Short Fiction by Hispanic Writers of the United States includes representative works by the most celebrated Cuban-American, Mexican-American and Puerto Rican writers of short fiction in the country. The texts cover a full range of expression, themes and styles of U.S. Hispanics and are introduced by informative entries which place the authors in their cultural and historic frameworks.
In these pages, the reader will not find picturesque, folksy or touristy renditions of Hispanic culture. Instead, Short fiction by Hispanic Writers of the United States brings together works that are clear, incisive and authentic representations of Hispanic life in the United States. The selections are as diverse as Hispanic culture itself and as varied as the personalities of their authors. To be found side-by-side here are Mac Martínez's outrageous challenge of racial and social structures, Roberta Fernández's construction of Hispanic women's aesthetics, Robert Fernández's subversion of the English language, Nicholasa Mohr's humorous attack on patriarchy, Judith Ortiz Cofer's poetic evocation of childhood and biculturalism, and much more.
This collection engages in aesthetic and cultural experience that will result in a re-defined canon and a new identity for the country as whole. They are re-focusing our perception of ourselves as a people and a culture. The pressure and the commitment to do so, of course, make for excellence and innovation in literary expression. It also makes for enjoyable reading.
Short fiction by Hispanic Writers of the United States is recommended for the general fiction reader and for use in high school and college literature classes in search of a multicultural perspective.