Authoring Home: Arizona's Indigenous and Chicano Literary History

This presentation focuses on two early twentieth-century Arizona authors, Refugio Savala (Yoeme-Mexican) and Mario Suárez (Chicano), and details how their respective literary journeys and published works helped give voice to people not otherwise represented in local and national literature.  Though subtle, Savala and Suárez's early work persists for their careful considering of identity, storytelling, justice, and resistance - all of which influenced future generations of Indigenous and Mexican-American authors and projects within Arizona.

This presentation culminates in a free-writing exercise, emphasizing depictions of ideas of "home."