Reading: Race and Resistance

Reading assignment for Monday, April 2, 2012.  Your reply (under Comments) is due before class. Your response should demonstrate you’ve done and thought about both of the readings. Be sure to check and make sure your response posts.

Lorna Dee Cervantes, “Poem For The Young White Man Who Asked Me How I, An Intelligent Well-Read Person, Could Believe In The War Between The Races” (From Making Face, Making Soul 4-5),

Trinh T. Minh-ha, “Commitment From the Mirror Writing Box” (From Making Face, Making Soul, 245-255)

 

Barbie: A Toy from my Childhood

Dear Barbie,

What’s behind your plastic smile? You only smile because you were created to but I smile because it is in my nature, it’s a cure for a bad day . . .

You don’t know what a bad day is because you live in Barbie’s dream house.                 Where it’s always sunny no matter what.                                                                                  Where you are shielded from pain and nothing changes.                                                   Where you pretend everything is perfect.                                                                                  Even though the truth is you spend most days alone because Ken is out in a so-called big man’s world doing who knows what.

You want a set of pearls, but I want a set of books. Books that are located inside a               big sparkly building called law school where I can find pearls of wisdom.                       These pearls never lose their sparkle or become dull.                                                                   I don’t want to live in a world where everything sparkles.                                                               I want to live in a world where people smile because they feel so not because they           are forced to. A place where there’s no injustice and no child goes to bed hungry.

Even though I will never look like you, you will never look like me.                                          You will always remain young and beautiful but I will have the privilege to see             children, grandchildren and future generations grow before my eyes while you sit in your plastic box.                                                                                                                                  Society tells me to be like you but I say NO!                                                                                     I have outgrown you. I don’t need you anymore.                                                                              I choose to admire someone real just like me.                                                                                  I choose a real woman, my mother.                                                                                               She has real hips, a real voice and a real heart, which Mattel forgot to give you.                                   It’s not your fault for the way you look,                                                                                            but I’m not ashamed of the way I look either.

I’m brown skinned, you’re light skinned.

I’m me and you’re you.

I’m bold, proud and Latina.

By Beatriz Alfaro

 

Many Chicanas chose art as a vehicle to communicate their experiences and emotions. Also to raise awareness about the issues affecting their community during the Chicana movement. I decided to write an art piece because I was inspired by Mónica Palacios’ monologue “Tomboy” and Sandra Cisneros’ essay called “Barbie-Q.” Palacios’ piece is very bold because it challenges gender norms and heteronormativity. She poses a lot of questions, which can make people uncomfortable but it also gets them thinking. Art that is thought provoking is important because society rarely likes to think about what’s wrong with society.  A lot of people go on with life without really thinking about how others are made to feel because they don’t fit in the way society wants them too. Uniqueness, differences, diversity, etc., is often discouraged by society because it is easier to deal with homogeneity. It sends the wrong message to women and it places on them the burden to conform to what society has created for them. “Tomboy” is also very strong because despite what society has done to her she claims who she is without regrets or apologies. Palacios takes a stand and it motivates other Chicana women to do the same. It creates a space for all women to speak up and also to identify with each other’s experiences.

In Sandra Cisneros’ essay, the speaker displays the effects Barbie has on young girls and the toll it has on their self-esteem. The speaker feels very insecure and flawed compared to Barbie. Thus it greatly impacts girls who are very different from Barbie especially, racially but in her essay she also talks about socio-economic class. Girls feel the pressure to have the same things as their friends because Barbie promotes materialism and fakeness. However in real life that’s difficult to do and if they can’t measure up they feel inferior. Not everyone can afford to own multiple Barbies or even one single doll plus the multiple accessories that come along with her.  The majority of girls worldwide, even those whose parents can’t afford to get them one, have grown up with the idea that they need to be like Barbie to be happy. Although Barbie does not represent who women truly are, the toy continues to be bought by parents and desired by kids.

At the end of the essay similarly like Palacio, Cisneros acknowledges that she is different but she is proud of it. It is seen when she says, “—who’s to know” which shows that it doesn’t matter. By not caring about what others think, she’s affirms that she can be happy with or without it because she’s being herself. Both authors make a critique of society, but at the end they choose to be strong and not weak.

Additional Sources:

Quinceañeras: Celebration of Latino Culture or just another party?

After reading Dr. Karen Daválos piece “La Quinceañera: Making Gender and Ethnic Identities,” I began researching the history and purpose of Quinceañeras because it is a ceremony widely celebrated in Latino culture. My intention was not to find reasons to critique it but to learn more about the ceremony and to ultimately form my own opinion about it.

Turning fifteen is a monumental time in a young Latina’s life and most dream about their Quinceañera from a very early age. La Quinceañera is often compared to the Sweet Sixteen in American culture because both are cultural celebrations and important times in a young woman’s life but there are several differences that are important to be mentioned. La Quinceañera emphasizes more religious customs, family values, and social responsibility.  It unifies several elements and values of Latino culture into one huge celebration. Traditionally la Quinceañera is associated with Mexican/ Mexican American culture because it has been traced back to the Aztecs. Young men were to become warriors and young women had to fulfill their role and duties attached to womanhood in society. Over time several countries in Latin America adopted the ceremony, also known as a woman’s rite of passage. The concept of a rite of passage reminded me of the Navajo’s “Kinaalda,” a four day celebration of a girl’s first menstrual period, which includes symbolic dances, cleansing rituals, physical activities and a special cake called “alkaan.” To the Navajo it symbolizes a physical and spiritual bond to Mother Nature and the importance of women in their culture. It is a very beautiful celebration that I find particularly interesting because men always partake in all the activities since women are highly valued in their tribes.

La Quinceañera is divided into two main parts, the religious mass and the reception/party. Many people play a role in the ceremony starting with a head chamberlain who usually ends up being the young woman’s boyfriend or love interest, the other chamberlains (chambelanes), maids of honor (damas), her godparents (padrino/a), and her parents. Families that choose to stay as true to the ceremony as possible understand the role faith plays throughout it all.  For that reason she must attend classes taught at her parish which are meant to help guide her into the right path and to teach her what it means to be a responsible adult. She is no longer a child, which should be reflected through her actions. Therefore, at the mass she takes a moment to thank the Lord for all her blessings and to make a commitment to always live a righteous path, but recently families are focusing more on the festivities and less on the faith component.  Girls can’t wait to plan the party, practice with las damas the dance routine performed at the reception and to mingle with the boys.  It leads to the meaning and purpose of la Quinceañera to be diluted through all the party planning.

Many problems and critiques have emerged about the tradition. Dr. Daválos examines in her essay the origin of the so-called “tradition” and the gendered, racial, sexual and religious implications it carries. Also she incorporates multiple views from people and questions whether its origin is really traced back to the Aztecs or is it a European assimilation process. Others might view it as more of a gendered tradition that places pressure on young women to fit into their expected womanly and motherly role in society. The pressure to conform is greatly seen among Chicana women and their works in Chicana Feminst Thought.  Some articles that echo those sentiments are “Chicana Message” and “La Chicana y ‘El Movimiento.’” Women’s sexuality has always and still is an issue highly debated. A Quinceañera could be publicly announcing how the young woman is reached an age of sexual maturity hence is ready to marry.  For example Chicana author Cherríe Moraga who has revealed that she’s a lesbian, has also said how at an early age she felt an internal conflict between her sexual identity and her family’s Catholic faith. Women who are not heterosexual might feel that it’s a ceremony that reinforces and pushes heteronormativity on those who are not.

