Countering the Counterculture: Rereading Postwar American Dissent from Jack Kerouac to Tomas Rivera

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Rebelling against bourgeois vacuity, the Beat writers and artists have long symbolized a spirit of freedom and radical democracy. Manuel Luis Martinez offers an eye-opening challenge to this characterization of the Beats, juxtaposing them against Chicano nationalists like Raul Salinas, Jose Montoya, Luis Valdez, and Oscar Acosta and Mexican migrant writers in the United States, like Tomas Rivera and Ernesto Galarza. In an innovative rereading Martinez uncovers reactionary strains in the Beats’ vision of freedom, and he brings out the complex stances of Latinos on democracy and progressive culture. He argues that, of the three groups, the migrant writers presented a distinctly radical and inclusive vision of democracy that was truly countercultural.