Chronology: The Border in Latin American Literature, Culture and Film
1492 Christopher Columbus arrives in the Caribbean.
1493 Columbus&lquot;s second journey.
1494 Treaty of Tordesillas.
1498 Columbus&lquot;s third journey.
1502 Nicolas de Ovando starts the "repartimiento de los indios" system.
1508 The conquest of Puerto Rico.
1509 Juan Ponce de León colonizes the Borinquén (San Juan de Puerto Rico)
1510-12 The conquest of Cuba.
1512 Juan Ponce de León discovers Florida
1519 Hernán de Cortés arrives to México (Vera-Cruz)
Cartas de relación (1519-1536) de Cortés
1520 Magallanes crosses the strait that will be named after him.
1521 Cortés takes control of Mexico City.
1527 Pizarro discovers the Inca Empire.
1527-36 Alvar Nufiez Cabeza de Vaca&lquot;s expedition becomes shipwrecked off the
Gulf Coast. The surviving members march across what is today Texas,
New Mexico, Arizona, and northern Mexico before being rescued.
1531 Pizarro conquers the Inca Empire.
1539-43 Hernando de Soto explores much of the American South.
1540-42 Francisco Vásquez de Coronado explores the American Southwest.
1542-43 Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, followed by Bartolomé Ferrelo, explore the
western coast of the U.S.
1552 Brevísima relación de la conquista de las Indias by Fray Bartolomé de las Casas
1555 Naufragios y Comentarios by Cabeza de Vaca
1565 St. Augustine is founded.
1568 Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España by Bernal Díaz del Castillo
1569 Historia general de las cosas de la Nueva España by Fray Bernardino de Sahagún
1598 Gaspar Pérez de Villagra&lquot;s epic History of New Mexico.
1600 Mission schools are established.
1609 Comentarios reales by Inca Garcilaso de la Vega.
1610 Santa Fe is founded; today it is the oldest capital city in the U.S.
1687-1711 Jesuit missions in Arizona.
1690 Perhaps the first novel written in the New World is Ihe Misfortunes of
Affonso Ramirez by Siguenza y Góngora.
1696 Pensacola is founded.
1716 The Spanish build missions in Texas in order to avert French expansion.
1718 San Antonio is founded.
1763 France gives the Louisiana territory to Spain
1767 Expulsion of the Jesuits.
1776 Independencia of the United States.
San Francisco is founded.
1769-70 Early Spanish settlements in California.
1781 Los Angeles is founded
1789 French Revolution.
1795 The Pinckney Treaty defines the border between the U.S. and Spanish America.
1800 Spain returns the Louisiana Territory to France.
1803 The U. S. buys the Louisiana Territory from France.
1803-15 Napoleonic Wars in Europe loosen Spain&lquot;s control of American colonies; they begin to trade with the U. S.
1807 Napoleon Bonaparte invades Spain.
1808 El Mississippi is the first Spanish-language newspaper in the U.S.
1810 Independence of Spanish America (1810-1824).
1816 El Parochial Sarniento by Fernández de Lizardi.
1819 Spain gives Florida to the U.S.
1821 Federación Centroamericana, until 1838.
1822 Los Comanches, an allegorical drama, anonymous author.
1823 Monroe Doctrine.
1836 Texas wins independence from Mexico. Many Hispanic Texans returned to Mexico.
1846 A translation of Caronimo Boscana&lquot;s Chinigchimich, a historical account of the San Juan Capistrano Indians of Southern California, is published.
1848 The U.S. and Mexico sign the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in which Mexico gave up half of its land. Mexicans are forced to choose U.S. or Mexican citizenship; seventy-five thousand remain in the U.S.
1849 Anglos pouring in during the California Gold Rush displace Mexican residents. El Jibaro by Manuel Alonso is published.
1855 The newspaper El Clamor Público, Los Angeles is founded.
1860-70 Rebels Joaquín Murrieta, Tiburcio Básquez, and others are branded bandidos by the Anglo American establishment in California.
La peregrinación de Boyoán by Eugenio Maria de Hostos.
