Introduction

Abstract

Chicano scholars José Limón and Rosa Linda Fregoso have debated the consequences of the negative representation of Latino men in Chicano cultural production. The debate revolved around Limón’s concern that the depiction of Chicano men in the work of Sandra Cisneros might cause “Anglo lay readers” to view Chicano men as excessively violent and thus perpetuate negative images of them (Limón 1998, 166). Fregoso views Limón’s concern as extremely problematic because it silences painful gendered experiences and freedom of expression for Chicanas who must have the “right” to tell their stories, just as men should. She goes on to say that to silence such narratives privileges the denunciation of state violence visited on Latino/as as it occludes individual violence against Latinas (2003, 30–33). Read within the framework of the burden of representation, this debate reminds us that there is still much at stake in terms of gendered representations of Latino/as. Additionally, much debate continues over who can and should represent issues of gender. Though I understand Limón’s concerns with respect to dominant readings of the cultural production of men, I agree with Fregoso that policing the ways that Latinas tell their stories runs the risk of reproducing the same patriarchal hierarchies that currently limit Latino men racially and economically as much as they do Latinas. This debate informs the current study in that representations of Latino men that engage violence, crime, and familial/patriarchal privilege are its subject.