Religious and Denominational References in Chicano Literature – a Transborder Way of Narrating Identity

This article understands the US-Mexican border not only as a border between nations, but as a border between denominations. Chicano literary texts show how (mostly) Mexican Catholicism and (mostly) US-Protestantism are both transcended into a third, unique religiousness that does not completely reject neither old nor new, but constructs an identity of one’s own – a transborder and transdenominational identity. Various denominational and religious references on different narrative levels serve the authors as literary means to transform the line that separates into a fruitful, identity-founding space. This article aims to add a new perspective to border discourse by approaching it through the literary analysis of religious, and mostly denominational, references. It amplifies the discourse of border and religion by tracing denominational elements in two literary cycles – José Antonio Villarreal’s unfinished tetralogy and Rudolfo A. Anaya’s New Mexico Trilogy – and by mapping their narrative functions. These denominational references are used to transcend religiousness and play a vital role in the literary development of a transborder identity.