Between the chronicle of the Indies and the bildungsroman: argumentative and informative strategies in some works of Chicano literature

Abstract

A previous analysis of the adjective and interpersonal functions present in Caramelo leads us to conclude that Cisneros plays the role of a chronicler similar to that of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca who, according to Maura (1988: 15), creates a traditional image and a myth by combining autobiographical elements and fiction. With regard to chroniclers, Stoll argues that "[...] the soldier chroniclers contribute, for their part, to the modification of the discursive traditions of historiography: they give historiographic texts an autobiographical, subjective and pragmatic orientation". (Stoll, 1994: 78). Another novel with similar characteristics is Calligraphy of the Witch by Alicia Gaspar de Alba. Therefore, this article explores the similarities and differences with respect to argumentative and informative strategies found in Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca's Naufragios, Sandra Cisneros' Caramelo and Alicia Gaspar de Alba's Calligraphy of the Witch where the characters narrate trips they make to different geographical points for different purposes; however, in those trips they face the "other", in Foucault's terms, where that other may be their enemy or their ally, as the case may be.