Month: January 2012

Reading Maylei Blackwell, ¡Chicana Power! (4)

Reading Assignment: Your reply (under Comments) is due before class on Wednesday, February 1. Remember, you don’t need to answer all or even any of the questions, but your response should demonstrate you’ve done and thought about the readings. Be sure to check and make sure your response posts.

Maylei Blackwell, ¡Chicana Power! (91-125)

How were images of Chicanas deployed? Do you agree with Blackwell’s description of how images of Chicanas circulated within the Chicano Movement?

What were / are the Chicana critiques of nationalism according to Blackwell? What is your impression of nationalism?

How does Blackwell delineate the origins and usage of the term “machismo”? What would you add to her definitions? What is the Chicana critique of it?

Who were the original Hija de Cuauhtémoc? Why did the Chicanas at CSULB come to identify with them? How does their identification echo the connections between the Mexican Revolution and the Chicano Movement?

“Stolen Sidekick”: Moral Endeavor

morality
morality

The story about the “Stolen sidekick” concerning Sasha Gomez and Evan Guttman was a moral fight for Evan.  Evan’s friend was the owner of a sidekick phone and she happened to leave it in a taxi by accident.  After Evan’s friend bought a new sidekick, she logged into the data from her old phone and was able to see the person’s info of who had her phone. She was able to see the girl’s pictures from MySpace, which also had pictures of her baby and boyfriend. Evan then used the info from Sasha’s messenger account to get into contact with her and to ask her to return the phone. Sasha refused in a rude way, and this started the morality fight between Evan and Sasha.Evan was able to see all of this info regarding Sasha and dished it out to the public through his page online. Evan said on his online page on the third update “This is not a religious endeavor or a moral endeavor”, but I think it did turn into a moral lesson he wanted to teach Sasha and her family. In the early stages of the webpage Evan claims his goal of the webpage was, “I want these people SHAMED into realizing what they have done”, but towards the end of the webpage we see the truth of what his objective was.

To anyone who read “It takes a village to find a phone” or heard its summary, it would be easy to classify Evan as white man that was being a bully or a racist towards a minority puertorican teenage girl. However when you really find out the background of Evan, you start to see this is actually a moral endeavor for him, to Sasha and her family.  Evan tells a life story on his webpage of when he was in the 7th grade and he went with a couple of friends to the river, and they thought it would be fun to light some leaves. They thought this was a good idea since the leaves were by the river, but the fire ended up getting out of control and burning a private house. Evan and his friends were arrested and his parents had to cover the liability cost. For the next 3 months Evan had to visit burn victims in the hospital, and he was banned from seeing the friends. Even though the act by Evan and his friends were innocent and not malicious, it was wrong and destructive and he had to pay the consequences for them, despite his age. Evan learned from this young age that it is not alright to do wrong, no matter what your age is.

Evan had no initial intentions of embarrassing Sasha and her family, he actually made a deal with them from the start of the webpage all the  way to Sasha’s arrest, that as soon as she returned the phone, the webpage was coming down. When Sasha, her brother, and mother, all knew who the stolen phones owner was, yet still denied pleads from the owner to give the phone back, this I think fueled Evans desire to make them do the right thing. Evan, I think, saw his naive young self in Sasha, when he was a boy that didn’t think about the responsibility , despite his youth to do the right thing. His parents were the ones that didn’t allow him to run away from his responsibility of doing right, which one can argue, changed his life for the better. Evan in return wanted to force Sasha to understand her responsibility of doing right, especially since the adults around her weren’t teaching her this important life lesson. In the beginning of his webpage, Evan didn’t realize his drive was a moral endeavor to Sasha and her family that no one is to young to do right.

 

I thought Evans intentions were good when he started the webpage just to help a friend find her phone, but when his personal feelings started getting involved, is when I think his intentions got screwed up. It was not Evans fault that his webpage about Sasha got so much attention, put he did have an unfair advantage against Sasha and he misused it. With Evan having a great background of computer knowledge, he was able to paint a bad picture of Sasha for the whole world to see, while Sasha wasn’t as computer savvy as Evan to defend her image. There was also a huge age difference with Sasha being 16, while Evan was 31! In todays society if a 31 year old man was bullying physically a 16 year old girl, even if the girl was in the wrong, it would never be acceptable. I don’t see why it is acceptable for Evan to do such, just because it is online, even if he didn’t like her morals. It is not his place to try and force Sasha to change her ways especially since he is not a relative or friend of hers. If he didn’t like her morality then he has the right to tell her, but she has the right not to listen. Since Sasha didn’t listen to Evan’s advice, this is when I think Evan took the gesture personal and made a conscious effort to embarrass Sasha with the unfair technological advantage he had. This is his case I think was wrong.

