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The Hispanic Condition: The Power of a People, by Ilan Stavans
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In The Hispanic Condition, Ilan Stavans offers a subtle and insightful meditation on Hispanic society in the United States. A native of Mexico, Stavans has emerged as one of the most distinguished Latin American writers of our time, an award-winning novelist and critic praised by scholars and beloved by readers. In this pioneering psycho-historical profile, he delves into the cultural differences and similarities among the five major Hispanic groups: Cubans, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Central and South Americans, and Spaniards.
Masterfully interweaving historical, literary, and political references with his personal experience, Stavans discusses the divisions within a common heritage; customs of music, love, sex, marriage, and religious belief; the role of the intellectual in society; ideological struggle; and the hopeful visions of the future at the core of a civilization rooted in the trauma of the past.
- Sales Rank: #2721409 in Books
- Published on: 2001-11-06
- Released on: 2001-11-06
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.00" h x .65" w x 5.31" l, .55 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 288 pages
From Library Journal
A well-known fiction writer (The One-Handed Pianist and Other Stories), critic (The Inveterate Dreamer: Essays and Conversations on Jewish Culture), and scholar (Spanish, Amherst), Stavans was born in Mexico but educated in the United States. In 1995, he published the first edition of this innovative attempt to characterize the Hispanic or Latino population in the United States. Using art and literature as a mirror to this population, he suggests that it should be understood not through political or social manifestations but through the creative expression of the people. With this approach, he suggests that Hispanics or Latinos are different from all other minorities because of their common cultural and historical past, regardless of country of origin. This second edition has been updated, but Stavans's arguments remain basically the same. This volume should be part of most academic collections and public libraries that serve the Latino population. Mark L. Grover, Brigham Young Univ., Provo, UT
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
“Savvy and engaging. Stavans is an inventive interpreter of the contemporary cultures of the Americas.” (Henry Louis Gates, Jr.)
“A landmark study that explores with defiance and originality the convoluted Latino identity.” (Majorie Agosin, Wellesley College)
About the Author
Ilan Stavans is Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture and Five College–40th Anniversary Professor at Amherst College.
Ilán Stavans nació en México, en 1961. Cursó estudios de posgrado en la Universidad de Columbia, y ahora tiene la cátedra Lewis-Sebring de cultura latina y latinoamericana en Amherst College.
Most helpful customer reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
Powerfully written!
By Kellie J. Hogue
Chicano. Jibaro. Mestizo. Latino Agringado. Gringos Hispanzados. Pachuco. Bracero. Cubano. Gusano. Hispanic. Indio. Latino. Latinoamericano. In his book, The Hispanic Condition: The Power of a People (1995), Ilan Stavans uses all of the above terms to describe a group to whom "[t]he American Dream has not fully opened its arms," a group who has, in his eyes, a "refreshingly modern" choice: "to live in the hyphen, to inhabit the borderland." (Stavans 1995: 4) Stavans' Fanon-inspired, Baldwin-influenced, commentary on Latino identity is evidence of what Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett labels "diasporic discourse." She further states that such discourse is "strong on displacement, detachment, uprooting, and dispersion - on disarticulation." Clearly, this is evident through Stavans' statement: "Latinos in the United States [are] citizens of both realities, representatives of doubt in a land of uncertainty[.]" (Stavans 1995: 245)
But the process of rearticulation, that is, "how the local is produced and what forms it takes in the space of dispersal," for Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, is "trickier because of the risk of closure, essentialism, or premature pluralism." (Kirschenblatt-Gimblett 1994: 339) Stavans' work demonstrates the difficulties described by Kirshenblatt-Gimblett when he suggests that "[t]o become U.S. full citizens, Hispanics need more than a passport; we need to reinvent ourselves, to rewrite our own history, to reformulate the paths of our imagination." (Stavans 1995: 234) This essay examines Stavans' effort to rearticulate Latino identity through an examination of how he answers the question: "¿quiénes somos de verdad."
