Ethnic Positioning in Southwestern Mixed Heritage Writing

Ethnic Positioning in Southwestern Mixed Heritage Writing presents how Southwestern writers and visual artists provide an opportunity to turn a stigmatized identity into a self-conscious holder of valuable assets, cultural attitudes, and memories. The problem of mixed ethno-cultural heritage is a relevant feature of North American population, and millions face similar challenges. Narratives on blended heritage show how mixed-race authors utilize their multiple ethnic experiences, knowledge archives, and sensibilities. They explore how individuals attempt to cope with the cognitive anxiety, stigmas, and perceptions entailed by blended ethnic heritage, how family and social dynamics work, and how ethnic identity is re-negotiated. The Southwest as a region is heavily ridden by Eurocentric and Colonial concepts of identity and at the same time heavily treasured by the Frontier experiences of physical mobility along with the entailed mental and spiritual journeys and transformations. Judit Ágnes Kádár argues that the process of ethnic positioning and choice results in re-negotiated identities and more complex and engaging concepts of themselves.