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The idea of Aztlán - the reputed home of the Aztecs before they founded Tenochtitlán - has long been one of the founding concepts of Chicano identity, explored as myth, as history, and as utopian goal in works by many Chicano writers. Its importance to the Chicano Movement and the literary growth that the movement produced can be seen in many foundational documents, beginning with "El plan espiritual de Aztlán" (Gonzales, 1969). Nevertheless, the idea of Aztlán presented in these early texts is not the same Aztlán presented in works by later writers, most notably Gloria Anzaldúa, in her seminal 1987 work, Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza. Although she describes notions of latinidad as not enough in and of themselves to overcome racism, sexism and homophobia (87), in Borderlands, Anzaldúa expands on a purely nationalistic construction of Chicana identity, to encompass a larger representation of its relevance for all Latinos' identities. In Borderlands, Anzaldúa theorizes Aztlán as a new geographical, spiritual and intellectual homeland for border crossers of all races and ethnicities, while still perpetuating its mythic status as a location of Chicano identity.
Daniel Cooper Alarcón (1997) calls the legend of Aztlán, "[p]erhaps the most enduring legacy of the Chicano movement"(10). Cooper Alarcón asserts that like history itself, the idea of Aztlán is a metaphorical palimpsest in constant process of change and revision (3). In describing it as a metaphorical palimpsest, Cooper Alarcón traces its appearances in different texts from Mesoamerican and colonial histories of Mexico to key texts of the US Chicano Movement, noting the political and cultural importance of each revision, each modifying the mythic idea of Aztlán without obliterating its earlier significance.
Aztlán first appears in Aztec mythology as the ancient home of the Aztec nation to the north of Tenochtitlán (Cooper Alarcón, 1997, 5). It is mentioned in the Historia de las Indias de Nueva España e Islas de Tierra Firme, first published in 1581, written by the Spanish missionary Diego Durán (25). Similarly, John Chávez's The Lost Land, a history of the southwestern United States, describes how a practice of referring to the area that is now the US Southwest as Aztlán developed during the 16th century (Chávez, 1991, 8). Portraying the Southwest as...