Reading Assignment: Your reply (under Comments) is due before class on Monday, January 21. 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.
Maylei Blackwell, “Introduction,” ¡Chicana Power! 1 – 13.
Based on the introduction, how will this book be different from the writings we’ve read up to this point? What does Blackwell mean by “retrofitted memory”? Can you think of other applications for the concept?
Do you consider Chicanos and Chicanas to be a colonized people? Why or why not? How do the ideas of colonialism influence the development of feminism?
Blackwell mentions “hegemony” but doesn’t define it. What’s your understanding of the word and how it can be used to discuss the Chicano movement and the emergence of Chicana feminism?
In Maylei Blackwell’s ¡Chicano Power!, I was intrigued by the section about the archive and repertoire of oral history. Oral history is very important in teaching Women’s Studies and learning about women of color who have been historically neglected and left out. It’s mentioned that “histories of the Chicano and feminist movements have failed to fully record the vital forms of Chicana political consciousness and organizing that existed in this period” (Blackwell 3). However I like how Blackwell explains she wants to contribute to the scholarship by examining the process of documenting women’s narratives. I studied this idea in my “Feminist Research Methods” class that discusses what constitutes research feminist. The importance of the community and the participant examined. Also the way research is conducted and the actual process. Blackwell utilizes the idea of “telling” a narrative but also raises questions and examines epistemology. It is not enough just to document the person interviewed but for the researcher to be conscious of her or his influence on the final product. Feminist Research would be more complete if the researcher learned before beginning, his or her biases and the perspective used. It’s beneficial if women are telling other women’s stories rather than the usual white male body because sometimes they are not aware of the the nonverbal communication the subject expresses which can be just as or even more powerful than what the subject articulates. What Blackwell recognizes is that there’s a relationship between the researcher and the subject which in the past, the subject has been reduced to an object that is dehumanized.
Excellent comment — I’m interested in ways you see oral history as informing women’s studies. Will be glad to read more about that.
In Chicana Power, Maylei Blackwell defines retrofitted memory as a “form of countermemory that uses fragments of older histories that have been disjunctured by colonial practices of organizing historical knowledge” (Chicana Power, Blackwell, 2). Retrofitted memory is synonomous to counternarrative because it brings to light things that have been darkened by the dominant perspective. This writing is different than the other types of literature we have read because as Blackwell mentions in his introduction this book recuperates histories that have been removed, but it also alters the way we understand the historical stories and the political knowledge that created them (Chicana Power, Blackwell, 3).
Retrofitted memory as a counternarrative reminds me of The Broken Spears: The Aztec Account of the Conquest of Mexico by Miguel León-Portilla, which provides various accounts and perspectives about the conquest of Mexico by Hernan Cortes and the Spaniards. This book is translation of the accounts in the Nahuatl language, which is the language that the Aztecs spoke. As we have discussed in class, stories and narratives are always told by the dominant perspective or in this case the European perspective and completely disregards those who were being oppressed. This book is written in simple language to try to understand the conquest from a different perspective. Blackwell attempts to unfold the historical narratives of these great activist women who were oppressed within the Chicano movement by Chicanol nationalists.
This is a wonderful explanation of retrofitted memory. Your discussion of Broken Spears seems very apt.
In “¡Chicana Power!”, I feel that the context will be interpreted differently because Blackwell is doing some of the interpretation for us as she uses oral history as some of her evidence for her novel while in “Chicana Feminist Thought: The Basic Historical Writings,” García used first person evidence which left the interpretation of the work solely up to us. Her approach is definitely going to be different but obviously it will not be a wrong one. Just like in the general Chicana feminist movement, the feministas took different approaches towards their goal of defeating the oppressive nature they found themselves in, different analyzers of this time will do it in different ways, thus giving us more variety.
I’m very excited to read this book because it seems like it will give us a different insight into the movement. In particular, I want to learn how else did Long Beach natives create a voice in the Chicana Feminist movement as I am a Long Beach native who is a feminist and enjoys learning about the Chicano movement. I was also interested at finding out more about the Hijas de Cuauhtémoc, especially because I really liked their philosophy which recognizes their state of oppression as Raza and women but doesn’t blame the men for this but the idea of oppression that without proper education can divide them and put man against women (Blackwell page 6). I think this is exactly what we all need to understand.
