Within this week’s reading on So Far From God by Ana Castillo I felt it was appropriate to look up articles on identity specifically of how Chicano’s identify themselves. The article I found is called Hispanic, Latino, Chicano, American? A Dilemma of Identity, this article begins with mentioning when Hispanic Heritage month “or Latino Heritage Month if you identify as Latino”. As the article continues it describes how and why people identify themselves a certain way and the main reason being because it has to do with experiences you have come across in life. The authors continue to mention that not many people associate themselves with the term Hispanic because “they say Hispanic is too focused on Spain and Western Europe  origins, denying other significant Western elements of these groups. In contrast, Latino is the favored term among those who want to emphasize the greater diversity associated with Latin America, including its indigenous populations”. The took this to the streets of LA and began to ask people how they identify  themselves. This article is important because it gives us an idea of us looking within ourselves to see how we identify and what made us identify this way.

http://egpnews.com/2014/09/hispanic-latino-chicano-american-a-dilemma-of-identity/

http://www.ocweekly.com/news/chicanos-unidos-celebrates-10-years-of-organizing-ocs-raza-7554320

Considering the topics over the past few weeks, I wanted to share an article that provides insight on a few topics. One of the topics this covers is women as leaders and organizers. This activist group from Orange County has stood up to act as a voice for the issues in Santa Ana. The issues that have been placed on women are still a problem but these women have found an identity in being activists and helping the Chicano community.

-Bridgett Gonzalez

I loved reading Ana Castillo’s So Far From God this week because I felt like it was relatable for any Latino living in the United States who embrace the Latino traditions and folklore. I found Doña Felicia’s ways of healing funny because throughout my childhood, my mom would use the same home rememdies Doña Felicia teaches Caridad in the reading. Like Doña Felicia, my mother, too, uses remedies such as the ones to cure mal de ojo and empacho. Though many people do not believe in home remedies to cure certain illnesses, I have seen how powerful these remedies can be growing up in my Latino household.

For this reason, I decided to search for a list of home remedies used in Latino community. The following website lists a couple of home remedies that you may or may not be familiar with. From mal de ojo to mollera caida, this list briefly displays one of the most important folklore in the Latino culture.

http://www.dimensionsofculture.com/2010/10/folk-illnesses-and-remedies-in-latino-communities/

In this weeks reading, Queer Aztlan by Cherrie Morage, she mentions the racism she experienced in the women’s movement. I was really glad that she mentioned that because i think its something that is rarely brought up. We see a glimpse of the racism of the women’s movement in the film Iron Jawed Angels, but we hardly talk about the discrimination that goes on/went on. In the article Trouble with White Feminism by Jessie Daniels, it talks about how WOC are often silenced in the women’s movements. Although there are plenty of evidence of feminist writing from WOC, black, latina and indigenous women the voices we often hear most are that of white women, such as in the suffrage movement the narrative we hear most from is that of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton who are considered to be “quintessential feminists.” What i really like about this article is that it calls out racism in the women’s movements, when i took women’s studies we learned about how racist the women in the suffragette movement were. This article mentions that white women could not bare for black men to have the vote before them because they felt they were superior. Stanton herself was not shy of voicing her opinion that they deserved the vote before black men. Now that i know how racist they were i do not consider these women idols or anyone that i look up too. I think its important to teach this in class so that people really know who these women were. Even in the newer movements racism is still a part of it. I see it everyday on blogs i follow. For example neglecting certain women, for example with immigration, i 100% believe that immigration is a feminist issue and it is often neglected by white feminist.

ARTICLE

Without a doubt, the Latina/o community is based on strict traditions and old-fashioned beliefs. Maintaining the community this way helps individuals feel as though they are keeping their culture alive. What they fail to realize is that their traditions and beliefs sometimes marginalize people within their own group, such as those who identify as LGBTQ. Coming out as LGBTQ in society is already a difficult task because many view this lifestyle as ‘taboo’ and ‘unnatural.’ Coming out as LGBTQ in one’s Latina/o community is just as complex because of the common misogynistic, masculine, and patriarchal ideologies that both men and women internalize. Women within the Latina/o culture are expected to marry a man, have children, and dedicate their time towards their family. To their families, identifying as LGBTQ means that they will not keep that expected role as a woman, causing these women to feel as though they failed their loved ones. Over the past couple of years, a handful of transgender Latina women have been murdered with many of those cases still unsolved. In the article “The epidemic is real: transgender Latina in Texas murdered,” author Dawn Ennis states, “Tijerina’s name is now among 19 trans victims of murder in the United States in 2016. In all of last year, at least 21 trans people were killed. More than 80 percent of those killed in 2016 have been women and about 20 percent, including Tijerina, have been Latinas, according to HRC.” The violent experiences of these victims are not taken seriously or even publicly announced because no community and culture find them valuable or worthy enough for justice. Since these women were far from the traditional expectations of the Latina/o community, they have not really bothered to figure out the reasons behind the violence towards these specific victims.

