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This dissertation is first an historical trajectory of Chicana Rhetoric in the American polis and then a perspectival analysis of three key texts from Chicana labor rights activist and vice president of the United Farm Workers Union Dolores Huerta. The trajectory establishes an efficacious legacy of Chicana Rhetoric and the analyses of Huerta's rhetoric explore what Chicana Rhetoric is and is not through the lens of media, scholarly, and personal rendition. I argue throughout that Chicana Rhetoric is representative of current intersections in social, political, racial, and gender rhetorics and Dolores Huerta is the embodiment of these intersections. The implications of this speak to the immediate need for Rhetoric and Composition to honor Chicana rhetors and scholars in our canonical fields of study.'

Whistle is a blurred boundary collection of short stories and essays based on my experiences growing up in Walsenburg, Colorado. The eight distinct pieces feature similar characters and overlap thematically across both genres.

In Rudolfo Anayas Zia Summer, Rio Grande Fall, Shaman Winter, and Jemez Spring, the protagonist—Sonny Baca—undertakes a murder investigation that ultimately leads him to confront Raven, a mysterious figure whose acts of violence threaten the social fabric of Albuquerque, the American Southwest, and the entire world. In battling Raven, Sonny comes to realize that both he and his foe have the ability to access a spiritual power that takes root in the myths and belief systems of various cultures, including Sonny's Chicano community, Native American peoples of the region, and ancient civilizations throughout the world, from which Sonny draws power as he becomes a shaman and healer. This dissertation explores how Anaya presents Sonny's transformation as a model for self-empowerment in the face of colonial and neo-colonial violence. Tracing postcolonial theory, border studies, and contemporary discussions of trickster figures in Native cultures, this study argues that Anaya confronts both the genre expectations of the detective novel and the implicit racism and discrimination that continue to pervade cross-cultural interactions in the Southwest.'

Fray Angelico Chavez was a Franciscan priest and man of letters whose published writings span most of the twentieth century. The dissertation is a critical biography of Fray Angelico's writing, and it uses religion as a critical lens for understanding his work in relation to a host of other Southwestern regional writers, both Anglo and Mexican American. I argue Fray Angelico's Franciscanism fosters a mode of Southwestern critical regionalism in his writing. The main objective of this dissertation is to build and apply a comparative methodology that I call triptych cultural critique to understand better the different modes of regional writing about the Southwest. Fray Angelico utilized the triptych in his artwork and creative writings, so it is an aesthetic that is particular to his Franciscan personality. However, triptych cultural critique is a useful tool for anyone interested in New Mexican history, Southwestern or U.S. Hispanic literature, and Chicana/o cultural production. Fray Angelico's work dialogues with Anglo Southwestern and Chicana/o literary canons in ways that redefine them, and so he is central to this dissertation and its focus on comparative regionalisms.