Maylei Blackwell’s Chicana Power is different from the other things we have read in class because instead of reading short stories and excerpts, this book will be a more structured recollection of recovered history. She also refers to this text as a retrofitted memory, which I compare to “premium printing” of a photograph. As Yara mentioned in her post, it is like bringing to light what was left in the dark, the way a premium picture lights up the background for us to see a greater and fuller picture with many more details in the back and not just the main or big figure. I am very interested in reading this because I want to learn about all these women movements that were taking place “in the background” while everything that we have learned about history was taking place. I am very interested in learning more about this oral history and like the way that Blackwell emphasizes the importance of “gestures, tones and sighs” because these little things really do give the narratives a different meaning and I can totally see how it will be used based on the description of the first interview with Nietogomez. She paints the picture so well that I can imagine her washing dishes and telling her story the way my mom does when she talks to me about her week, and her mentioning of the cinnamon tea made it relatable because I know exactly what she is talking about, I love that drink! I am really looking forward to reading more of this and learning more about the real stories that happened behind the scenes of the Chicano movement.
To me it seems that the book will be different then others because it seems that it will be more of a conversation between the author and the interviewees. I think that Chicanos and Chicanas are a colonized people. The Anglos oppressed them when the settlers began to overtake their lands and disobeying their laws. Then their lands were taken and treated like second hand citizens. I think that this history of being a colonized people plays a part in feminism because they are tired of being oppressed by another people and they realize that their own group of people shouldn’t oppress them, who are also trying to change their own situation against the same oppressors. I had to look up what “hegemony” meant. It means leadership or dominance. It can be used to discuss the Chicano Movement and the emergence of Chicana feminism, because both wanted to be in control of their lives.
I believe Chicana Power! will differ from the other pieces of writing by attributing to a more story telling style. She will include stories of others but display them in the first person; I believe she will also use her personal memory; her accounts interviewing others and possibly stories of her own life. As on page 5, the story is her explanation interviewing another and it is as if the story is happening in front of the audience, I feel it was easier to identify the feminism issues. I also believe she will use more narratives of the struggles of the young female coalition. For example again the story on page 5, I really enjoyed her piece on Anna NietoGomez. She was very descriptive down to describing the soap on Anna’s hands. Despite utilizing a lot of imagery I could relate to the story first hand because it describes the environment of college students, activism and education.
¡Chicana Power! will be different from the writings we have previously read because this book is a historical view of the Hijas de Cuauhtémoc. The other writings were excerpts, poems, and essays written during the time of the Chicana feminist movement. This book will bring to light the Chicana history that was once erased and introduce new feminist genealogies of resistance (Blackwell 3). Blackwell defines “retrofitted memory” as a “form of countermemory that uses the older histories that have been disjunctured.” In my opinion, she means that retrofitted memory is a “creative reimagining” of history to help us better understand the meaning. It is history that is always being improved for the sake of being retold and remembered.
I liked how Blackwell added the story of her interview with Anne NietoGomez. It was amazing to read about the friendship that came out of the process. I hope the book has the interview. I am curious to know if her responses are included in the “retrofitted memory” format of this book.
I think I will like Blackwells presentation of the chicana movement better because the author is more educated, which I think leads to the non biased point of view of Blackwells findings. Blackwell understands that the accounts that the women from the Chicana movement will give are the point of views of the women. Blackwell also understands that the events that the women will be recalling when they tell their stories and experiences, are from the 1960’s and 1970’s. To add another variable to the equation of the recall of history by the women, each women will have her own point of view of how they think history went down. To further explain the complexities of different women giving different point of views of history, you have to realize that incidents that happened during the Chicana movement might be important to one woman to recall, but not important to the next woman to recall. Such inconsistencies of the recollection of Chicana history is what I think Blackwell not only understands, but anticipates with the interviewing of the Chicana women.
Maylei Blackwell really got me thinking that maybe the truest account of history is in the holes. The missing information, the untold stories, the ignored details. Blackwell’s proposed plan to more or less rewrite Chicana feminist history is exciting because it seems to promise an account of history that is fuller and richer than the one we have now.
I am truly most interested in the way she will use firsthand accounts. The beauty of firsthand accounts, of course, is that no one can explain the experience of a moment in history better than if they were there. The problem, of course, in reading a firsthand account, is bias. Bias of the one telling the story, bias of the one recording the story, bias of the one reading the story. Just using one account, this might muddy our ideas of the truth of a situation. I think, however, that by using a variety of firsthand accounts and a number of sources and documents together, we will be able to wade through biases and erasures and fallacies to determine the truest possible history of Chicana feminist thought.