How does Chicano/a studies reconceptualize North American studies? Why do borders and borderlands figure so prominently in Chicano/a narrative and criticism? "Rewriting North American Borders in Chicano and Chicana Narrative" discusses three aspects of the Mexican American experience: the history of native origins in the borderlands, the (im)migrant experience, and the Chicana experience. They all produce narratives derived from the U.S.-Mexico border in its physical, political, psychological, and imaginative dimensions, and each (re)writes a distinct cultural poetics of that key site. A comprehensive study of Chicano/a narrative since the 1960s, this book presents theory combined with sensitive and detailed readings of most major (and many minor) Chicana and Chicano writers, including Gloria Anzaldua, Norma Cantu, Ana Castillo, Sandra Cisneros, Ernesto Galarza, Rolando Hinojosa, Ruben Martinez, Cherrie Moraga, Alejandro Morales, Americo Paredes, Estela Portillo Trambley, Tomas Rivera, Richard Rodriguez, Jose Villareal, Victor Villasenor, and others."