Memoria sobre la esclavitud by Segundo Ruiz Belvis written with José Julián Acosta, is read in cigar factories in Puerto Rico and New York.
1874 The newspaper La voz de Puerto Rico, New York is founded. (only one issue circulates)
1875 Mariano Vallejo writes his history of California from a Mexican perspective.
1880 José Marti arrives in NY and becomes president of the Comit6 Revolucionario Cubano. During the decade, several Spanish-language journals edited by Puerto Ricans and Cubans appear in NY.
1884 Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson
1885 7he Squatter and the Don Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton
1888 Eugenio Maria de Hostos&lquot;s essay on ethics and society, Moral social
1892 El hijo de la tempestad by Eusebio Chacón among the first by and about Mexican-Americans, appears.
1897 The Enchanted Burro: Stories from New Mexico and South American by Charles F. Lummis.
During the decade, cultural and artistic events flourish in the Spanish-speaking community of NY, many of which were centered in the Sociedad Literaria, founded by a group of intellectuals.
1893 La charca by Manuel Zeno Gandia
1894 The Alianza Hispano Americana, an early civil right organization, is founded.
1898 Spanish American War.
Puerto Rico becomes property of the U.S.
Cuba becomes a republic.
The border corrido flourishes, and The Ballad of Gregorio Cortes appears.
1900 José Enrique Rodó&lquot;s philosophical essay Ariel, about identity south and north of the Rio Grande, appears and becomes highly influential among Latin American youth.
1901 The Octopus by Frank Norris.
Luis Múñoz Rivera, a journalist and nationalist who published the Puerto Rico Herald in New York City and obtained U. S. citizenship for his country&lquot;s people, heads the first cabinet in Puerto Rico under U. S, occupation.
1902 Mary Austin produces 7he Land of Little Rain, Spanish-speaking theater groups thrive in the southwest. English made second official language of Puerto Rico.
1910-20 The Mexican Revolution.
The Mexican Revolution and growth of labor-intensive agriculture increase
immigration to Southwest. Sara Estela Ramirez publishes the feminist
journal Aurora. The newspaper El Heraldo de México establishes offices
in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas. Spanish speakers become
a small but important market. John Reed writes Insurgent Mexico.
1913 La Prensa begins publication in New York City.
1917 Puerto Ricans acquire U.S. citizenship,
1925 José Vasconcelos&lquot;s groundbreaking essay La raza cósmica and William Carlos William&lquot;s collection of vignettes, In the American Grain, are published.
1926 Newspaper La Opinión, Los Angeles circulates.
1928 Las aventuras de Don Chipote o Cuando los pericos mamen by Daniel Venega.
1929 Antonio García produces the sculpture Aztec Advance.
1930 42nd Parallel by John Dos Passos and Flowering Judas by Katherine Anne Porter
1932 Two Hispanics, Roland Lee Romero and Miguel de Capriles, compete as part of the U.S. Olympic team. Collapse of sugar boom and population explosion causes increase of Puerto Rican immigration to U.S.
1932-33 Los mexicanos se van by Antonio Helú (about repatriation and economic depression).
Mexican muralists Diego Rivera, Jos6 Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siquieros paint murals in the U.S. New Mexican carver Patrocinio Barela gains recognition.
1933 The El Monte Berry Strike. The San Joaquin Cotton Strike.
1935 My life in the Frontier: 1864-1883 by Miguel Antonio Otero.
1936 Locos: A Comedia of Gestures by Felipe Alfau.
1937 rto Torres&lquot;s stories about the Mexican Revolution are published in Esquire, William Carlos Williams&lquot;s novel The "ite Mule, the first installment of the Steche trilogy, and John Steinbeck&lquot;s Tortilla Flat are published.
1939 Sunday Costs Five Pesos by Josephina Neggli.
1940 New Mexico Tripch by Fray Angelico Chávez.
Figures in a Landscape by Paul Horgan
Spanish language radio and cinema begin to thrive in cities of the Southwest.
1942 The Sleepy Lagoon Incident occurs in L.A. Alfonso Reyes&lquot;s essay on America as Europe&lquot;s utopia, Ultima Thule, is published.
