Cuentos Hispanos de los Estados Unidos.

• Author: Hernandez Martin, Jorge

Hispanics constitute not only a growing political and economic force in the United States, but also a strong cultural presence. A distinctive literature has emerged in the U. S. that reflects Hispanics' preoccupation with their ethnic and linguistic identity as they find themselves enveloped in a predominantly Anglo-based, English-speaking culture. The personal narrative founded on autobiography, in which childhood recollections combine with border-crossing memories and early experiences--often harsh--as immigrants, has been one of the preferred forms through which Hispanic writers have taken the pulse of their communities in the United States.

These twenty-one short stories cover a range of experiences that revolve around recognition of two cultures: the external one and the writer's own. In many of the selections, the language reflects the blending of the two. And in this process, indications emerge of what Hispanics can contribute to the majority culture and what they value as their own. By its steady focus on the state of the Spanish language, Cuentos Hispanos brings out language as one of the common values of Hispanic-American communities in the United States. Confronted with the forces of assimilation, which urge abandonment of the minority language, these creators celebrate linguistic diversity and respond to the dilemmas of their immigrant status by saying, "Let's be bilingual." In addition, by serving as a forum for writers with divergent outlooks, life-styles, and backgrounds, the book highlights the cultural resources of Hispanic communities in the United States and mirrors the circumstances they share.

The collection includes authors born in the United States as well as immigrants and exiles from various parts of the Hispanic-American world who are living or have at some point in their...