For Arturo Islas, considering himself "a child of the border," the depth of the borderline extends thousands of miles in the physical sense and stretches beyond antiquated social norms of human behavior. Better yet, for Islas the world would be best without borders at all.
Islas is best known for his two novels, The Rain God, which won him the best fiction prize from the Border Regional Library Conference in 1985 and was selected as one of the three best novels of 1984 by the Bay Area Reviewers Association, and Migrant Souls, published in 1990. The novels were to be part of a trilogy; however, Islas met his untimely death before the completion of the third novel in the sequence, La Mollie and the King of Tears, published posthumously in 1996.
In an unpublished interview with Jose Antonio Burciaga -- American Chicano artist, poet, writer, and fellow resident at Casa Zapata, the Stanford University Chicano theme dormitory -- Islas recalls that he "had taken his high school's science classes with the intention of one day becoming a doctor." Planning to attend Stanford University as a premed student to become a neurosurgeon, writing remained his love and desire. "I'd rather write things that were also a part of my fantasy world. I could create characters who were like me," says Islas. He later recalls, "I went to the dean and told him I would switch to the humanities, where I was doing well. He tried to talk me out of it, but my drive to excel made me concentrate on the best of opportunities. So it was that the poor Chicano boy came to teach the Anglos their literature."
Image caption: Arturo Islas. Courtesy of the Texas State Historical Association.
Born in El Paso, Texas, Islas hails from El Segundo Barrio. His father and paternal grandparents, fleeing from the Mexican Revolution, crossed the U.S.-Mexico border and settled in El Paso. His grandmother, Crecenciana, devoted her time to disciplining and educating her grandchildren, teaching them to read, write and speak fluent English. This enabled Islas' father, Arturo Islas, Sr., to become a police officer in a predominantly white police force. Likewise, Islas, Sr. passed onto Islas and his cousins a deep connection with learning. Islas, Sr. and Jovita Islas enjoyed three sons. Mario Islas became a priest in Liberia, Luis Islas, an El Paso attorney. It is no surprise that Islas originally had an interest in medicine. For most of his life, Islas struggled with poor health. At eight years of age, he acquired polio, which left him with a permanent limp, and in 1969 he underwent major surgery for intestinal cancer. Islas tells Burciaga that his cousins kept their reading habit:
I'm forever grateful for that .... It makes me so angry when people assume that anyone who calls himself or herself a Chicano or a Chicana is automatically someone who doesn't like to read .... I knew how to read before I went to the first grade because of my grandmother. All of my cousins were under her tutelage. She taught us to read and to respect learning. I feel sorry for anybody, not just Chicanos, who grew up in families where the parents don't read, so the children don't have any examples.
Crecenciana's philosophy to respect learning is undoubtedly a life value by which all should live. Incidentally, in Islas' trilogy, Crecenciana appears as Mama Chona, the strong woman of the household.
Proving himself as an outstanding student, Islas graduated as valedictorian from El Paso High School in 1956 and pursued his undergraduate studies at Stanford University in Palo Alto that same year. In 1963 he earned his master's degree and, in I 971, his Ph.D., both in English and from Stanford. Aller completing his Ph.D., Islas joined the Stanford University English Department, becoming the first Chicano faculty member to receive tenure. Soon he became Chair of the Faculty Recruitment Committee, adviser to Chicano undergraduates and fellows, and co-director of the Stanford Center for Chicano Research, accomplishments to be envied. He taught classes focused on the English language and minority groups and a class entitled "Chicano Themes," the first of its kind in Stanford's English Department. "The class was made up of 24 Chicanos and Chicanas," Islas said. "They were pioneers and they were terrific students." He also received the Stanford Dinkelspiel Award for Undergraduate Teaching Excellence in 1976.
Because of his sexual orientation, Islas was not only a minority as a Hispanic but also a trailblazer for all homosexual authors. Like many Hispanic authors, much of Islas' work is autobiographical fiction, based on real-life events but with fictional plots. His writing is directly influenced by his sexual orientation and ethnic background, evident when comparing his personal life to the characters and the plotlines of his novels.
As a Latino writer, Islas belongs to a group of talented, imaginative writers whose stories emphasize all the things related to the migration from Mexico to the United States. And Luz Elena Ramirez indicates in her article "Latino Novels" that Latinos are great at "building upon a larger tradition while maintaining their individuality and linguistic style." These stories are based on personal experiences firsthand or passed down by generations. Islas writes based on his experience as a third-generation Mexican American. Ramirez adds, "Islas expounds upon the personal tribulations of the Angel clan: Mama Chona and her immigration to the States after the Mexican Revolution of 1910, Miguel Grande's marriage in the 1940s, and the postmodern angst of the third generation: Miguel Chico and his cousins." This passage refers to The Rain God, a novel where Islas creates a character named Miguel Chico, who seemingly reflects Islas himself.
