Through literature, film and essay this course explores some of the tensions inherent in the construction of contemporary chicano/a culture. It examines key issues involved in the politics of identity within Mexican-American communities and shows how chicano texts (novels, poems, films, essays, paintings) participate in debates concerning the marginalization of chicano communities in the US and some of the dangers endemic to border existences. The course also explores the ways in which chicana voices have amplified the debates about identity by prioritizing questions of gender, sexuality and female empowerment. Throughout the course we will discuss questions of myth, history, class, gender and ethnicity.