most prolific, provocative, and pre-eminent historians working in the field of Mexican and Latin-American history today” (Susan Deans-Smith, author of Bureaucrats, Planters, and Workers). This collection brings together a group of important and influential essays on Mexican history and historiography by Eric Van Young, a leading scholar in the field. The essays, several of which appear here in English for the first time, are primarily historiographical; that is, they address the ways in which separate historical literatures have developed over time. They cover a wide range of topics: the historiography of the colonial and nineteenth-century Mexican and Latin American countryside; historical writing in English on the history of colonial Mexico; British, American, and Mexican historical writing on the Mexican Independence movement; the methodology of regional and cultural history; and the relationship of cultural to economic history. Some of the essays have been and will continue to be controversial, while others—for example, those on studies of the Mexican hacienda since 1980, on the theory and method of regional history, and on the “new cultural history” of Mexico—are widely considered classics of the genre. “Van Young is one of the two or three preeminent thinkers in the Mexican and Latin American field whose essays are of such pioneering and enduring value to warrant this kind of greatest hits collection. Not only does he cross fields and disciplines and integrate northern and southern intellectual currents, his essays are a pleasure to read and constitute a rare combination of analytical bite, erudition, and playfulness.” —Gilbert M. Joseph, Yale University