Sources:

Perspective on Machismo through the eyes of Gloria Anzaldúa and Jeanette Rodriguez

Both Jeanette Rodriguez in a section of her book, Our Lady of Guadalupe: Faith and Empowerment among Mexican-American Women, and Gloria Anzaldúa in Borderlands/ La Frontera: The New Mestiza speak to the construction of machismo. For a long time Chicanas and Mexican (American) women been exploited and colonized by sexism (Rodriguez, 70). They have been relegated solely to household duties and rearing of children or to prostitution, completely dismissing the possibility of becoming scholars. Gloria Anzaldúa states, “[f]or a woman of my culture there used to be only three directions she could turn: to the Church as a nun, to the streets as a prostitute, or to the home as a mother” (39). Thus is a product of the patriarchal system that enforces machismo and the subjugation of women. In the church as a nun they are not placed in an equal position as priests. In the realm of prostitution they are perceived as sexual objects utilized by men for their sexual inclinations. They are expected to be at home, cleaning, rearing children and cooking for everyone, every meal. These are traditionally the expectations for Chicanas and Mexican (American) women.

Anzaldúa declares that machismo was constructed by Anglos, but Rodriguez states it “is a response to the dominant culture’s oppression” (Rodriguez, 71). Rodriguez discusses machismo more as a response from the rape indigenous women experienced during the conquest and their inability to fight it thus resulting in “an overly masculine and aggressive response to their women” (Rodriguez, 71). Describing it in modern times, in terms of Chicanos exerting machismo, Anzaldúa says, it’s a “result of hierarchical male dominance […] [t]he Anglo, feeling inadequate and inferior and powerless, displaces or transfers these feelings to the Chicano by shaming him” (105). Anzaldúa describes machismo as a transmission from Anglos to Chicanos as a result of Anglos feeling substandard to the Chicanos.

Through the invasion of the United States in Mexico in 1821 to 1910, Mexicans increasingly began to be displaced from their own lands. The drastic industrialization that was happening in the United States in that period of time, the “Anglo-American conquest transformed Mexicans from a position of citizenship, owners of their own lands, to a colonized people” (Rodgriguez, 67). The more penetration of Anglo-Americans into Mexican lands, the more of an oppressed people they became. As a result of the transformation evolved the idea of machismo.

I think that both Anzaldúa and Rodriguez’s descriptions of the construction of machismo are reasonable. I would have liked to see Rodriguez give more of an in-depth historical analysis than what she is providing in the book. Anzaldúa mentions the need for a new masculinity, one that is not afraid to feel and be vulnerable and create equality between men and women.

Sources:

Chicana of Many Voices

Lorna Dee Cervantes is known as one of the greatest poets in Chicana literature. She was born on August 6, 1954 in San Francisco, California. Her parents came from Mexican and Native American descent. When she was young, her parents divorced and her mother took her and her brother to San Jose, California to live with her mother. Cervantes had a tough childhood living in a neighborhood filled with poverty, gangs, and violence. However, she found comfort in writing poetry; at the age of 8 she composed her first poem (Women’s History).

During her teenage years, she was influenced by African American women poets and reading their poems “politicized her.” She started questioning the dynamics of oppression, especially of women, and this made her very angry. Cervantes went on to work as an activist for the National Organization for Women, the Native American Movement, and the Chicano Movement. She used her poetry as a “weapon to denounce racism, sexism, violence against women, and the oppression of the disempowered” (Gonzalez). Later on in life, she went on to publish three books of poems: Emplumada, From the Cables of Genocide: Poems on Love and Hunger, and Drive: The First Quartet.

