Juan J. Alonzo

Badmen, Bandits, and Folk Heroes compares the literary and cinematic representation of Mexican American masculine identity from early twentieth-century adventure stories and Westerns through contemporary self-representations by Chicano/a writers and filmmakers. Juan J. Alonzo proposes a reconsideration of the early stereotypical depictions of Mexicans in fiction and film: rather than viewing stereotypes as unrelentingly negative, Alonzo presents them as part of a complex apparatus of identification and disavowal. Alonzo reassesses Chicano/a self-representation in literature and film, and argues that the Chicano/a expression of identity is characterized by an acknowledgment of the contingent status of present-day identity formations.