Canicula norma cantu

Canicula: Snapshots of a Girlhood en la Frontera

Norma Elia Cantu

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Setting: Laredo/Nuevo Laredo

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Canicula takes place in the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s

Between childhood and the beginnings of adulthood for our protagonist.

Canicula refers to the “dog days of summer” specifically 1993, when most of the text was written.

It is also the time when cotton is harvested in South Texas (July 14 and August 24)

Also refers to a midseason between summer and fall (midseason of life/border for protagonist)

Setting Continued…

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Norma Elia Cantu was born January 3, 1947 in Nuevo Laredo, Tamualipas, Mexico.

Cantu was raised in Laredo, Texas.

She received her B.S. in English and Political Science from A&M International University in Laredo.

In 1976 she received her M.S. in English and a minor in Political Science from Texas A&I

University-Kingsville

1982 Received Ph.D. English University

from University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Norma Cantu

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Dr. Cantu is a leading researcher/scholar in the field of Latina/o, Chicana/o literature, border studies, folklore, women’s studies, and creative writing.

She has published a number of articles and edited numerous texts on border literature, teaching English, folklore, etc.

Interview: http:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DGQks2Uwvc

Biography Continued…

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Blurring of borders and boundaries, physical, emotional, mental borders.

Title itself and the ambiguous genre further suggests this blurring of boundaries (reminiscent of Anzaldua’s theories)

Structure is non-linear, blending of historical/biographical.

Sharing of family/cultural history

Blurring of Mexican/American identities

Canicula Themes

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Emma Perez-decolonial imaginary

Decolonial imaginary-re-appropriation of history, bringing the “her” back into “history.”

Giving a voice to those who have been silenced; those residing in the borderlands, Mexican Americans, women, indigenous.

Chela Sandoval-differential consciousness.

Differential consciousness-weaving between oppositional ideologies/identities. Shifting/negotiating between multiple ways of thinking/living depending upon a given situation.

Canicula Themes and Theories

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Define autobiography and why Cantu does not choose to employ such a term?

What about the structure of the text, what purpose does it serve especially pertaining to Mexican-American identity?

Identify various points in which boundaries/borders are blurred by our narrator. What purpose does such blurring serve?

Note points in the text when differential consciousness is employed.

Questions to Ponder…

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