After viewing “Exploring Borderlands” video, discuss the following questions:
1. According to the scholars featured in the video, how has the southwestern border region changed over time and how has it affected Mexican American identity?
2. What political and social issues have shaped the literature of the borderlands written by Mexican Americans?
3. What is the relationship between the conquerors and conquered in Mexican American Literature?
4. How do Mexican American writers featured by the film articulate an ideal of a mixed and inclusive identity?
5. How does the Chicano notion of “historia” complicate traditional ideas about the distinction between history and fiction?
6. What traditional stereotypes have been applied to mestiza women? How have women restructured and redefined the identities open to them in the borderlands?