Sangre Mexicana/Corazon Americano: Identity, Ambiguity, and Critique in Mexican-American War Narratives

Abstract

Since the publication of Americo Paredes's foundational 1958 study on the epic heroic corrido, With His Pistol in His Hand. A Border Ballad and Its Hero, war has figured prominently as a historical reference point and as a metaphor in theorizations of Mexican-American history, culture, and identity' The Texas Mexican War of 1836 and the Mexican-American War from 1846 to 1848, which culminated with the US annexation of one-half of Mexican national territory and the subsequent transformation of the local Mexican population into Mexican Americans, traditionally have served as touchstones for Mexican-American studies. During the evolution of Mexican-American studies as an academic discipline