1942-64 The Bracero Program.
1943 The Zoot Suits Riots occur in Los Angeles.
1945 Mexican Village by Josephina Neggli.
Film Campeón sin corona becomes a hit south of the border.
1946 KCOR in San Francisco becomes the first full-time Spanish language television station of the U.S.
1947 The word Chicano is used in the Arizona Quarterly.
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, film based on a novel by Traven.
1948 American GI Forum founded to protect right of Mexican American veterans.
1949 Armando Baeza wins a prize in Los Angeles with his sculpture on Virgin Mary
1950 El laberinto de la soledad by Octavio Paz [First chapter dedicated to Chicanos].
1951 William Carlos Williams&lquot;s Autobiography is published. René Marqués&lquot;s
drama La carreta is produced. "I Love Lucy" premieres. Spanish
language television and variety shows begin to acquire popularity.
1952 Giant by Edna Ferber. The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico is claimed.
1953 Herbert Biberman&lquot;s The Salt of the Earth and Alejandro Galindo&lquot;s film
Espaldas mojadas are shown.
1954 Hispanic Americans are recognized as a separate minority. Operation Wetback forces removal of I million people from U.S. to Mexico.
1956 Pedro Juan Soto&lquot;s collection of stories and miniatures, Spiks, appears.
1957 Ritchie Valens dies in a plane crash.
1958 With His Pistol in His Hand by Américo Paredes.
1959 Pocho by Antonio Villareal.
Fidel Castro stages a Communist revolution in Cuba, which leads to Cuban immigration to U.S.
1960 Bilingual Education originates in Dade County.
The Chicano Movement begins among Mexican Americans.
The rise of Nuyorican literature.
1961 U.S. troops invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs.
A Puerto Rican in New York and Other Sketches by Jesús Colón.
Oscar Lewis&lquot;s anthropological narrative The Children of Sanchez.
Robert Wise&lquot;s West Side Story.
SIN, the first Spanish-language television network in the U. S., is created.
1962 César Chávez, messianic leader of the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFWOC) begins organizing what will become the first agricultural union in the United States.
1963 Reies Tijerina funds the Alianza Federal de Mercedes in New Mexico, with the aim of getting back the ancient Spanish and Mexican land based on the conditions of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.
Denver Chicanos demonstrate against police brutality and the killings of young Chicanos in the streets.
City of Night by John Rechy.
Mexican Americans assert political power in Texas.
1964 El Malcriado, newspaper of the National Farm Workers begins publication.
1965 The Long Huelga, or strike of California grape workers begins in the San Joaquin Valley in 1966 by a dramatic 300 mile march from Delano to Sacramento.
Rodolfo "Corky" González founds Denver Crusade for Justice.
El Teatro Campesino is founded by Luis Valdez in California.
1966 Tijerina and his followers temporarily take over the Kit Carson National Forest, proclaiming reestablishment of the nineteenth century Pueblo de San Joaquin de Río de Chama.
Oscar Lewis&lquot;s La Vida, an ethnological study of Puerto Ricans in New York
Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta lead farm workers in a march from Delano to Sacramento, California.
Puerto Ricans riot on Chicago,
1967 "Yo soy Joaquín" inspired by the life of Joaquin Murrieta is published by Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzáles.
El Grito: Journal of Mexican American Thought begins publication.
Members of the Alianza raid the county courthouse in Tierra Amarilla in an attempt to make a citizens arrest of the district attorney in reprisal for harassment.
In Texas, striking far workers march 400 miles from Lower Río Grande to Austin.
José Angel Gutiérrez and other activists in Texas form the Raza Unida political Party.
Numerous Latin American fiction writers capture world attention.
Piri Thomas&lquot;s Down these Mean Streets
1698 César Chávez goes on a 25 days strike to call attention to La Causa.
1969 The Plum Plum Pickers; Espejo edited by Octavio I. Romano (one of the first anthologies of Chicano literature).
El plan espiritual de Aztlán by Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzáles.
National Youth Liberation Conference. Luis Valdez&lquot;s film Yo soy Joaquin based on Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzáles&lquot; poem is shown.
