Reclaiming Composition for Chicano/as and Other Ethnic Minorities

Winner of Honorable Mention for the 2018 Conference on College Composition and Communication Outstanding Book Award

This book examines the history of ethnic minorities particularly Chicano/as and Latino/as--in the field of composition and rhetoric; the connections between composition and major US historical movements toward inclusiveness in education; the ways our histories of that inclusiveness have overlooked Chicano/as; and how this history can inform the teaching of composition and writing to Chicano/a and Latino/a students in the present day. Bridging the gap between Ethnic Studies, Critical History, and Composition Studies, Ruiz creates a new model of the practice of critical historiography and shows how that can be developed into a critical writing pedagogy for students who live in an increasingly multicultural, multilingual society.

• Composition Studies
• Mexican American Studies
• Latino/a History
• Composition Pedagogy
• Ethnic Studies
• Mexican Rhetorics
• African American Rhetoric
• Critical Pedagogy
• Critical Historiography
• Composition Pedagogy
• Critical Race Theory
• Critical Education

“A welcome departure from dominant histories and theories of writing that obscure the rich contributions of Latinas and other communities of color. Scholars of the history of composition and teachers of writing who seek to study and teach beyond culturally homogenous horizons will use this book for many years to come.” (Damián Baca, Associate Professor of English and Mexican American Studies, University of Arizona, USA, and author of Mestiz@ Scripts, Digital Migrations, and the Territories of Writing)

“This book contributes an exigent, critical historiography that recovers the exclusion of Black and LatinX voices in histories of writing. Ruiz forcefully challenges expectations of silence by advocating for pedagogical frameworks to critically engage students with their places in the world.” (Cruz Medina, Santa Clara University, USA and author of Reclaiming Poch@ Pop: Examining the Rhetoric of Cultural Deficiency)

“With over 54 million Latinos/as currently in the US, innovative and relevant approaches to the teaching of composition in our schools and colleges are a pressing matter.  Long needed, Ruiz's work provides an impressive study of recent composition theories and offers a viable pedagogical proposal that takes into account the potential of using ethnic history, ethnic literature, and critical race studies for the teaching of composition to Latino/a students.  This book will prove an invaluable tool for the teaching of composition to ethnic minority students.” (Rosaura Sánchez, Professor of Latin American Literature and Chicano Literature, University of California San Diego, USA)

“Not even the revisionist historians of Composition Studies remember the Latinas and Latinos whose very presence—500 years’ worth—would have surely had some influence on how to regard the teaching of writing, even within the US monolingual insistence. Ruiz finally, and beautifully, begins to address this obvious lack, providing the histories, including the schools not covered in ivy, filling in the details, telling the tale long overdue.  Here is a true re-visioning of composition’s history.” (Victor Villanueva, Regents Professor and faculty member in the Department of English, Washington State University, USA) 

• Merritt Writing Program, University of California, Merced, Clovis, USA

  Iris D. Ruiz

Iris D. Ruiz is Lecturer at the University of California, Merced, USA. She is also the Co-Chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication Latino/a Caucus. 

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