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Mexican American Experience
Chicano Popular Culture: Que Hable el Pueblo
Over the past several decades, Mexican Americans have made an indelible mark on American culture through the music of bands such as Santana and Los Lobos, films such as Zoot Suit, and a wide range of literature, such as Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street. Now Charles Tatum introduces students to these and other forms of artistic expression in the first volume to provide a wide-ranging overview of Chicano popular culture. Tatum explores the broad and complex arena of popular culture among Americans of Mexican descent and explains what popular culture can tell them about themselves. Reviewing a range of expressive arts, from traditional forms to electronic media, he explains the differences and similarities between Chicano popular culture and that of other ethnic groups or of Anglo society and shows how Chicano arts reflect a people's traditions and heritage. The book's coverage focuses on five areas of popular culture. It explores
- Mexican American and Chicano music from the sixteenth century to the present day;
- cinema, focusing on Chicano films of the past three decades;
- newspapers, radio, and television, explaining the interrelationship between these media;
- literature, emphasizing fiction, theater, and poetry of the last thirty years;
- and fiestas, celebrations, and art, including mural and graffiti art. Tatum provides a brief overview of Mexican American social history, paying particular attention to changing cultural perspectives over the past 150 years and the evolution of el movimiento chicano. He also introduces theories of popular culture and makes them accessible to students, enabling them to better understand the material covered in the text. No other book offers such a wide-ranging introduction to these cultural expressions of Mexican Americans today. Chicano Popular Culture invites readers to share the excitement of these vital arts and, through them, to learn more about the uniqueness of America's fastest-growing minority. Chicano Popular Culture and Mexican Americans and Health are the first volumes in the series The Mexican American Experience, a cluster of modular texts designed to provide greater flexibility in undergraduate education. Each book deals with a single topic concerning the Mexican American population. Instructors can create a semester-length course from any combination of volumes, or may choose to use one or two volumes to complement other texts.
- Mexican American and Chicano music from the sixteenth century to the present day;
- cinema, focusing on Chicano films of the past three decades;
- newspapers, radio, and television, explaining the interrelationship between these media;
- literature, emphasizing fiction, theater, and poetry of the last thirty years;
- and fiestas, celebrations, and art, including mural and graffiti art. Tatum provides a brief overview of Mexican American social history, paying particular attention to changing cultural perspectives over the past 150 years and the evolution of el movimiento chicano. He also introduces theories of popular culture and makes them accessible to students, enabling them to better understand the material covered in the text. No other book offers such a wide-ranging introduction to these cultural expressions of Mexican Americans today. Chicano Popular Culture invites readers to share the excitement of these vital arts and, through them, to learn more about the uniqueness of America's fastest-growing minority. Chicano Popular Culture and Mexican Americans and Health are the first volumes in the series The Mexican American Experience, a cluster of modular texts designed to provide greater flexibility in undergraduate education. Each book deals with a single topic concerning the Mexican American population. Instructors can create a semester-length course from any combination of volumes, or may choose to use one or two volumes to complement other texts.
248 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 31, 2026
This is a peculiar book to read - not a bad book, necessarily, but a peculiar one.
I really do appreciate that the first chapter is more theoretical and setting the stage - what IS popular culture? Before the author can talk about Chicano popular culture, he has to address what popular culture means in general and different theorists (such as the Frankfurt School, Gramsci) who would be relevant. I also do appreciate that the author includes some Chicano theorists as well, so that this isn't JUST transferring early-20th century European conceptions. Personally, my main historical focus is the early modern period, so I wasn't really sure what this book would frame as popular culture when I started.
Unfortunately I am still not entirely sure because I don't think the opening chapter was entirely clear, but it seems to be relatively mass-produced or at least mass-replicated culture with an audience and some monetary aspect. I do wish that the intro were a little more direct. The author repeatedly mentions that he wishes he had more space to discuss food, but I am not sure how that would fit it given that most of the rest of the book focuses on media and performance art.
With that, there are 5 more chapters to this book each focusing on a different aspect of this nebulous pop culture. Chapter 2 is about music discussing folk music of New Mexico, Tejano, and then California music. Ritchie Valens, Los Lobos, Santana, and probably a dozen others all appear.
Chapter 3 is about film and cinema, and to its credit this is probably the most fleshed-out section. There are 6 pages as an annotated list of "Chicano Cinema of the late 1960s through the 1990s", which is incredibly helpful if you wanted to see old-timey movies.
