Disrupting Savagism

This book explores how Native Americans, Mexican immigrants, and Chicanas/os have challenged negative portrayals in U.S. colonial discourse, using various narratives to assert their identities and cultural perspectives.

Disrupting Savagism explores the colonial discourse in the United States that has historically marginalized and misrepresented various ethnic groups, including Native Americans, Mexican immigrants, indigenous peoples in Mexico, and Chicanas/os. The author, Arturo J. Aldama, delves into how these communities have been criminalized and depicted as savage, while also highlighting their efforts to carve out their own social and textual spaces. This book shifts the focus from how these groups have been constructed by others to how they actively resist and redefine these narratives.

Aldama begins by tracing the genealogy of the term savage, referencing influential figures such as American ethnologist Lewis Henry Morgan and the historical debate between Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda and Bartolomé de las Casas. He then moves on to contemporary narratives, examining a range of genres including ethnography, fiction, autobiography, and film. Works such as Manuel Gamio’s The Mexican Immigrant: His Life Story, Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony, and Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera serve as key texts in understanding the historical ideologies that have shaped identity formation over time.

Through this exploration, Aldama reveals the intricate politics surrounding racialized, subaltern, feminist, and diasporic identities. Disrupting Savagism offers a transcultural perspective that will resonate with scholars interested in feminist postcolonial processes in the United States, as well as students studying Latin American, Native American, and literary studies. The book ultimately underscores the importance of recognizing and valuing the unique epistemic logic that emerges from hybrid and mestiza/o cultural productions.