“We Are All Serafina’s Children”: Racial Landscapes in Rudolfo Anaya

Abstract

Anaya’s literary corpus is a sustained celebration of hybridity and convergence, as well as a deconstruction of racial/cultural essentialism. Anaya is fully aware of the tragic destiny of the American Indian after the arrival of the European, and he recounts that tragedy once again in his writings, especially the fate of the Pueblos in the Southwest, for the past cannot be denied, much less forgotten. However, Anaya is very conscious of the fact that the past cannot be changed, and also of the fact that we can all learn from it. And I think that is precisely one of the overarching themes that unify Anaya’s fiction, the desire to draw lessons from the past that can help us understand, and change the present. In the closing lines of Serafina’s Stories, Anaya writes, “Perhaps by studying and understanding the history surrounding the 1680 Pueblo Indian Revolt we learn not to place blame, but how we can live together in mutual respect. As a wise man said, we cannot change history, but we can learn from it” (202).