Reconsidering Jovita Gonzalez's Life, Letters, and Pre-1935 Folkloric Production: A Proto-Chicana's Conscious Revolt Against Anglo Academic Patriarchy

Authors

Diana Noreen Rivera, The University of Texas Rio Grande ValleyFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Spring 2011

Abstract

Jovita González has received critical praise and critical concern for her representations of South Texas Mexican culture and its people in her literary production. Critics have also questioned González’s personal identity politics in light of her academic affiliation with J. Frank Dobie, University of Texas folklorist and longtime editor of the Texas Folklore Society, who controversially instructed society members to write of the folk with picturesque flavor. My essay evaluates critical interpretations that position González and her work as conflicted, contradictory, and repressed-ultimately arguing against these interpretations. I argue that González demonstrates the ability to strategically challenge dominant Anglo modes of discourse, especially in discriminatory academic climates, personally and via her work. Using a framework that includes cultural theories by Chela Sandoval and Henry Louis Gates Jr., I position González as a subversive linguistic performer capable of polyvalent speech acts in her various contacts with Anglo academics and in her earlier folkloric productions to problematize critical studies that question González’s ethnic allegiance and the subversive quality of her pre-1935 folklore.

Comments

Copyright Chicana/Latina Studies.

Recommended Citation

Rivera, Díana Noreen. "Reconsidering Jovita González's Life, Letters, and Pre-1935 Folkloric Production: A Proto-Chicana's Conscious Revolt against Anglo Academic Patriarchy Via Linguistic Performance." Chicana/Latina Studies 10.2 (2011): 46-91.

Publication Title

Chicana/Latina Studies