The University of Arizona Press
Confronting Colonial Legacies
A History of Chicana/o Indigeneities and Transnational Activism
This work offers a groundbreaking account of how Chicana/o activists have engaged in sustained efforts to reclaim Indigenous identity through political struggle, cultural expression, and transnational solidarity.
Author José Luis Serrano Nájera takes an in-depth look at the history of Chicana/o indigeneity, starting with the Chicana/o Movement of the 1960s and 1970s and through twenty-first century transnational activism and solidarity movements. Serrano Nájera reveals how claims to indigeneity were rooted in reciprocal relationships with Indigenous communities and driven by a shared commitment to decolonization. Through chapters on visual and performing arts, ceremony, education, and grassroots organizing, this book challenges reductive narratives of cultural appropriation and instead foregrounds the complex and historically grounded nature of Chicana/o indigeneity.
Drawing on extensive archival research, Serrano Nájera demonstrates how Chicana/o indigeneity has contributed to broader Indigenous rights movements, including efforts that culminated in the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This work highlights the intercontinental dimensions of Chicana/o activism and offers a vital source for scholars and students in Chicana/o studies, Indigenous studies, ethnic studies, history, and political science. Confronting Colonial Legacies is a compelling call to rethink the politics of identity, sovereignty, and solidarity across the Americas.
“Grounded in complex histories of Indigenous Chicanas/os’ engagement in concrete political struggles over land and life, Serrano Nájera offers a well-researched and sophisticated challenge to simplistic narratives of cultural appropriation. In doing so, he provides an insightful contribution that foregrounds how claims of Chicana/o indigeneity have been rooted in the building and sustaining of reciprocal relations of solidarity and ceremony between Chicana/o and Indigenous communities. With a focus on hemispheric struggles for land and human rights, Serrano Nájera brings attention to Chicano-Native relations in practice from Wounded Knee and Tierra Amarilla to the halls of the United Nations and across Abya Yala.”—Roberto D. Hernández, author of Coloniality of the US/Mexico Border: Power, Violence, and the Decolonial Imperative
