The Image of the Desert in the Chicano Narrative of Miguel Méndez

Abstract

Without question, the «Other» is one of the most captivating subjects of contemporary reflection; one that Jean Baudrillard has expressed as follows: «In the end, the only true voyage is the one undertaken in relation to the Other, whether this be an individual or a culture». Indeed, we wander in search of Others, in relation to Others, and it is through our dealings with Others that each one of us gains our uniqueness, becomes differentiated from the rest; becomes the One that attains a distinct understanding of his/her surroundings; as, for instance, in the case of the writer. In this sense, Chicano literature refers to the reality of the author (the autobiographical genre is common in this literary corpus); to Others (i.e., migrant communities and neighborhoods established in the periphery of large cities in North America); and, finally, to the «Other»: the radical otherness cited by the aforementioned Baudrillard, and which one might identify as the sacred, or the indescribable: a source of the mystery that nourishes all literature. The writings of the Chicano author Miguel Méndez are no exception, though here Otherness emerges in the guise of the desert.