Memory and Trauma: Chicano Autobiographies and the Vietnam War

Abstract

An autobiography intends to express a summary of life, although it’s the memory that selects the contents following emotional impres-sions. Ethnicity and ethnic identity have to be negotiated, taking into account that sociologists like Manuel Gamio and Oscar Lewis have published several oral Chicano biographies in the past. Then, we’ll summarize the most important Chicano autobiographies of relevant authors, such as J. A. Villarreal, Ernesto Galarza, Oscar “Zeta” Acosta, Nash Candelaria, and Richard Rodríguez. Finally, we focus our research on six Chicano autobiographies written by Chicano Vietnam War veterans, in which they express their worries about ethnic identity revised after their comeback. We study those works using trauma theory because they suffered badly during and after the war. The aim of these writers is to get that people, who haven’t lived those dreadful circumstances, stop to listen what they, unconsciously, reject to hear. We conclude that the reading of these autobiographies requires being aware of so many different subjects such as history, sociology, autobiography theory, and trauma theory, as well as keeping in mind terms like cultural identity and ethnicity that have been superimposed along history.