In 1975, Cervantes wrote the poem Para Un Revolucionario [For a Revolutionay]. The following is my own interpretation of what she is trying to tell us in this poem. Given by the title, it is evident that this poem is directed toward the Chicano (men) on behalf of the Chicanas. She begins by describing that the words of liberation spoken by the Chicanos are like snow and the warmth of sun. Their Chicano spirit is so high that no army, police, or city can bring them down. His persuasive words draw her in and the “snow” raining from his mouth covers her breasts and hair. This can be a reference to how the men in the movement tried to get the young women to sleep with them.  In Blackwell’s, Chicana Power, she mentions “sexual politics” and how men used Chicanismo to get women into bed.

In the second half of the poem, the tone changes the Chicana is bothered by the fact that she is stuck in the kitchen cooking and cleaning while he’s in the living room spreading his dream to brothers.  This represents the sexism in the movement. Women we not allowed to discuss their opinions and ideas and if they did, they would be ignored and not taken seriously. The women did the “work” in the movement the cooking, cleaning, and typing. The poem goes on to say, “Pero, it seems I can only touch you/ With my body.” Once again, this describes how Chicanas were seen as sexual objects and not as political comrades and the only way they paid attention to the women were for sexual favors.

At the end, she addresses the “hermano raza” with her fears. “I am afraid that you will lie with me/ And awaken too late/ To find that you have fallen.” She is warning the brother raza that the revolution will fail without the cooperation and equality of Chicanos and Chicanas in the movement.    

 

References

Blackwell, Maylei. Chicana Power!: Contested Histories of Feminism in the Chicano Movement Austin: University of Texas, 2011. 70-76. Print.

Garcia, Alma M. “Para Un Revolucionario [For a Revolutionay].” Chicana Feminist Thought: The Basic Historical Writings. New York: Routledge, 1997. 74-75. Print.

 Gonzalez, Sonia V. “Poetry Saved My Life: An Interview with Lorna Dee Cervantes.” Goliath: Business Knowledge On Demand. MELUS, 22 Mar. 2007. Web. 30 Jan. 2012. http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-7647816/Poetry-saved-my-life-an.html.

“Women’s History – Lorna Dee Cervantes.” Gale Cengage Learning. Web. 30 Jan. 2012. http://www.gale.cengage.com/free_resources/whm/bio/cervantes_l.html.

Photo (image): http://www.poetscoop.org/SPRING2010BIOS.htm

#CHST404 Chicana Feminisms Tweets 1/30/12

Twitter thoughts discussing Maylei Blackwell, Chapter Two ¡Chicana Power! (43-90)

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Reading Maylei Blackwell, ¡Chicana Power! (3)

Reading Assignment: Your reply (under Comments) is due before class on Monday, January 30. Remember, you don’t need to answer all or even any of the questions, but your response should demonstrate you’ve done and thought about the readings. Be sure to check and make sure your response posts.

Maylei Blackwell, ¡Chicana Power! (43-90)

How would you describe the women who made up the Chicana activists in Las Hijas de Cuauhtémoc?  What were their backgrounds and experiences prior to come to Cal State Long Beach?  What sense do you have of them as people?

What were the problems Chicanas going to college in the late 1960s and early 1970s experienced? Which were the same and which were different from those experienced by Chicanos? How did Chicanas cope with these problems?

How did involvement with the Chicano Movement influence the Chicana students?  How did they change it and how were they changed by it?

What were the issues surrounding Anna NietoGomez’s election to the leadership in her campus MEChA? How was her leadership opposed?

What was/is “political familialism”? Relate Blackwell’s description of it to our earlier readings.

From where does Blackwell trace the origins of Chicana feminism? Who were these early role models?

What were some of the issues involving sex and sexuality revealed in the oral histories? What details were the most striking? How does it related to “chingón politics”?

 

#CHST404 Chicana Feminisms Tweets 2/25/12

Twitter thoughts discussing Anna NietoGomez, “Chicana Print Culture and Chicana Studies: A Testimony to the Development of Chicana Feminist Culture” (from A Critical Reader: Chicana Feminisms, 90-96)

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Gender Stereotypes & Reaching The Top in the Workforce

In Chicana Feminist Thought, “A Chicana’s Message,” “El Movimiento and the Chicana,” and “Viva La Chicana and All Brave Women of La Causa” there’s an overwhelming sentiment from Chicana women that they did not feel fully supported by their men because of prevalent sexist attitudes especially, when they wanted to pursue their goals either personal or professional.  They shared an immense guilt when having to choose between their ambitions and serving their community either as wives, sisters, daughters, etc. These Chicana women expressed their disappointment and their desire to do more during the Chicano Movement, but if you fast-forward about 41 years later to learn about women today. Women are still dealing with similar struggles.