Chapter 4 is about newspapers, radio, and television, and unfortunately this is the section which has aged the worse. To quote a Hector Lavoe song, "Quién paga para leer un periódico de ayer?". I can't imagine why anybody would want to read a vague synopsis of largely-defunct media, as in these are essentially all historical at this point. However, I did learn something: the author pointed out that because TV is inherently more expensive and has more production, that it is a lot more centralized both in terms of ownership (corporations) and audience (national, often pan-Hispanic channels like Univision and Telemundo). In contrast, because radio is a lot simpler there are more opportunities for local stations dedicated to very specific audience. Chicano radio exists in a way that Chicano TV doesn't. So while the shows and programs named are largely defunct, the media studies element is interesting.
Chapter 5 is about literature, and this is both intriguing and incredibly frustrating. On the one hand, the author brings up all sorts of important figures - Corky Gonzalez and "I am Joaquín", El Teatro Campesino which apparently now lives in San Juan Bautista, Luis Valdez and Zoot Suit, the entire genre of the Chicano Mystery Novel which I had no idea was even a thing until I read this book. On the other hand, this chapter epitomizes the author's approach of focusing more on publishing history, broadcasting rights, etc., than on analyzing the content of any of the pop culture in this book.
I am going to pick on Rudolfo Anaya as an example. "Bless Me Última" is a beloved classic, and as the author notes Ultima awakens in Antonio "the memory of the timeless, mythological figures that inhabit his past, teaching him a profound respect for the mystical legends and folk wisdom that have survived through the centuries" (p. 136). What I learned from this author is that Anaya also wrote a detective trilogy in which the main antagonist is "a sun-worship cult from a nearby Indian Pueblo" (p. 146). A recurring theme in Rudolfo Anaya's work is Chicano characters who are clearly connected to inherited indigenous beliefs and practices, but who explicitly deny this heritage and solely identify with the Spanish conquistadors and who are at time hostile to the handful of identified Indian characters. In a way, it's a clever mise en abyme commentary on how New Mexico Mexican-Americans think of themselves and construct an utterly "Other" Indian, right up to the 2026 when I am writing this. So . . . are we going to comment on this? Nope!
OK, maybe asking the author to elaborate on Rudolfo Anaya's commentary on New Mexico identity and the denial of indigeneity is a bit much to ask. How about this interesting line.
"Chavez's "Last of the Menu Girls" is a semi-autobiographical, bittersweet work of seen interrelated sections. Like so many other popular Chicano works of prose fiction (e.g. Jose Antonio Villareal's Pocho, Tomás Rivera's . . . y no se tragó la tierra, and Sandra Cisnero's the House on Mango Street) this is a coming-of-age novel" (p. 140).
You know, that is actually an insightful observation from the author. I never noticed that but he is right, and we can add Bless Me Última to the pile. I am taking a community college class where we will be reading "Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe", which is also a coming-of-age novel. This makes me wonder why the coming-of-age novel seems to be so incredibly popular within Mexican-American fiction. Well . . . I guess I'll have to keep wondering or maybe talk about it with my class, because the author certainly isn't going to pause and discuss it! The author never dwells on a work for more than a page, and never steps back to discuss themes or genre or interconnectivity.
Then Chapter 6 is a hodgepodge of traditions, which honestly puzzled me. Chapter 1 tried to distinguish pop culture and folk culture - are cascarones and Marian shrines and luminarias not folk culture? Why are they in this book?
This book really feels more like an extended media production history with several generously-annotated bibliographies, than an actual analysis or interpretation of pop culture. Do with that what you will. For me, I learned some things reading this but I probably won't give this a re-read.
I really do appreciate that the first chapter is more theoretical and setting the stage - what IS popular culture? Before the author can talk about Chicano popular culture, he has to address what popular culture means in general and different theorists (such as the Frankfurt School, Gramsci) who would be relevant. I also do appreciate that the author includes some Chicano theorists as well, so that this isn't JUST transferring early-20th century European conceptions. Personally, my main historical focus is the early modern period, so I wasn't really sure what this book would frame as popular culture when I started.
Unfortunately I am still not entirely sure because I don't think the opening chapter was entirely clear, but it seems to be relatively mass-produced or at least mass-replicated culture with an audience and some monetary aspect. I do wish that the intro were a little more direct. The author repeatedly mentions that he wishes he had more space to discuss food, but I am not sure how that would fit it given that most of the rest of the book focuses on media and performance art.