1970 Chicano (a novel) by Luis Omar Salinas.
The police kills Rubén Salazar, a Los Angeles Times reporter and becomes a mythical figure.
Aztlán: Chicano Journal of the Social Sciences and Arts is founded.
The census shows that 82% of Hispanic Americans lived in just nine states: California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, New York, New Jersey, Florida, and Illinois.
1971 La Raza Unida conference in Colorado support the Plan Espiritual de Aztlán.
. . . Y no se lo tragó la tierra by Tomás Rivera.
Barrio Boy by Ernesto Galarza.
Floricanto de Aztlán by Alurista.
The California grape owners capitulate to UFWOC, granting substantial wage increases.
1972 The Autobiography of Brown Buffalo by Oscar "Zeta" Acosta.
Bless me, Ultima by Rudolfo A. Anaya..
Occupied America: The Chicano&lquot;;s Struggle Toward Liberation by Rodolfo Acuña.
Yo Soy Chicano [movie] directed by Jesús Salvador Treviño.
1973 The Revolt of the Cockroach People by Oscar "Zeta" Acosta.
Sckethes of the Valley and Other Works by Rolando Hinojosa.
Bilingual Press and Revista Chicano-riqueña start publication.
The Labor Council of Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) is formed to protect the interests of Hispanics within organized labor.
1974 Chicano Power by Tony Castro.
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin.
The Milagro Beanfield War by John Nichols.
Peregrinos de Aztlán by Miguel Méndez.
The Supreme Court decision in the Lau v. Nichols case pushes bilingual education programs throughout the U.S. U.S. Congress passes the Equal educational opportunity Act to create equality in public schools; its most important goal is to make bilingual education available to Hispanic youth.
1975 The Road to Tamazunchale by Ron Arias.
El diablo en Texas by Ariesteo Brito.
Nicholasa Mohr&lquot;s El Bronx Remembered
Edwin Torres&lquot;s Carlito&lquot;s Way
Angela de Hoyos&lquot;s poetry Arise Chicanos and Other Poems
Miguel Algarin and Miguel Piñero&lquot;s Nuyorican Poetry: An Anthology of Puerto Rican Words and Feelings
The Voting Rights Act Amendments require actions to make voting by Hispanic Americans easier. The California Labor Relations Act is passed to protect farm laborers and the growers.
1976 Aristeo Brito&lquot;s El diablo en Texas
Luis Rafael Sánchez La guaracha del Macho Camach
Isaac Goldemberg&lquot;s La vida a plazos de Don Jacobo Lerner
Led Blank&lquot;s film Chulas Fronteras is issued.
1977 Juan Gómez-Quifiones&lquot;s essay "On Culture"
Nash Candelaria&lquot;s Memories of the Alhambra
Jesús Salvador Treviflo&lquot;s film Raices de sangre.
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus is founded.
1978 Miguel Algarin&lquot;s Mongo Affair is published.
Alfonso Arau&lquot;sfilm The Promised Queen is shown.
1979 Chicana [film] by Sylvia Morales.
Mojado Power [film] by Alfonso Arau.
1980 Bilingual Press starts publication.
The Mariel boatlift brings thousands of refugees from Cuba to Florida, including writer Reinaldo Arenas, author of Yhe Palace of White Skunks and Before Night Falls.
1981 The Bridge Called my Back: Writing by Radical Women of Color by Cherrié Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa.
CALIFAS, a conference on Chicano art, is held at the University of California at Santa Cruz.
Luis Valdez&lquot;s film Zoot Suit is released.
1982 Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodríguez by Richard Rodríguez.
Edward Rivera&lquot;s Family Installments
Ariel Dorfman&lquot;s The Last Song of Manuel Sendero,
Eugene Mohr&lquot;s The Nuyorican Experience: Literature of the Puerto Rican Minority
The rise of Cuban American political power.
1983 Exploit of Death by Dell Shannon (aka Elizabeth Linington).
The Ballad of Gregorio Cortéz [film based on Américo Paredes ethnological study] directed by Robert Young.
