Islas--a novelist, teacher of literature, a Chicano/Mexican-American, a homosexual, and a child of the border--writes from a space of oppression and resistance. As a Chicano writer, Islas is marginalized both by the mainstream and within his own Chicano community. In and through his stories, Islas is able to not only transgress the bridge between cultures, but also to take his readers along for the journey. We are fortunate to have Islas as our guide; Islas believed that some of his characters were "not so fortunate" in their experiences of border crossing. By bringing characters like Miguel Chico, Josie, Mama Chona, and Louie to life, Islas exposes, reconstructs, and celebrates the borders he teaches us to cross.
The late Arturo Islas was our most acclaimed and accomplished literary explorer of Mexican-American culture. The publication of his first novel, The Rain God, marked the arrival of a new and unique voice that could speak to both tradtions. Born in El Paso, Texas, Islas grew up in the same desert country along the Mexican-American border that is the home of the Angel family in his novels. He earned his undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees from Stanford University, where he continued as a professor of English. He was a member of Phi Betta Kappa, a Woodrow Wilson Fellow and a University Fellow, as well as a recipient of the Lloyd W. Dinkelspeil Award for outstanding service to undergraduate education at Stanford. One of Islas' most popular courses was a limited enrollment seminar, called "American Lives," that mixed readings in a literary autobiography with students' own attempts to chronicle important aspects of their lives.
He wrote Migrant Souls, the companion novel to The Rain God, a year before he died at home in Stanford in early 1991. He was at work on a third novel.
I was educated in the public schools that my parents had attended before my brothers and I were born. People of Mexican ancestry in what was then a thriving military town did not enjoy the privledge of a college education. They were working so that their children could enjoy it. My father thinks his sacrifices have paid off. He likes to say that his youngest son, a lawyer, will defend him on earth, that his middle son, a priest, will defend him in heaven, and that his oldest son is at a "big deal" college in California teaching the gringos how to express themselves in thier own language. From "On the Bridge, At the Border: Migrants and Immigrants." Ernesto Galarza Commemorative Lecture, Fifth Annual Lecture 1990.
 E-mail me. This page was created by Rebecca Valenzuela Last updated 7 May 2000 |