Chicana Writers

Critical discussions of the works of Chicana authors are invariably grounded in issues of power and politics. This book examines how contemporary Chicana writers have explored the subjugation of Chicanas. While Chicanos and Chicanas often suffer from the oppression of European Americans, Chicanas are additionally oppressed by a cultural system that subordinates them even further because of their gender. The first part of the volume discusses the major concerns and themes of Chicana writers in terms of the problems caused by inequitable gendered power relations. In the second, the proposed solutions of Chicana writers are presented. The final portion of the volume explores the relationship between Chicanas and other women writers and critics of color, Jewish feminists, and the mainstream feminist movement.

What makes John Rechy a Chicano writer? To be Latino, must writing have a touch of 'magical realism'? Can one talk of US Latina/o identity, considering the diversity of the Latina/o experience? Through the analysis of nine recent Latino/a novels, Karen Christian answers these and other questions, thereby adding a fresh, bold voice to the anti-essentialist debate surrounding ethnic and gender identity. Christian melds the theory of 'performativity' with the latest scholarship on ethnicity and ethnic literature to create a framework for viewing identity as a continuous process that cannot be reduced to static categories. Through their narrative 'performances', US Latina/o writers and their characters move among communities and identities in an ongoing challenge to the notion of Latina/o essence. This study is also among the first to examine trends across the spectrum of cultures represented in US Latina/o literature -- from Chicano to Cuban to Puerto Rican to Dominican. This book is essential for any serious student of Latina/o literature and identity.

Emerging from "Chicana Voices is a multifaceted picture of Chicanas--the impact they have had on U.S. history, culture, higher education, and their own communities.

Emma Perez discusses the historical methodology that has created Chicano history. Then -- borrowing from theorists and philosophers of history such as Michel Foucault, Juan Gomez-Quinones, Homi Bhabha, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, and Hayden White as well as from cultural feminist critics Gloria Anzaldua, Teresa de Lauretis, Antonia Castaneda, Deena Gonzalez, and Chela Sandoval -- the author argues that the Chicano historical narrative has often omitted gender. She poses a theory which rejects the colonizer's methodological assumptions and examines new tools for uncovering the hidden voices of Chicanas who have been relegated to silence. Within that silence, she uncovers what she describes as "third space feminism."

The text moves from geographic spaces in the Yucatan to California and Texas around the time of the Mexican Revolution of 1910. Perez examines Yucatan's socialist revolution, the international revolutionary movement El Partido Liberal Mexicano, and the Club Femenino Chapultepec. In these case studies "new voices" come into existence to shape knowledge about Chicanas.

The last chapter critiques the tale of La Malinche, the translator and alleged lover of Cortes; a recent film, Silent Tongue, the story of an Indian woman; Delgadeio, the object of desire in a popular corrido; and Selena, the slain Tex-Mex popular singer who practiced her own cultural feminism in sexualized performances.

Chicana Leadership features fifteen essays from the notable women's journal Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies that demonstrate the strength and diversity of Chicanas as well as their continuing struggle to have their voices heard. Noted scholars discuss issues ranging from the feminist prototype La Malinche to Chicana writers and national ideology, from gender and identity to ideas of culture and romance, and from tokenism to the diversity within the Chicana community.