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FAUSTO AVENDAÑO BIOGRAPHY

Fausto Avendaño was born in Culiacán Sinaloa, México in 1941 and spent his childhood in San Diego and Los Angeles, California. He holds a B.A. in Spanish from California State University, San Diego, an M.A. and Ph.D. in Spanish and a Ph.D. in Spanish and Portuguese from the University of Arizona. From 1973 to 2011, Avendaño was a professor of Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, and French language and literature at California State University, Sacramento.

His academic accomplishments include editing Explicación de Textos Literarios (Explanation of Literary Texts), an international journal of Hispanic literature, and scores of articles, among other essays and academic books. He is the co-founder and co-editor of the Spanish Press and a member of Luso-American Education Foundation, American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, Association of Mexican-American Educators, Mexican American Educational Association, and Sigma Delta Pi.

El Corrido de California, published in 1979, is Avendaño’s only play. The author has also written novels and short stories which, like the play, blend historical characters and events with fictional characters and dramatic tensions, and reflect his passion for history, particularly Western Hispanic heritage. He has two literary prizes to his credit, The Latino Literary Award (UC Irvine) and The National Literary Prize Fuentes Mares (Mexico). Speaking of his work, Avendaño said:

I hope that my books will open people's eyes to realities of which they may not be aware, especially in the historical realm. I want the reader to enjoy the story (fiction) and at the same time learn historical facts that will broaden his/her knowledge of the world.

Avendaño’s commitment to exploring Mexican-American identity, history, and language fueled a career of amplifying Chicano voices, including his contribution to the 1979 anthology The Chicanos: As We See Ourselves.

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THE CHICANO MOVEMENT

Avendaño’s literary and scholarly work can be understood in the context of the Chicano Movement (El Movimiento Chicano), a widespread civil rights and empowerment movement of the mid-60s through the mid-70s, and the accompanying emergence of Chicano literature. Professor Raymund Paredes offered a definition of Chicano as “people of Mexican ancestry who have resided permanently in the United States for an extended period,” including “native-born citizens or Mexican-born immigrants who have adapted to life in the United States.” The term was originally used as a slur against Mexican Americans, but it was reappropriated to assert a sense of cultural pride and self-determination. The Chicano Movement brought awareness to the presence and contributions of people of Mexican descent across many fields: In politics it was expressed by leaders like Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, who organized the United Farm Workers Association, while La Raza Unida, a Hispanic political party, emerged and became influential in Texas and California. The Movement also generated a new recognition of Chicano literature, perhaps best represented in Rudolfo Anaya’s 1972 novel Bless Me Ultima. Playwright Luis Valdez formed El Teatro Campesino, a traveling agitprop theater troupe, which originally worked with Chavez to support the cause of migrant workers and is still operating today. Valdez went on to write the Broadway hit Zoot Suit (1979) and the 1981 film La Bamba.

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