Chicana Writers Role In The Development Of The Chicano Movement

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Chicana writers play a vital role in the development of the Chicana movement throughout the 1970’s and ‘80’s by sharing the truths of Latina women and their struggles to gain social equality within the male-dominated Chicano movement and to create their own space in the Liberation Movement occupied by white women. The experience as a woman of color is much more complex than the struggles affecting a middle-class white woman described in The Feminist Mystique by Betty Friedan. Chicana writers discuss the importance of intersectionality such as sex/gender along with race, class, sexual orientation, and immigration status all adding to the layers of oppression faced by minority women. The men and women’s goal of the Chicano movement was to end …show more content…

They were accused of further dividing the movement and shattering the image of the “good wife and mother”. In regards to Chicana lesbians, Garcia uses Cherrie Moraga’s explanation of her own experience as a Chicana feminist lesbian stating “My lesbianism is the avenue through which I have learned the most about silence and oppression... – as is being brown, as is being a woman, as is being just plain poor” (226). Moraga, herself, wrote strongly about exposing not only the racism and sexism within the movement and larger society, but homophobia as well to show the layers of oppression by both …show more content…

Garcia references Consuelo Nieto beautifully summing up Chicana feminism separate from the mainstream culture explaining, “The Chicana must demand that dignity and respect within the women’s rights movement which allows her to practice feminism within the context of her own culture… Her approaches to feminism must be drawn from her own world” (232). Martha Cotera spoke very much on the subject of race, sex, and class in her most famous book The Chicana Feminist. She dedicated the last section of this book to explain the ways in which Chicana feminism is separate from white feminism and how and why class plays a major aspect in that difference. Today, Chicanas are still working hard on issues directly affecting the Chican@ community such as high school drop outs, healthcare, bilingual education, and immigration reform to help Chican@s gain visibility as a whole group that remains constrained and

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