PSA: Allow me to re-introduce myself my name is….

Hey everyone, my name is Michael Marmolejo.  Currently I am a junior pursuing a major in Liberal Studies with a minor in Chicano/a Studies.  I am the younger of the two in my family, my brother being nine years older than me.  I am currently in the School of Education program and hoping to become an elementary teacher.  I have taken three previous Chicano/a Studies class.  Eventually, I would like to teach a college course about the history and impact of the Lowrider culture.  What attracted me to Chicano/a Studies was that all the previous history classes that I took mostly looked at the European or dominant perspective.  I always wanted to learn about my heritage and culture.  I’m looking forward to this class.

Hello! Stephanie Troncoso

My name is Stephanie Troncoso, I’m from Palm Springs CA. I’m a Sophomore, Animation major, double minoring in Studio Arts and Chicana/o Studies. I actually came to LMU with the intent of studying animation and Chicana/o studies as context for my films. I did not expect to learn as much about myself, my culture, and about the history around me as I have in a single semester of taking Chicana/o Studies classes, so I’m definitely looking forward to more of that in this class. I’d like to focus on making animated documentaries, specifically regarding Mexican and other Latin American issues. I’d also like to work as a character designer in order to do research and meet people of different ages, areas, races, etc.. and do some traveling. I am at a very good place in my learning career so I hope to continue that progress for the upcoming years.

Michelle Badillo 101

As I’m sure everyone has already noted, my name is Michelle Badillo.  I am a sophomore Screenwriting major and Women’s Studies minor.  Regardless of the amount of female police chiefs and female presidents and female executives we see portrayed on television and in film, the entertainment industry is still widely regarded as a men’s club.  Writing staffs, executives, and producers are predominantly male, so I’m hoping that my education in Women’s Studies will help me to level the playing field.  I am a half Puerto Rican, half Argentinean girl from Queens, and when I first arrived at Loyola Marymount I was stunned by the sheer lack of Hispanics I encountered.  To go from a world inundated by Latin culture to a world where it hardly seems to exist was something I had trouble grappling with for a while.  To discover that LMU offered a class that would encompass both Latin culture and feminism was a revelation.  I was surprised to find how little I actually know about Latina/Chicana feminism, and I am looking forward immensely to this learning experience.

brief introduction about me, Yara Cipatlic Hidalgo

Hello fellow CHST 404 class members! My full name is Yara Cipatlic Hidalgo: I am a Liberal Studies and Chicana/o Studies double major with a concentration in Math. My goal is to start off my career being an elementary school teacher and then a secondary school math teacher. I am a passionate for learning and for providing intellectual insight, and in an educational setting it is a reciprocal effect: the teacher becomes the student and the student becomes the teacher. Anywho, I love both of my majors, specially Chicana/o Studies because I have gained not just intellectual but emotional insight about who I am, as a learner, as a sister, a daughter, as a Mexican, and as a Chicana. I am extremely excited for this class, and learning more about Chicana Feminist theories! I have taken a history of sexuality class, but we briefly talked about the division between “heterosexual” Chicanas and Chicana Lesbians, so I am looking forward to learning more about the internal conflicts that created division within Chicanas and Chicanos in the movement.

Vanessa Gonzalez

Hi Everyone, my name is Vanessa Gonzalez and I am from Las Vegas, Nevada. I currently am a junior Civil Engineering major, Applied Mathematics minor and I am loving every minute of my major. I believe I couldn’t have picked a better university then LMU. This is my first semester taking a course in either Chicana or Women’s Studies. However I have an extreme interest in CHST 404 because not only will I learn about my heritage but the empowerment of women. I believe I don’t know enough about my Mexican heritage so I am glad that I am taking a course in correspondence, but the women’s studies is what I am most excited to learn about; their struggles, how they overcame, and how they got to where they are today. This is because I am a women studying in a male dominated field and I feel I can learn a lot from our history.

