The Medicine of Memory

A Mexica Clan in California

Nonfiction, History, Americas, United States, State & Local
Cover of the book The Medicine of Memory by Alejandro  Murguía, University of Texas Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Alejandro Murguía ISBN: 9780292778702
Publisher: University of Texas Press Publication: January 1, 2010
Imprint: University of Texas Press Language: English
Author: Alejandro Murguía
ISBN: 9780292778702
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Publication: January 1, 2010
Imprint: University of Texas Press
Language: English

"People who live in California deny the past," asserts Alejandro Murgua. In a state where "what matters is keeping up with the current trends, fads, or latest computer gizmo," no one has "the time, energy, or desire to reflect on what happened last week, much less what happened ten years ago, or a hundred." From this oblivion of memory, he continues, comes a false sense of history, a deluded belief that the way things are now is the way they have always been.In this work of creative nonfiction, Murgua draws on memories—his own and his family's reaching back to the eighteenth century—to (re)construct the forgotten Chicano-indigenous history of California. He tells the story through significant moments in California history, including the birth of the mestizo in Mexico, destruction of Indian lifeways under the mission system, violence toward Mexicanos during the Gold Rush, Chicano farm life in the early twentieth century, the Chicano Movement of the 1960s, Chicano-Latino activism in San Francisco in the 1970s, and the current rebirth of Chicano-Indio culture. Rejecting the notion that history is always written by the victors, and refusing to be one of the vanquished, he declares, "This is my California history, my memories, richly subjective and atavistic."

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

"People who live in California deny the past," asserts Alejandro Murgua. In a state where "what matters is keeping up with the current trends, fads, or latest computer gizmo," no one has "the time, energy, or desire to reflect on what happened last week, much less what happened ten years ago, or a hundred." From this oblivion of memory, he continues, comes a false sense of history, a deluded belief that the way things are now is the way they have always been.In this work of creative nonfiction, Murgua draws on memories—his own and his family's reaching back to the eighteenth century—to (re)construct the forgotten Chicano-indigenous history of California. He tells the story through significant moments in California history, including the birth of the mestizo in Mexico, destruction of Indian lifeways under the mission system, violence toward Mexicanos during the Gold Rush, Chicano farm life in the early twentieth century, the Chicano Movement of the 1960s, Chicano-Latino activism in San Francisco in the 1970s, and the current rebirth of Chicano-Indio culture. Rejecting the notion that history is always written by the victors, and refusing to be one of the vanquished, he declares, "This is my California history, my memories, richly subjective and atavistic."

More books from University of Texas Press

Cover of the book Science and Ceremony by Alejandro  Murguía
Cover of the book Beautiful TV by Alejandro  Murguía
Cover of the book In Search of the Blues by Alejandro  Murguía
Cover of the book Brown on Brown by Alejandro  Murguía
Cover of the book The Dialogic Imagination by Alejandro  Murguía
Cover of the book Western Apache Heritage by Alejandro  Murguía
Cover of the book Frankie and Johnny by Alejandro  Murguía
Cover of the book Dancing the New World by Alejandro  Murguía
Cover of the book Profile of Man and Culture in Mexico by Alejandro  Murguía
Cover of the book Desert Survival Skills by Alejandro  Murguía
Cover of the book Carlos Fuentes by Alejandro  Murguía
Cover of the book Yesterday in Mexico by Alejandro  Murguía
Cover of the book A User's Guide to Postcolonial and Latino Borderland Fiction by Alejandro  Murguía
Cover of the book On Story—Screenwriters and Their Craft by Alejandro  Murguía
Cover of the book Cosmopolitanism in Mexican Visual Culture by Alejandro  Murguía
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy