In revised and expanded versions of papers presented at a conference at the U. of California, Irvine in February 1989, nine contributors explore early literary works written in Spanish in what is today the American Southwest. The works have been largely excluded from the body of American literature, yet they are the literary antecedents of contemporary Chicano and Chicana writing. The essays establish the importance of this heritage through a critical examination of key texts produced in the Southwest from 1542 to 1848. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.