Presenting Carmen Elizabeth Castañeda

Hello there! I am a senior Applied Math major from Long Beach, California. This is my fourth Chicano Studies class. I really got into Chicano Studies after being part of Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Atzlán (MEChA) de LMU. I got a little historical exposure from being part of the club but it wasn’t until I heard Professor Mah y Busch at a panel where they were deconstructing the f-word (feminism), that I took my first class with him the following semester. In his class we read and had discussions over Chicano literature. After this I took the intro to Chicano Studies class and another literature course. Along with this class, I am also taking Environmentalism and Chicanos this semester. I really like to learn the history behind the movimiento and enjoy hearing stories about the key leaders of the time. So I look forward to learning more about Chicano history through the lens of the Latina Feminist.

a little something about me (introducing Kelsey)

Hi everyone, my name is Kelsey Chine. I am currently a senior and I am a business major. I have never studied Chicano feminism before so I am looking to learn as much as I can in the class. I grew up in South Central Los Angeles where the population is basically Latino and African Americans. It will be interesting to see the how the lives of Chicano women compare to those of other women. I know I will mostly be asking a lot of questions and soaking up a ton of info throughout the course. I am ready to learn about Chicano Feminism!

Hello World! (Introducing Sarah)

Hello everyone! I am Sarah Marie Rosales. I am a junior and a major in Biology and minor inSpanish. I am from Inglewood, CA which is about 15 minutes from LMU. I am the oldest in my family. My favorite color is purple and I am obsessed with giraffes (I own over 25 stuffed giraffe animals). My career goal is to go to medical school and become an OB/GYN. An OB/GYN specializes in women’s health and childbirth. This will be my first time taking a chicano/a studies class. This class interested me because being female and Mexican it hit close to home. Last year, I did a small presentation on the Chicana movement for my Spanish class, and there was very little information out there. I want to learn more what chicana feminism is all about, its history and how it can personally apply to me.

Posting Using WordPress

Some of you seem confused about how to post to the blog so here’s a step by step guide on how to post using WordPress:

  • Log in to your WordPress account (what they call your Dashboard) using the link  https://citedatthecrossroads.net/chst404/wp-login.php. Enter your WordPress user ID and password.  If you don’t have a user ID and password, email me.  (Note: once you’ve logged in for the first time, you should change your password to something easier to remember by clicking on the Profile link on the left side of your screen.)
  • On the left hand side menu click on Posts, then Add New Post. Give your post a Title — try for something unique, descriptive and that will make people want to read it.
  • Write your post.  You can choose to use either the Virtual and HTML settings. The Virtual setting is WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) — just use it like a word processor. If you know HTML, you can choose use it and have more control over how your final post looks.
  • Proofread, check your post over for grammar and spelling. When you’re happy with what you’ve written, click the Publish button on the right side of the window.Now go to the site and make sure it looks the way you want it to. You can edit any post by logging in and looking for it under Posts.

Those are the basics. We’ll learn how to add images / media as we go forward, though if you know or can guess how, you’re welcome to go ahead.  I’ve got plenty of space on my server for anything you might want to put up. You’re not going to break anything so feel free to poke around and see what you can do.  Be sure to ask questions about anything that’s giving you difficulty. You’re welcome to come see me during my office hours and get help individually if you don’t want to ask during class.

Your first blog post with your self introduction needs to be posted by the start of class Friday. If you need help, email me. Don’t wait until the last minute — remember I go to bed early.

Reading: Alma Garcia’s Chicana Feminist Thought (1)

Please address the discussion questions for the following readings by replying to this post.  You do not have to answer all the questions, but be sure to demonstrate your familiarity with the reading.

El Plan de Aztlán

Alma GarciaChicana Feminist Thought (see Readings Page)

  • ”Introduction” (1-16)
  • ”The Woman of La Raza” by Enriqueta Longeaux Vasquez (29-31)
  • “Our Feminist Heritage” by Marta Cortera (41-44)

What do you think of when you think of the 1960s and 1970s? How do these readings fit in with or change your impressions?

Enriqueta Vasquez’s “The Woman of La Raza” was written in response to the same conference, the First National Chicano Liberation Youth Conference in March of 1969, where “El Plan de Aztlán” was written and adopted.  What connections can you see between the two documents?  What sort of conflict, if any, do you read into them? How did women of color respond to the civil rights movement (both Black Nationalism and the Chicano Movement)?  Why was it important that Marta Cortera “found” feminism with Mexican roots?

Alma Garcia discusses a series of Chicano movements in New Mexico (for land rights), California (for farmworkers, education and against the war in Vietnam) and Texas (political rights), among others.  How do you think the differences between these movements and their participants impacted each region’s Chicano movement?

Garcia also writes about Chicano Nationalism (Chicanismo) and the depiction of the “Ideal Chicana.”  What are the problems associated with such an idealized image?  Does it relate to the notion of a feminism based on “multiple oppressions”?

How did Chicanas organize themselves? What were the mechanisms and how was writing important to their organizations?