Los Tejanos as Nineteenth-Century Border Play

Abstract

With this essay I argue that Los Tejanos should be considered a border play, despite the fact that it was written in the 1840s, and dramatizes an international line between New Mexico and the Republic of Texas (as opposed to that between México and the US). An analysis of the dramatis personae reveals complex and contradictory characters who face the kind of difficult choices often forced upon those who live within a region shaped by geopolitical forces beyond their control. Categorizing Los Tejanos as a border play makes the case for playmaking as a deeply rooted artistic response to endemic questions of identity in the US Southwest/Mexican Northwest.