The majority of women face many obstacles in the workplace including and foremost women of color.  Although there have been many advancements, stereotypes and a lack of strong support affect women. Sheryl Sandberg, the current chief operating officer of Facebook, shared in “Why we have too few women leaders” her own experience as a businesswoman and advice in order, to get more women in the workplace.  The data she presents is meant to bring awareness that there’s need to be more changes made. Sandberg says that from 190 head of States only 9 are women, in Parliament only 13 are women and in the corporate sector it tops at 15% or 16% maximum which haven’t moved since 2002 because they have plateau. She says it’s tougher for women because they have harder choices to make. Women really feel pressured to pick between their personal fulfillment and professional success. However, she offers three pieces of advice for more women to “sit at the table, make your partner a real partner and don’t leave before you leave.” The first is about encouraging women to reach for promotions, to negotiate more, and to overcome feelings of inferiority. Feelings of doubt and insecurity are also a product of racial and gender oppression, which Chicana Women actively fought but was called “machismo” and racial hegemony in society. The second advice is also about the importance of making more progress in the home because women are still performing the “second shift” a term from Arlie Russell Hochschild which refers to the additional housework women have to perform on top of their jobs. Chicana women wanted to do more and to feel like partners with their Chicano brothers. One Chicana says, “nothing could be more truly Chicana than the Chicana who wants to be more than a wife, mother, housekeeper” (from Chicana Feminist Thought 80).  They did not want to be confined to the home neither because of their gender nor their race. The last piece of advice encourages women not to stop working or challenging themselves only because they want to start a family. Women should not slow down if they are thinking of one day getting married or having kids because men do worry about that neither should women. Women do not have to choose one or the other. That is why it is important for the equal division of work between men and women in the workplace and in the home. The point is not to stop looking for opportunities.

Furthermore in Advancing Latinas in the Workplace: What Managers Need to Know, a more current report on professional Latina women mentions that even though women represent over 50% of the total U.S. workforce in the U.S., Latinas remain virtually invisible in senior management positions at Fortune 500 Companies. The fact is that Latina women are not only fighting against the statistics, but they continue to struggle with traditional gender roles in the family and in their culture.  A Latina professional shares that “Non-minority women would ask me, ‘You cook when you go home?’ And I would say, ‘Yes, I’ve got kids.’ Of course I do; my mother cooked. That’s one of the differences between [other] people and [us]. Food is very important; family is very important” (Catalyst, 2003). This reflects a similar experience most Chicana women felt. Some would feel disloyal to their husband and family if they weren’t in the home serving. Those societal expectations still exist and will continue to if double standards exist too.  They need to be challenged for the sake of all women.

In a world full of struggles, that is why Chicana women wanted to create solidarity with all women and challenge society.  The fight is far from over because there are still changes to be made locally, nationally, and globally but it must first begin in the home.

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Reading: “Chicana Print Culture and Chicana Studies”

Reading Assignment: Your reply (under Comments) is due before class on Friday, January 27. Remember, you don’t need to answer all or even any of the questions, but your response should demonstrate you’ve done and thought about the readings.  Be sure to check and make sure your response posts.

Anna NietoGomez, “Chicana Print Culture and Chicana Studies: A Testimony to the Development of Chicana Feminist Culture” (from A Critical Reader: Chicana Feminisms, 90-96)

What is the trajectory of Chicana print culture that NietoGomez recounts?  How does she connect the development of Chicana studies with Chicana feminism?  How does NietoGomez support Blackwell’s arguments about oral histories and Chicana feminism?

What were the issues of Chicana feminism that NietoGomez describes? How are they similar or different to issues you see today?

 

 

#CHST404 Chicana/o Tweets 2/25/12

Today we’re continuing our discussion of Maylei Blackwell’s book, ¡Chicana Power!: Contested Histories of Feminism in the Chicano Movement.  Here are some class tweets based on readings of Chapter 1:

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