John Wayne in the Irvine Ranch Farmers Market. Issue 3 (November 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sutton, Timothy
• Is Part Of: International review of qualitative research. Volume 8:Issue 3(2015)
• Page Start: 347
• Page End: 362
• Publication Date: 2015-11
• Subjects: performance (auto)ethnography -- decolonization -- California missions -- vaqueros -- John Wayne -- Red River; Qualitative research -- Periodicals; Social sciences -- Research -- Periodicals; Social justice -- Periodicals; Qualitative research; Social justice; Social sciences -- Research; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 001.42
• DOI: 10.1525/irqr.2015.8.3.347
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1940-8447

Abstract

The Western as a Hollywood film genre was born in and of California, as was I. This piece was "triggered" by a memory of an encounter with John Wayne in a market as a young child. Recognizing how (Western) stories can hold us in their grip, this is the beginning of a larger project of deconstructing my Western narrative to perform new articulations into being. I use the question, "Why don't I speak Spanish?" as the entry point to begin to unravel the tangled legacy of colonialism in California (and the United States) and to locate my body within it. This is a performance (auto)ethnography that combines bricolage with ethnodrama in the form of a screenplay. In this way, I highlight and echo the mediated, filmic origin of the mythical West(ern).