It’s apparent that people have mixed feelings about Quinceañeras but I feel that the young woman and her family should decide together whether it should take place. By reflecting about the ceremony and having the choice to celebrate it or not also shows responsibility and maturity. Before learning more about Quinceañeras, I made the personal choice not to celebrate it. In my case I didn’t think it was necessary and the expenses were another factor that impacted my decision. I informed my parents I would rather invest the money towards my education, which I knew would come at a costly price. That was my choice and I still think it was the right choice for me. However the young women who do decide to have one have that right because for them and their family it holds a lot of significance. Lastly Quinceañeras can bring families together during a time where more families are spending time apart, values are changing and families are suffering from all types of hardships. Then from that perspective Quinceañeras can be a beautiful celebration of Latino culture.

Additional Sources:

CHST – Conference Appointments

Conference Appointments
Office 4418 University Hall

3/26 Monday
10:15 – Beatriz Alfaro

3/28 Wednesday
8:45 – Kelsey Chine
9:00 – Richard Alcaraz
9:15 – Richard Alcaraz

9:45 – Carmen Castañeda
10:00 – Stephanie Troncoso
10:15 – Sarah Rosales
10:30 – Erika Meza
10:45 – Michelle Badillo
11:00 – Michelle Badillo

3/30 Friday
9:00 – Vanessa Gonzalez
9:15 – Michael Marmolejo
9:30 – Yara Hidalgo

Chicana/o Tweets: #CHST404 3/24/2012

Tweets based on the reading of Emma Pérez, “Irigaray’s Female Symbolic in the Making of Chicana Lesbian Sitios y Lenguas (Sites and Discourses)” and Mónica Palacios “Tomboy” (both from Living Chicana Theory).

Plasencia, Deodata Plasencia

One of the strongest women that I know is my grandmother Deodata Plasencia.  This summer we celebrated her 90th birthday with the entire family.  She is one of the people that I will always admire and look up to.  She is always taking care of her family and protecting them.  Some of the best memories are of us building and playing with Lego sets.  I still play with Legos, but now she is teaching me to cook.  Throughout her life she has gone through many experiences that make her the person that she is today.

My grandfather died a few years after serving in the army during WWII.  Leaving her to raise three children by her self.  Although she didn’t speak a word of English, she was amazing with numbers.  Combing through the papers of her late husband’s and countless times going to the Veteran’s Administration and the Social Security Office to fight for the rights of her children. Little by little, she was able to pay off the bank, the architect, and construction company that my grandfather had hire to build an apartment building.  She had help with translating the English documents from her 10 and 13-year-old children. She continued to fight for her rights.  She fought against the Barrington Plaza, the first high rise apartment complex in West Los Angeles, in court with the help of her 12 year old daughter and lawyers.

One of the stories that stuck with me the most is when she finally came to the United States.  My grandfather went down to Mexico to marry her and then they came back to live in the United States. One day in Santa Monica they were walking down the street when a white lady asked her what she was doing with some Mexican. She replied with “¿qué?” and they walked away.  She is never ashamed of who she is or of her culture.  Unfortunately when my grandfather died he didn’t leave any money behind. Being broke she wanted her children to have better lives than the ones that they had right now.  She saw that her other in-laws members were making money as owning their own gardening company and beauticians, and she wanted her to children to follow their footsteps.  However, her children wanted to pursue other careers and wanted to attend college.    Even though she knew that the path they were choosing was going to be hard she supported their decisions no matter what.  My uncle and my mother went on to attend UCLA and became a cardiologist and teacher respectively.  While my Aunt went on to attend CSUN and also became a teacher.  They were the first in our family to graduate from college.

Reinterpreting the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Feminist have reinterpreted Our Lady of Guadalupe to better relate to her. Sandra Cisneros describes this reinterpretation in her essay, “Guadalupe the Sex Goddess.” Cisneros speaks from her own experience of her alienation toward her own body. During her early years up until she went to college she was taught that anything having to do with her private body parts were to remain private. She stresses that her religion and culture “helped to create that blur, a vagueness about what went on ‘down there” (Cisneros, 46).  Traditionally Catholicism and the Mexican culture have always pushed women to cover up their bodies. Similarly in a note in “Little Miracles, Kept Promises” from the collection of short stories in Woman Hollering Creek, Cisneros creates Chicana character named Chayito who comes to express her developing relationship with Our Lady of Guadalupe.

