Chicanx Poetry: The Living Lyric

doi:10.1017/9781108917315.017

Chapter 16 - Chicanx Poetry: The Living Lyric

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2024

Anita Huizar-Hernández

Edited by

José Ramón Ruisánchez Serra ,

Anna M. Nogar and

Ignacio M. Sánchez Prado

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José Ramón Ruisánchez Serra: Affiliation:
University of Houston

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Summary

This comprehensive review of Chicanx poetry considers the lyric poetry of Greater Mexico as an ongoing evolution of and conversation with varied poetic traditions at the crossroads of geopolitical, cultural, and expressive exchange. This chapter addresses this arc, beginning with oral forms such as the corrido, and examines the ascendency of poetry in the early borderlands press, which was anchored by colonial New Spanish lyric poetry. The focus then turns to the flourishinging of Chicano/a/x poetry in the 1960s through the 1980s via the establishment of Chicano/a/x publication outlets and independent printing presses as well as through Chicano/a/x-specific literary prizes. The chapter concludes by considering the form’s coevolution with Chicano/a/x identity and politics to the present day, including a return to oral forms such as slam poetry, and its evolving relationship with other Latino/a/x cultural productions.

Keywords

Epic poetry corrido, slam poetry spoken word Spanish-language newspapers in the U.S.Chicana/o/x Movement Latinidad

Type: Chapter
Information: A History of Mexican Poetry , pp. 294 - 312

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108917315.017 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2024

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