This volume addresses issues surrounding cultural literacy through 13 essays, which suggest the range of knowledge that truly literate individuals need to possess. The following essays (most were written prior to the publishing of "Cultural Literacy" and "The Closing of the American Mind" in 1987) are presented: (1) "A Talk to Teachers" (James Baldwin); (2) "Who is Your Mother? Red Roots of White Feminism" (Paula Gunn Allen); (3) "The Path of the Red and Black Ink" (Gloria Anzaldua); (4) "People, Land, and Community" (Wendell Berry); (5) "A Journey into Speech" (Michelle Cliff); (6) "If I Could Write This in Fire, I Would Write This in Fire" (Michelle Cliff); (7) "How I Started To Write" (Carlos Fuentes); (8) "In Defense of the Word" (Eduardo Galeano); (9)"Documented/Undocumented" (Guillermo Gomez-Pena); (10) "Strangers in the Village" (David Mura); (11) "America: The Multinational Society" (Ishmael Reed); (12) "Invisibility Blues" (Michele Wallace); and (13) "Report from El Dorado" (Michael Ventura). The book concludes with an expanded list of essential names, phrases, dates, and concepts considered to be part of a multicultural fabric. (Contains 18 endnotes.) (GLR)