Texas is not California, and the experiences of
cultural conflict and preservation remain varied.
As Mora emphasizes, her desire is ‘‘to be one of
the many voices and not the voice, for we know the
grand variety in our community, and we want
others to recognize this human wealth’’ (45).
Mora’s voice is one of many speaking out
against what she labels ‘‘the safety of uniformity,’’
the anti-ecological pursuit of a national monocul-
ture by the practitioners of the dominant ideology
who would diminish the world by diminishing its
biological and cultural diversity. As Mora and
others warn, these two are not unrelated: ‘‘the
inheritors of culture [are] those who remain in
contact with nature and tradition,’’ in all their
diversity (Nepantla121). She encourages a cultural
conservation through the cultivation of the rich
roots of her Chicana heritage. She also reminds us
that other voices are speaking out for the neces-
sary preservation of cultural diversity. To all of
these heretofore marginalized and suppressed voi-
ces we must also attend.
Source:Patrick D. Murphy, ‘‘Conserving Natural and
Cultural Diversity: The Prose and Poetry of Pat Mora,’’
inMELUS, Vol. 21, No. 1, Spring 1996, pp. 59–69.
Sources
Bradford, Marlene.Scanning the Skies: A History of Tor-
nado Forecasting, University of Oklahoma Press, 2001.
Hardy, Ralph, et al. ‘‘Tornado Formations,’’ inThe
Weather Book, Little, Brown, 1982, pp. 112–13.
Murphy, Patrick D., ‘‘Conserving Natural and Cultural
Diversity: The Prose and Poetry of Pat Mora,’’ inMelus,
Vol. 21, No. 1, Spring 1996, pp. 59–70.
Torres, Hector A. ‘‘Introduction: The Labor of Value in
Contemporary Chicana and Chicano Literary Dis-
course,’’ inConversations with Contemporary Chicana
and Chicano Writers, University of New Mexico Press,
2007, pp. 1–32.Further Reading
Arteaga, Alfred, Chicano Poetics: Heterotexts and
Hybridities, Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Arteaga examines what the combination of
cultures means in American literature.
DeLeon, Arnoldo,Mexican Americans in Texas: A Brief
History, 3rd ed., Harlan Davidson, 2009.
This scholarly study of Tejanos and their influ-
ence on American culture examines the cultural
phenomena that are specific to the particular
mix found in Mora’s home state.
Dobie, J. Frank,Guide to Life and Literature of the South-
west, Southern Methodist University Press, 1974.
Published before the Chicano movement that
included Mora changed the way people looked
at the mixed cultures of the region, this book
illustrates the old way of looking at Mexicans
in the United States.
Grazulus, Thomas, The Tornado: Nature’s Ultimate
Windstorm, University of Oklahoma Press, 2003.
This book explains the natural forces that cre-
ate tornados. The description in the poem
proves to be accurate.
Nieto-Gomez, Anna, ‘‘Chicana Print Culture and Chicana
Studies: A Testimony to the Development of Chicana
Feminist Culture,’’ in Chicana Feminism: A Critical
Reader, Duke University Press, 2003, pp. 90–96.
Though Mora is not defined here as a feminist
writer, this essay, as well as others in this
collection, give readers a context for her work.Uncoiling