First it’s important to know that Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patroness of Mexico and who symbolizes virginity. She appeared to Juan Diego at the hill of Tepeyac and asked him to deliver the message to the bishop that she wanted the construction of a chapel there. She appeared on his cloak as proof of her miracles when he was delivering the message to the bishop for the third time. Our Lady of Guadalupe continues to be a significant force of devotion among women from Mexican descent and other parts of what is known as Latin America. She is traditionally superficially depicted as mild and submissive in relation to her virginity; the embodiment of what a woman should be like. Chicana feminists like Sandra Cisneros have re-imagined Our Lady of Guadalupe to describe their evolving relationship with her.

In “Guadalupe the Sex Goddess,” Cisneros describes her experience of silence and says, “[i]f I was a graduate student, was shy about talking to anyone about my body and sex, imagine how difficult it must be for a young girl in middle school or high school living […] [with] no information other than misinformation from the girlfriends and the boyfriend” (48). This experience is replicated among many other Latinas who grow up in a traditional household and whose bodies are kept in silence. The culture keeps demanding young women to not get pregnant but nobody ever sits down to talk about how to keep from getting pregnant, the only choice young women have is to listen to the misinformation that is out there. Cisneros continues to state, “[t]his is why I was angry, for some nay years every time I saw la Virgen de Guadalupe, my culture’s role model for brown women like me […] [d]id boys have to aspire to be Jesus? I never saw any evidence of it” (Cisneros, 48). She is relating the culture oppression against young women as sexual beings as a result of Our Lady of Guadalupe’s submissiveness.

In “Little Miracles, Kept Promises,” Chayito begins her short story (or note) speaking to Our Lady of Guadalupe as she is pinning the part of her hair she cut off.  She describes the ways in which the patriarchal structure continues to humiliate her for not abiding by the social standards of how a girl is suppose to act. She states, “Virgencita de Guadalupe. For a long time I wouldn’t let you in my house. I couldn’t see you without seeing my ma each time my father came home drunk and yelling, blaming everything that ever went wrong in his life on her” (Cisneros, 127). In her eyes Our Lady of Guadalupe only symbolized a sufferer, someone who would take everything in and not fight back just like her mother took her father’s verbal abuse. Chayito could not stand to see the pain her mother and grandmother underwent as women. She wanted to see Our Lady of Guadalupe “bare-breasted, [with] snakes in [her] hands […] leaping and somersaulting the backs of bulls” (Cisneros, 127). Chayito wanted to see Our Lady of Guadalupe as a woman who had breasts, who felt confident with her body; a woman who could take anything even a bull and who showed no fear. Just like Chayito wanted to see Our Lady of Guadalupe bare-breasted, in “Guadalupe the Sex Goddess,” Cisneros states, “I want to lift her dress as I did my doll’s and look to see if she comes with chones [underwear], and does her panocha [vagina] look like mine, and does she have dark nipples too?” (Cisneros, 51).

Placing both readings side by side, we see that Cisneros used Chayito’s voice to demonstrate her grappling’s of relationship with Our Lady of Guadalupe, especially when she says, “When I look at la Virgen de Guadalupe, she is not the Lupe of my childhood […] She is Guadalupe the sex goddess” (Cisneros, 49). In “little Miracles, Kept Promises” Chayito comes to realize that Our Lady of Guadalupe is “[n]o longer Mary the mild […] That you could have the power to rally a people when a country was born […] made me think maybe there is power in my mother’s patience” (Cisneros, 128). Both demonstrate the relationship to Our Lady of Guadalupe as empowering, one being able to embrace her sexual being and the other the strength that women possess within.

Reinterpreting Our Lady of Guadalupe as Sandra Cisneros has in “Guadalupe the Sex Goddess” has caused controversy especially among people who are religious in the traditional ways. In order for Chicanas to be able to connect with her and see her as an empowering figure they have had to re-imagine her as someone who is just like any ordinary woman. This is specifically important to Chicanas because of the history of colonization and conquest that the indigenous population endured as the Spanish conquerors took over Mexico, central and south America.

