This chapter examines the relationship between Mexican American literature and the strand of Chicano activism focused on the needs of the working class. By offering literary case studies, including Rudolfo A. Anaya’s novel Heart of Aztlan (1976), Arellano identifies how literary activism has diverged from these needs. Although literature could aid the plight of workers by enabling a group to recognize its solidarity, Arellano argues, the identity that Chicano literature consolidates is ultimately distinct from the working class as such. So even as Chicano literary activism tends to be presented as the cultural arm of a labor movement, such activism has instead operated as the psychic support for a growing Mexican American middle class. While it may seem as if the interests of this growing class are unified with the needs of Mexican American workers, a shared Chicano culture has not been able to address the economic problems that each class faces. It remains necessary to identify continually the difference between literary activism benefiting the middle class and a labor movement benefiting workers.

Though Mailer published incisive and unapologetic criticism of the works of his contemporaries, he was also generous with his support of writers and his advocacy for literary freedom. He readily came to the defense of literature that was deemed obscene or controversial, and under threat of official ban, from William Burroughs’ Naked Lunch to Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses. His literary activism took consistent aim at publishing houses, which too often relied on money and marketing strategies to determine their publication choices. By protesting the promotion of already-wealthy writers and bringing little-known writers into the spotlight, Mailer not only proclaimed the force of his own work in post-war America but also defended a larger vision of literary freedom that endures today.