by hospital authorities and the remainder of the story describes Strawmanâs struggle to perform sanity as determined by particular social norms. Gamboa explores Strawmanâs circumstance and condition brilliantly by the way he teases out Strawmanâs heightened consciousness that understands the game at stake between himself and Mary, his hospital psychotherapist, for his freedom. Strawmanâs sudden insights into the artificiality of the conditions of sanity deconstruct the binary sane/insane into liminal degrees of moderated yet pervasive insanity demonstrated by all. Gamboa writes a highly sympathetic protagonist in this first-person narrative that compels his reader to reconsider the notion of sanity, and to question the legitimacy of the asylum as a rehabilitative institution.
Demetria MartÃnez, well-known for her 1991 novel
Mother Tongue
, is also a wonderful poet as her first-prize collection of 1987-88 attests. Included are two of her poems, âChimayó, New Mexicoâ and âOne Dimensional Man.â âChimayó, New Mexicoâ situates a landscape as the central character of the poem through which a pair of lovers fails to emotionally and spiritually connect. Here, MartÃnez contextualizes the architecture, topography, and the flora and fauna of Chimayó, New Mexico, to tell of a spiritual desire for an erotic encounter. Perhaps related to MartÃnezâs interest in the Sanctuary Movement, âOne Dimensional Manâ speaks in staccato-like spurts of a postcolonial fantasy where an imperialist maleâs sexual interest in the oppressed Other is energized by his prejudice. The implication is that sexual attraction nor intimacy necessarily compels the racist to challenge his/her beliefs. Rather, the attraction is often rooted in an erotic of oppression. MartÃnez unfastens the myth of biracial romance through a poetic voice that links the heterosexist and racist desire of Other with the desire to annihilate the Other, themes developed as well in
Mother Tongue
. True in the best of Chicana/o literature, MartÃnez establishes Chicana/o subjectivities within social, historical, and economical contingencies and sets them to poetry, concise, biting, and lyrical.
Silviana Woodâs story âAnd Where Was Pancho Villa When You Really Needed Him?â won her first prize in 1987-88. Through the genre of the Bildungsroman, Woodâs tale conjoins the coming of age of a young girl with her cognition of racism and the subsequent material conditions of poverty. This process begins with the difficult circumstances with which her community lives that become a source of social shame. The story embraces with humorthe ingenuity of a group of sixth graders, the young Chicanos of Miss Folsomâs class, who protect themselves from being institutionally demeaned. They circumvent their teacherâs chastisement when they distract Miss Folsom from recognizing symbols of their poverty like lice and ill-fitted clothing, and from their ethnicity represented by un-American lunches, and their willingness to accept English names. Told in a childâs voice, Wood subtly exposes the larger project of education in the United Statesâto indoctrinate the young in a skewed value of nationalism to distinguish the selfproclaimed real American citizen from the ethnic âimposter.â
Silviana Wood in her play
Una vez, en un barrio de sueños â¦
, first-prize winner of the 1988-89 contest brings her reader into a barrio where generations at odds merge together. Don Anselmo, a grouchy old man, leaves the scolding behind when he finds a common bond of intellectual curiosity with a neighborhood boy, Federico. Together, Don Anselmo and Federico grow a tomato plant that embodies their collective dream of renewal and sustenance in the midst of a hardened urban slum. The fact that the tomato is selected ties this spiritual and communal act to the tomatoâs indigenous roots in