Additional Resources:

Readings: Emma Pérez and Mónica Palacios

Reading assignment for Monday, March 26, 2012. Emma Pérez, “Irigaray’s Female Symbolic in the Making of Chicana Lesbian Sitios y Lenguas (Sites and Discourses)” and Mónica Palacios “Tomboy” (both from Living Chicana Theory)

Your reply (under Comments) is due before class. Your response should demonstrate you’ve done and thought about the readings. Be sure to check and make sure your response posts.

Reading: Gloria Anzaldúa, “To(o) Queer the Writer”

Reading assignment for Friday, March 23, 2012. Gloria Anzaldúa, “To(o) Queer the Writer– Loca, escritora y chicana (from Living Chicana Theory) Your reply (under Comments) is due before class. 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. Note: Be sure to read the endnotes for this text!

How does Anzaldúa trouble the identifier / label “lesbian” as it might be applied to herself? What does she want to be identified as instead? How does she problematize queerness?

What do you think it means to “police the queer person of color with theory”? How would that fit in with the other readings you have done this semester? How does it connect with her later passage on the idea of policing with fear?

Translate a passage of Spanish used in the text and discuss why she may have used Spanish for that sentence.

Discuss Anzaldúa’s writing about reading as a male versus. female. How does it relate to issues of identity formation?

How does this text make you feel? Is Anzaldúa creating an open atmosphere or an anxious one? Or something else? How would you compare it to Borderlands or This Bridge Called My Back? Would it fit in with either? Both?

Brown Beret still alive

The Brown Berets is a nationalist group that was established during the 1960’s with Chicano and Chicana members, with their main focus being to help the Chicano community. The  goal of the Brown Berets was to help the Chicano and Chicana community specifically with police harassment,  inadequate public schools , poor health care, as well as low level jobs.

The Brown Berets were successful with being able to help the community by setting up free clinics and breakfast programs for their community.To protest against the public schools in the community, in 1968, the Brown Berets planned the East L.A. Walkouts, where thousands of L.A students protested education standards. The walkout was the largest school walkout in the history of California.The Brown Berets were also known for acting against police brutality against Chicanos.They protested killings and abuses that were committed by the L.A. Sheriff Department. The Brown Berets were actually modeled after the Black Panther party, which was a black activist group that aimed towards helping the issues of the inner city.By September 1968, the Brown Berets had grown Nationwide and opened chapters in California, Arizona, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit, Minnesota, Ohio, Oregon, and Indiana.

There were however women struggles among the Brown Berets. The women were limited to secretarial jobs in the Brown Beret like writing and distributing the newspaper of the movement called “La Causa”. Women like Grace Reyes who was in charge of writing for ” La Causa”, would write articles about women within the Brown Berets and the Chicano Movement, as well as the sexist attitudes towards them, but they were not published and ignored. In 1972,  the original L.A. Brown Berets chapter dissolved because of speculated CIA involvement in the group.

In 1994 the Watsonvile Brown Berets chapterlocated in which is located in Watsonville,California, was formed as a revival of the Brown Berets of the 1960’s. Just like when the Brown Berets just started the organization in the 1960’s, the objective of the Watsonvile Brown Berets is to stop gang violence and to try to solve problems that are in the Chicano community. The Brown Berets today are equally adressing the problems of the men as well as the women. They have a group called Youth Brigade which provides alternative activities for high school students, and is located at the Brown Berets headquarters. They also have a group called Girlz Space for high school girls at the YMCA, where they talk about issues affecting young women. We see the growth of the new Brown Berets since they goals are not just to uplift the Chicanos in the community, but also the Chicanas. They now acklowlegde that both men and women in the Chicano community have problems that must be addressed.

Sources:

  1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Berets
  2. http://www.aztlan.net/still_we_rise.html
  3. .http://brownberets.info/86