"Latinos appear to be a homogenous minority," he writes, "thinking and acting and speaking alike; but nothing is further from the truth. Diversity is their trademark." (Stavans 1995: 31) For Stavans, Latino identity is anything but static. Constantly straddling the void between a past characterized by disjunction and disconnection, and a present that gives neither respite nor reconciliation, Latino identity is a pluralistic mélange of race and culture: "Latinos are not an ethnic group but a sum of multiracial, multicultural backgrounds." (Stavans 1995: 228) It is concerned with the present and the past: "Latinos are seen as being devoted to eternal truths, to the act of recalling, to continuity through oral tradition." (Stavans 1995: 215). It is simultaneously of this world and not of this world: "Latinos get lost somewhere between the reality and the dream."(Stavans 1995: 181) It is always betwixt and between: "Wherever we go, as Latinos we will always carry our idiosyncratic self with us." (Stavans 1995: 10) Even music exemplifies this dichotomy: "Latino music seems to oscillate between existential dilemmas and folklore." (Stavans 1995: 101) Latino identity, for Stavans, is forever fragmented: "Latinos, I believe, were, are, and will always be perpetual alien residents never fully here - strangers in a native land." (Stavans 1995: 245) Latino identity resists definition: "Ours is an elusive identity - abstract, unreachable, obscure, a multifaceted monster." (Stavans 1995: 241) :Latino identity is always changing: "The shaping of Latino identity is an ongoing process." (Stavans 1995: 203) "We view the world," writes Stavans, "as half lie, half truth --mitad y mitad (Stavans 1995: 110)
Always in flux, Latino identity is internally and externally multifaceted, a dichotomized, spinning vortex of fragile stability. Within Latino culture, there is a strong sense of hubris: "The Latino people are inhabited by a sense of outward pride." (Stavans 1995: 107) Pride is lived through a devotion to language: "Latinos are amazingly loyal to their mother tongue." (Stavans 1995 153) Outsiders, particularly whites, have a negative perspective on Latinos: "Latinos are and always have been perceived by the gringos, in their obsessively repetitive Eurocentrism, as inferior neighbors and unwelcome guests, simpletons, queer and unappealing." (Stavans 1995: 207) Internally, Latinos are a maze of theatrical emotion and control, as evidenced when Stavans says, "[t]he Latino collective psyche is a labyrinth of passion and power, a carnival of sex, race, and death." (Stavans 1995: 152) Such forces combine to make Latino culture vulnerable to collapse: "The Latino minority is inhabited by centrifugal forces that tear its heart apart." (Stavans 1995: 68) And as a result, Latinos must move forward because "Latinos cannot afford to live on the margins any longer, parasites of a bygone past." (Stavans 1995: 14) Moreover, the character of Latino identity has been transformed over time, and "Latinos, living in a universe of cultural contradictions and fragmentary realities, have ceased to be belligerent in the way they typically were during the anti-establishment decade." (Stavans 1995: 9) Latinos, once maligned, are now finding their experience in American society a favorable one, as "[s]ociety is beginning to embrace Latinos, from rejects to fashion setters, from outcasts to insider traders." (Stavans 1995: 3)
It is time, according to Stavans, to discard the old identity and take on a new one. It is time for a new Latino to emerge from an over-lived past. This new identity is brought to our attention through Stavan's bold call: "A new consciousness is emerging, a new Latino." (Stavans 1995: 209) He sees a strong transformation taking place, saying "something essential is changing in the texture of the Latino community." (Stavans 1995: 232) This new Latino is unlike the persistent stereotypes that abound in society, no longer poor, no longer lower class: "[T]he belief that we, the Latino population, are mostly young poor and uneducated...is almost a distortion." (Stavans 1995: 233). This new Latino has the benefit of education, opportunity, and property ownership, yet is not too distanced from the masses: "Although the incomes of a large number of Latinos are, sadly, under the poverty level, another important segment is rapidly emerging as newcomers to the middle class." (Stavans 1995: 233) this new Latino will succeed, transforming the production of knowledge: "[T]he new Latino promises to produce a shelf of classics, books that will become national treasures." (Stavans 1995: 234) Ready or not, this new Latino is here to claim his/her place in American society: "Latinos, unlike previous minorities, are about to give America the nation and the continent a big surprise." (Stavans 1995: 245) Even more exciting is Stavans claim that "Latinos want to revolutionize the country's overall metabolism." (Stavans 1995: 235)
Stavans rearticulation of Latino identity takes the risks that Kirshenblatt-Gimblett suggests are difficult, risking closure, essentialism, and premature pluralism. However tricky this rearticulation may be, Stavans steers clear of closure by demonstrating the "new-found" popularity of Latino identity. He carefully negotiates his way around essentialism by illuminating the diversity of Latino people, while at the same time identifying their specific uniqueness. His pluralism of Latino society is not premature, rather, it is overdue. For too long, Latinos have been compartmentalized through misguided monolithic thinking. His letter to his child is revealing; Stavans' own sense of double consciousness is displayed as he tells her that ""Latinos shall always inhabit the hyphen." (Stavans 1995: 244) His devotion to his new creation, the new Latino, is evidenced through a single statement: "America is in my blood." (Stavans 1995: 243)
Kellie Hogue
Indiana University
Works Cited:
Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara. "Further Inflections: Toward Ethnographies of the Future." Cultural Anthropology, Vol. 9, No.3 (Aug., 1994), 339-344.
Stavans, Ilan. 1995. The Hispanic Condition: The Power of a People. New York: Harper Collins
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
Read it!
By Javier Lopez
I've read other books by Ilan Stavans but this one was the first. It was assigned in my Latinos in the U.S. class. The teacher told us Stavans is very controversial and we should make our own mind on what he has to say. So I began reading the book thinking it will be kind of offensive. But I found it clear and intelligent. Then, on mid-semester break, I heard him speak in Dallas and was taken by his style. I bought two other books. I think he is one of the most original thinkers on issues of race, language, and identity in America today. Yes, he'll make readers angry at times, but that's the point. I also recommend highly his book on Spanglish and the anthology with his reflections on Selena, Subcomandante Marcos, and other important figures in the Hispanic world. Read it and make your own mind.
3 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
Bitter ragings
By A Customer
This book is perhaps the most blatant use of print media to convey a bitter point I have ever seen. Ilán Stavans spends his time lamenting the mistreatment of various Latin American writers, actors, artists, etc, in a weak attempt to invoke sympathy for the Hispanic cause. I am a spanish major who has had considerable interaction with the hispanic community, and this book unfairly represents most of the hispanics that I know. My class requirements were the only thing that kept me from throwing it in the trash after the first chapter.
*This review refers to both the Spanish and English versions.*
See all 7 customer reviews...
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