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slas uses the social issues he faced growing up as a Latino in the United States to create plots for his characters. I-le creates narratives that go into depth on topics one could only write about with such passion if faced with them. In The Rain God, the first book in Islas' trilogy, he develops an environment where he can bend the truth while still implementing personal experiences. In "Arturo Islas," Timothy Nixon notes, "In The Rain God Islas weaves together elements of autobiography and Aztec mythology. The novel is set on the U.S.-Mexico border in a fictional Texas community that resembles Islas' hometown of El Paso." Islas falls shy of fully recreating his experiences but uses fiction to keep them anonymous. He begins The Rain God with Miguel Chico recovering from a life-threatening surgery that leaves him with a permanent colostomy derived much like Islas' three surgeries due to his intestinal cancer.
In Latino Writers and Journalists, Jamie Martinez Wood emphasizes that Islas "was awarded fellowships to support him through his schooling and taught literature courses at a local hospital and an adult school in San Francisco, despite undergoing three surgeries for intestinal cancer." Since Islas had to overcome all this while pursuing his writing career, he deemed it worthy of expressing through Miguel Chico direct connections to his life experiences, adding an engaging personal touch to his work.
Image caption: Book cover of the Uncollected Works. Courtesy of Amazon.
Islas also addresses homosexuality in his works, specifically, how the Hispanic community views it. Most likely, this stems from the stigma he faced growing up and coming out as gay. Consequently, credited as one of many Latino gay authors who have paved the road for others, in the article "Latino Gay Literature," historical critic Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes asserts that "Islas is known not only as a gay Hispanic author but also as one who is willing to touch on the subject within his narratives." Nixon states that in Migrant Souls, the main character's "queerness places him at odds with the heterosexist, if not homophobic, Catholic values of his family, and he remains aloof and isolated from the family." Miguel Chico also goes through many failed relationships with partners of the same sex. The openness in Islas' narratives through his experiences involving homosexuality is appreciated without alienating the homosexual community, thus developing stories others can relate to without hostility.
Moving beyond border communities, Islas expresses what Iife was like for a gay Latino male growing up in the United States, taking part in the sudden rise of multicultural literature after the Civil Rights Movement. After the Movement, the oppressed culture finally surfaced, resulting in various writings from different ethnicities worldwide. In "Multiculturalism and Globalization in Contemporary American Literature, 1970 to Present," Linda Trinh Moser argues, "Just as women writers delineated a 'double marginalization' as women and racial/ ethnic others, works by Arturo Islas, Rane Arroyo, Kitty Tsui, and Andrew Lam describe being outsiders in terms of race and sexuality, which also led to their ostracization by both their root and the mainstream cultures." Islas shed light on the circumstances of more than one type of minority in his writing, hopefully inspiring others to implement their experiences into their writing while giving them the courage to write about topics that face social rejection.
Unlike The Rain God and Migrant Souls, his novel La Mollie and the King of Tears revolves around a character named Louie Mendoza, a chatty jazz musician who takes it upon himself to create his own love story. Burciaga says, "His (Islas') characters, funny and serious, switch from the desert to the city, from rock to mambo, from tears to laughter." Burciaga adds that Islas "captures the expansive spirit and capacity de su genie." The novel is set in 1973, when the world is near its end with the coming of Comet Kahoutek. Louie is found the morning after telling his story to a stranger at the San Francisco General Hospital, while he waits to hear the outcome of his lover, La Mollie. As he unfolds his journey from La Mollie's apartment to his gig in the Mission District, "a shooting, a broken leg, and his frustrated efforts to find his way home, he reveals what has brought him to this moment and his love for this woman."
Literary critic Megan Obourn writes that Islas' postmortem book "presents the potential of a coming together of mainstream and Chicano communities." Although his third book is about a boy creating a love story, Islas still implements personal topics of homosexuality, sexism, and Mexican American struggles, but on a more indirect level than in his previous novels. Louie gets his nickname "The King of Tears" for being a poor Chicano regardless of any Hollywood role he plays in his story. Obourn further slates, "Islas addresses homosexuality in this novel not by focusing on a gay character but by setting the novel in San Francisco, the gay metropolis covered in a beautifying layer of 'fairy dust.' Louie cannot contain his reactions to the gay men he knows, including his brother, Tomas."
Islas, an explorer of the Chicano experience and cultural duality, died February 15, 1990, at his home from complications of AIDS. Today, his legacy inspires readers and writers of all ethnicities and sexual orientations, especially those along the border. "Arturo Islas' novels were a new and strong voice for the Mexican American experience," comments Roberto Trujillo, curator for the Mexican American collections at the Stanford Libraries. "His works challenged the reader and critic and have certainly earned Islas an important niche in Chicano literature." Through his autobiographical fiction and border literature, Islas paved the way for ethnic and social minorities to write their own stories without fear of social rejection.
Giving the 1990 Galarza Lecture, an annual event in memory of the Mexican American scholar/activist Ernesto Galarza, Arturo Islas says, "I consider myself, still, a child of the border, a border some believe extends all the way to Seattle and includes the northern provinces of Mexico. In my experience, the 2,000-mile-long Mexican United States border has a cultural identity that is unique. That condition, that landscape and its people, are what I write about."
Dancing with Ghosts by 