Barrio Vistas: Urban Milieu and Cultural Visibility in Mario Suárez’s Short Story “Tuscon, Arizona: El Hoyo”

Abstract

Mario Suárez (1923–1998) was among the league of activists who carved the space of the Mexican-American literary canon, and a writer who undertook the demanding task of recording and retaining the unique cultural aura of postwar barrio life. As a Chicano author outspokenly engaged in the truthful portrayal of barrio personae, Suárez exemplified an urge “to fictionalize and re-create such a place of ignored characters because he believed their human story was worth telling, and he hoped that the American literature would eventually include them or at least recognize their existence” (Lomelí 1). However, the immediate impression of a realistic mode of writing and the frequent adherence to meticulous descriptions of everyday life in Suárez’s narratives veil a potent political undercurrent and a profound philosophical concern over the mundane facets of life. The 19 stories edited and published by Fransisco A. Lomelí in Chicano Sketches: Short Stories by Mario Suárez testify to Suárez’s sincere dedication to barrio literary explorations as the spatial hermeneutic to Chicano political agendas. Conceived and written in the turmoil of adverse historical circumstances for mexicanos from both sides of the border, Suárez’s short stories lay bare the cultural vibrancy and social solidarity of an urban landscape that the White American belles letters had obstinately relegated obscure or invisible until the rise of the Chicano Movement.

If the barrio is a complex and contradictory social space for its residents, the motives of defending its territorial and cultural integrity against external disruption must be similarly variegated. The nature of these complexities begs the question: Why is this vulnerable urban milieu so important to Chicanos?

(Villa 8)