Ennis’s article reminds me Carla Trujillo’s “Chicana Lesbians: Fear and Loathing in the Chicana Community” because Trujillo makes a point of how a Latina woman’s identity is not taken seriously if a man is not part of her life. A woman’s independence always threatens a man because that means he will lose control over something he has always been used to dominating. Cherrie Moraga is one of many lesbian Chicana scholars who have dedicated their work towards reclaiming their gender and sexual identity. In Moraga’s “Queer Aztlan,” she addresses her bold move to bring up LGBTQ issues within the Chicana/o moviement since they were hardly talked about. I feel as though Moraga expresses some kind of resentment towards her community because they made her feel like an outcast since they did not represent the different layers of her identity fairly.

Although I truly love my Latina/o culture, I feel as though the patriarchy and masculinity is damaging the identities of women who identify as LGBTQ. We cannot call ourselves a connected community if we keep marginalizing people who have every right to be a part of us, even if they do not follow the ‘traditional’ values that are imposed by men.

http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2016/08/epidemic-real-transgender-latina-texas-murdered/

In today society, the community of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) has become very present. However, the LGBTQ community especially Chicana Lesbians women continue to oppressed and rejected by different communities that are composed by patriarchal social structures. The Chicana/o community that identifying as Lesbian or as gay individual are constantly rejected and challenge especially in the patriarchal structured Chicana/o or Latina/o families that live in heterosexual ideologies. In the readings, Chicana Lesbians: Fear and Loathing in the Chicano Community” Carla Trujillo Chicana Lesbian are seen as a “threat in the community” because of the male dominance social structures that they live in. Their sexuality among their community is a constant issues that they have deal for not being accepted but as a Chicana lesbian Trujillo addresses how embracing their sexuality has helped accept themselves despite the negative concept Chicana Lesbians face. On the contrast, in the reading, “Queer Aztlan: the Reformation of Chicano Tribe” writer Cherrie Moraga discusses the struggles she deals with being a Chicana Lesbian in a community that did not accept her as she is. She suffered from sexuality oppression but eventually accepted despite the struggles of “limitation “ and “alienation”. Trujillo and Moraga discussed similar issues of Chicanas who in the pathway of finding themselves through patriarchal structures. Individuals in the LGBT face oppression in their families for being different.

I came across the article, “Latino American More Accepting and Supportive of the LGBTQ Issues, Yet LGBT Latino Youth Still Feel “Rejected” in Hispanic Community” writer Nicole Akoukou Thompson examines how the LGBT community has grown and become visible in the last couple of years. However, Latinos who identify in the within the LGBTQ community have found themselves exposed to discrimination and hate crimes in the last couple of years. Although in the last recent years, more Latino families have began to accept to support LGBTQ, Thompson describes how some people in the Latino community negative attitude continues to be present against LGBTQ individual because of religion. Families that are involved in the church are influence to not support the LGBTQ community because they do not support gay marriage or “homosexuality.” The church is an institution that is does not support gay marriages or homosexuality.” The young youth that begins to identify within the LGBT community constantly worries about the not being accepted within their families or Latino communities because of their sexuality. Thompson emphasize that the Latino LGBT community need support from their families especially the youth who begins to develop to uncover their sexuality. For a Chicana lesbian or gay it is difficult to accept himself or herself when no support that is provided from their families and their communities. I thought it was interesting that this article discussed how it is important for Latino communities to be more open an supportive the oppression structure that are input into the LGBT communities. Without support LGBT individual with continues to be marginalized and hide him or herself from society. Any individual should be able to express and liberate themselves no matter how they identify as.

http://www.latinpost.com/articles/7246/20140212/latino-americans-accepting-supportive-lgbt-lgbt-latino-youth.htm

Carla Trujillo in her reading Chicana Lesbians: Fear and Loathing in the Chicano Community mentions how lesbian Chicanas are seen as a threat in the Chicano community. The Chicano community is based on a patriarchal structure, and heterosexual. It is seen way out of the norm for a Chicana to be a lesbian. Her reading is divided into sexuality, identification, motherhood, and religion. The article that I found was about a famous Chicana queer author Gloria Anzaldua. Anzaldua was an author that wrote about the struggles Chicana Lesbians faced within the Chicana community. Within her writing she served as a way to let others know that there should be no shame in being a Chicana Lesbian. In this article the author goes into depth into one of Anzaldua’s articles “La Conciencia de La mestiza” . Anzaldua knows that she does not belong in her culture because she is queer, however, she creates a new identity for herself and calls it “the new mestiza”. A mestiza in a term used to describe someone with “indigenous ancestry but also shares current civilization blood and traditions” as stated in the article. I found this piece to be a good example because it relates so much to the reading by Trujillo. Today, people are still not widely accepted of Chicana Queer , they are seen as outsiders. However, with readings and allies they are able to live a life where there is no need to hide. These authors are resilient to the negativity the Chicana Community faces them with. And because they feel that they do not belong they create new identities, in which they are able to be accepted.

https://feministtheorykeywords.wordpress.com/2007/12/06/gloria-anzalduas-mestiza/