Cherrie Moraga&lquot;s Loving in the War Years: Lo que nunca pasó por sus labios,
Danny Santiago&lquot;s Famous All Over Town,
Ricardo Pau-Llosa&lquot;s poetry Sorting Metaphors
Brian DePalma&lquot;s film Scarface
Under the Volcano [film based on the novel by Malcolm Lorry] directed by John Houston.
1984 The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros.
The Rain God by Arturo Is las.
Stones for Ibarra by Harriet Doerr.
Great River: The Río Grande in North American History by Paul Horgan.
Tino Villanueva&lquot;s Shaking off the Dark,
Tato Liviera&lquot;s AmeRican
Bernardo Vega&lquot;s memoir Memorias de Bernardo Vega appears in English translation.
Gregory Nava&lquot;s film El Norte is released.
Paul Espinosa and Isaac Artenstein release The Ballad of an Unsung Hero, a film about Pedro J. González, one of the pioneers of Spanish-language radio.
1986 The Maxquiahuala Letters by Ana Castillo.
The Last of The Menu Girls by Victor Perera.
Victor Perera&lquot;s Rites: A Guatemalan Boyhood
Carlos Fuentes&lquot;s The Old Gringo
Kiss of the Spider Woman [film] by Hector Babenco.
The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 gives legal status to people who had been in the U.S. illegally since January 1, 1982, offering relief to Hispanics who had feared being caught.
Telemundo is consolidated.
1987 Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza by Gloria Anzaldúa.
La Bamba [film] by Luis Valdéz.
Born in East L.A. [film] by Cheech Martin.
Judith Ortiz Cofer&lquot;s Terms of Survival
Jimmy Santiago Baca&lquot;s Martin and Meditations on the South Valley
Gustavo Pérez-Firmat&lquot;s Carolina Cuban
Nobody Listened, [documentary] by Nestor Almendros and Jorge Ulla&lquot;s
The Old Gringo [film] by Luis Puenzo.
A major exhibit of Cuban American painters travels from New Jersey to Georgia.
The growth of Hispanic-owned businesses. Univisión, the largest Spanish-language television network in the U.S. and grandchild of KCOR, the first Spanish-language television station, is founded.
El Nuevo Herald is founded in south Florida as a separate Spanish-language newspaper.
1988 The Brick People by Alejandro Morales
Stand and Deliver [film] by Ramón Menéndez.
The Milagro Beanfield War [film] by Robert Redford.
The Ultraviolet Sky by Alma Villanueva
Raining Backwards by Roberto G. Fernández
Crazy Love by Elías Miguel Múñoz
Stand and Deliver [film] by Ramón Menendez
La Oftenda [documentary] by Lourdes Portillo
1991 Women Hollering Creek and Other Stories by Sandra Cisneros.
Rain of Gold by Victor Villaseñor.
1992 Celebrations of the Quincentennial trigger international controversy around the event: discovery vs. invasion. Intellectuals and artist join forces to stop celebrations in Mexico, Latin America, and the United States. 1942 labeled "The year of the encounter."
1992 American Me [film] by Edward James Olmos.
El Mariachi [film] Robert Rodríguez.
1993 Mi Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A. by Toño Chavez.
1994 America&lquot;s Dream By Esmeralda Santiago.
1995 My Family [film] by Gregory Nava.
Nueba Yol [film] Ángel Muñiz.
1996 Under the Feet of Jesus [film] by Helena María Viramontes.
1997 Selena [film] by Gregory Nava.
2000 The Price of Glory [film] by Carlos ávila
Girlfight [film] by Karyn Kus.
2002 Real Women Have Curves [film] Patricia Cardoso.
2004 A Day Without a Mexican [documentary] by Sergio Arau.
2006 Quinceañera [film] by Richard Glatzer, Wash Westmoreland.
Bordertown [film] by Gregory Nava
2007 Sangre de mi sangre [film] by Christopher Zalla.
2009 La Mission [film] by Peter Bratt.
Norteado [film] by Rigoberto Pérezcano.
Sleep Dealer [film] by Alex Rivera.