New Chicana/Chicano Writing, Volume 2

A variety of styles and genres makes this volume entertaining, informative and provocative. Short stories by Dagoberto Gilb, Joel Huerta and Ed Chavez explore what is gained and what is lost on the borderlands between Anglo and Mexican-American cultures. Gilb does so wonderfully through the metaphor of a father's treasured wool shirt, lost while he was dreaming of rosier economic times. Though more didactic, Huerta's story of a family's hitting the glass ceiling of upward mobility is quite powerful. Arlene Mestas and Rowena A. Rivera tell folksier tales. Mestas's story of how a perpetually tardy man was late to his own funeral is both comic and poignant. Several accomplished poets and essayists round out the anthology nicely. Miguel Mendez, through shifts in style, is the most experimental of the contributors; his piece (which, like several of the works, appears in both English and Spanish) shows the rich and promising pool of culture and history from which these writers draw. Taken together, this impressive collection augurs a bright future for Chicana/Chicano literature, and will be of interest to those who keep track of the wide diversity of American and world literature. (Dec.)