Henry

Personal Essay or Letter

Students will write either a personal letter or a short personal essay in which they explore two of the seven pieces of cultural production we have engaged with so far. In this writing, students should analyze how these two works help them better understand their own identity. They may reflect on how the selected writings, films, or vignettes deepen or complicate their understanding of their culture, gender, language, history, or lived experience.

This assignment is not a summary of the texts. Instead, students should use the works as lenses for self-reflection. Those choosing the letter format may address their younger self or another person they wish to speak to. Alternatively, students may write a personal essay modeled after pieces such as A Countryless Woman: The Early Feminista, Dutiful Hijas: Dependency, Power, and Guilt, or How to Tame a Wild Tongue.

3-pages, double spaced, 12-point font.

seven pieces of cultural production:

1.Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir

2.Chulas Fronteras

3….And the Earth Did Not Devour Him

4.Borderlands / La Frontera: The New Mestiza

5.Dutiful Hijas: Dependency, Power, and Guilt

6.A Countryless Woman: The Early Feminista

7.Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Citation:

• Miranda, Deborah A. Bad Indians : A Tribal Memoir / Deborah A. Miranda. Berkeley, Calif: Heyday, 2013. Print.
• Blank, Les, and Chris Strachwitz. Chulas Fronteras. Place of publication not identified: Les Blank Films, 1976. Print.
• Rivera, Toms. … . y no se lo trag la tierra = … And the earth did not devour him / Toms Rivera ; English translation by Evangelina Vigil-Pin. by Evangelina Vigil-Pin. Third Arte Pblico Press edition. Houston, Texas: Arte Pblico Press, 1995. Print.
• Anzalda, Gloria. How to Tame a Wild Tongue. Borderlands : The New Mestiza = La Frontera / Gloria Anzalda.First edition. San Francisco: Spinsters/Aunt Lute, 1987. Print. Gonzalez Martinez, Erica. “Dutiful Hijas: Dependency, Power, and Guilt. Colonize This! : Young Women of Color on Todays Feminism. Edited by Daisy Hernndez and Bushra Rehma n. New York: Seal Press, 2002. Print.
• Castillo, Ana. A Countryless Woman: The Early Feminista. Massacre of the Dreamers. United States: University of New Mexico Press, 2014. Print.
• Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (Movie 2022). vol. 2024. Premiere, 2024. Film.