With that, there are 5 more chapters to this book each focusing on a different aspect of this nebulous pop culture. Chapter 2 is about music discussing folk music of New Mexico, Tejano, and then California music. Ritchie Valens, Los Lobos, Santana, and probably a dozen others all appear.
Chapter 3 is about film and cinema, and to its credit this is probably the most fleshed-out section. There are 6 pages as an annotated list of "Chicano Cinema of the late 1960s through the 1990s", which is incredibly helpful if you wanted to see old-timey movies.
Chapter 4 is about newspapers, radio, and television, and unfortunately this is the section which has aged the worse. To quote a Hector Lavoe song, "Quién paga para leer un periódico de ayer?". I can't imagine why anybody would want to read a vague synopsis of largely-defunct media, as in these are essentially all historical at this point. However, I did learn something: the author pointed out that because TV is inherently more expensive and has more production, that it is a lot more centralized both in terms of ownership (corporations) and audience (national, often pan-Hispanic channels like Univision and Telemundo). In contrast, because radio is a lot simpler there are more opportunities for local stations dedicated to very specific audience. Chicano radio exists in a way that Chicano TV doesn't. So while the shows and programs named are largely defunct, the media studies element is interesting.
Chapter 5 is about literature, and this is both intriguing and incredibly frustrating. On the one hand, the author brings up all sorts of important figures - Corky Gonzalez and "I am Joaquín", El Teatro Campesino which apparently now lives in San Juan Bautista, Luis Valdez and Zoot Suit, the entire genre of the Chicano Mystery Novel which I had no idea was even a thing until I read this book. On the other hand, this chapter epitomizes the author's approach of focusing more on publishing history, broadcasting rights, etc., than on analyzing the content of any of the pop culture in this book.
I am going to pick on Rudolfo Anaya as an example. "Bless Me Última" is a beloved classic, and as the author notes Ultima awakens in Antonio "the memory of the timeless, mythological figures that inhabit his past, teaching him a profound respect for the mystical legends and folk wisdom that have survived through the centuries" (p. 136). What I learned from this author is that Anaya also wrote a detective trilogy in which the main antagonist is "a sun-worship cult from a nearby Indian Pueblo" (p. 146). A recurring theme in Rudolfo Anaya's work is Chicano characters who are clearly connected to inherited indigenous beliefs and practices, but who explicitly deny this heritage and solely identify with the Spanish conquistadors and who are at time hostile to the handful of identified Indian characters. In a way, it's a clever mise en abyme commentary on how New Mexico Mexican-Americans think of themselves and construct an utterly "Other" Indian, right up to the 2026 when I am writing this. So . . . are we going to comment on this? Nope!
OK, maybe asking the author to elaborate on Rudolfo Anaya's commentary on New Mexico identity and the denial of indigeneity is a bit much to ask. How about this interesting line.
"Chavez's "Last of the Menu Girls" is a semi-autobiographical, bittersweet work of seen interrelated sections. Like so many other popular Chicano works of prose fiction (e.g. Jose Antonio Villareal's Pocho, Tomás Rivera's . . . y no se tragó la tierra, and Sandra Cisnero's the House on Mango Street) this is a coming-of-age novel" (p. 140).
You know, that is actually an insightful observation from the author. I never noticed that but he is right, and we can add Bless Me Última to the pile. I am taking a community college class where we will be reading "Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe", which is also a coming-of-age novel. This makes me wonder why the coming-of-age novel seems to be so incredibly popular within Mexican-American fiction. Well . . . I guess I'll have to keep wondering or maybe talk about it with my class, because the author certainly isn't going to pause and discuss it! The author never dwells on a work for more than a page, and never steps back to discuss themes or genre or interconnectivity.
Then Chapter 6 is a hodgepodge of traditions, which honestly puzzled me. Chapter 1 tried to distinguish pop culture and folk culture - are cascarones and Marian shrines and luminarias not folk culture? Why are they in this book?
This book really feels more like an extended media production history with several generously-annotated bibliographies, than an actual analysis or interpretation of pop culture. Do with that what you will. For me, I learned some things reading this but I probably won't give this a re-read.
November 27, 2023
Can be a bit dry, but informative! It was interesting to be able to understand who they were talking about and to think back on the shows/events/people with the information given in the book.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews