Border Matters: Remapping American Cultural Studies (American Crossroads)

by José David Saldívar

Border Matters locates the study of Chicano culture in a broad social context. José Saldívar examines issues of representation and expression in a diverse, exciting assortment of texts― corridos , novels, poems, short stories, punk and hip-hop music, ethnography, paintings, performance, art, and essays. Saldívar provides a sophisticated model for a new kind of U.S. cultural studies, one that challenges the homogeneity of U.S. nationalism and popular culture by foregrounding the contemporary experiences and historical circumstances facing Chicanos and Chicanas.

This intellectually adventurous, politically engaged study applies borderlands and diaspora theory to Chicano cultural practices in a way that permanently changes our understanding of both the Chicano experience and the meaning of cultural theory. Defying national (and nationalistic) paradigms of culture, Saldívar argues that the culture of the borderlands is trans-national, constituting a social space in which new relations, hybrid cultures, and multi-voiced aesthetics are negotiated.

Saldívar's critical readings treat culture as a social force and reveal the presence of social contexts within cultural texts. Border Matters maps out a new terrain for the study of culture, reshaping the way we understand migration, national identity, and intellectual inquiry itself.

Genres: Nonfiction

268 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1997

Reviews

[Melissa Stacy · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Border Matters: Remapping American Cultural Studies," by José David Saldívar, first published in 1997, is a nonfiction book examining the complex, "hybridized" culture present in the geographical location surrounding the 2,000-mile-long United States border with Mexico.

"Border Matters" grounds itself in the work of Néstor García Canclini, an academic and anthropologist who developed the concept of "cultural hybridization": a phenomenon that "materializes in multi-determined scenarios where diverse systems intersect and interpenetrate." Saldívar further develops and expands upon this idea regarding the "cultural hybridity" of Chicano/a, Mexican, and U.S. cultures in "Border Matters."

The prose is incredibly dense, and the subject matter in this book was entirely unknown to me. I had never heard of Néstor García Canclini before, or the vast majority of the artists, authors, academics, and researchers named in this book. I had to do a *lot* of extra reading and additional research, looking up bios, videos, and source material online, in order to keep up with the text.

It was highly rewarding, but if I hadn't put in all the extra effort, this book would not have made any sense to me. This is a very demanding and challenging read. I definitely took a crash course on Chicano/a studies by reading "Border Matters."

A truly excellent read. Five stars. Highly recommended to anyone interested in Chicano/a studies, or learning more about life along the U.S./Mexico border.

[Gina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very academic, so while it brings up a lot of interesting materials, it can kind of drag, especially if you are not familiar with the referenced literature. I think it is at its best when looking at popular music.

Key focus is on comparisons to post-modernism and the subaltern.

[Khurram Rana]

sssssssss

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fine, an exploration of American studies via border cultural production

[Nicolas Shump · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the subject states, this is a book that wants to shift the focus of American Cultural Studies away from the East-West Manifest Destiny trajectory. It is definitely theoretical, but when I sat in on a grad class reading this text, the majority of the students were lukewarm or indifferent to it. Which might serve as support of Saldivar's project, but I think too that most of us had no familiarity with the "texts" he used.