Chicano Movement Analysis

“The common denominator all Latinos have is that we want some respect. That 's what we 're all fighting for” - Cristina Saralegui. Judith Ortiz Cofer published the article, “The Myth of the Latin Woman,” where she expresses her anger towards stereotypes, inequality, and degradation of Latin Americans. Cofer explains the origins of these perceived views and proceeds to empower Latin American women to champion over them. Cofer establishes her credibility as a Latin American woman with personal anecdotes that emphasize her frustration of the unfair depiction of Latinos in society.

Sojourner Truth and Lucille Clifton, a powerful public speaker and a powerful African-American poet, both use the power of words to promote change. The pieces given from Sojourner Truth famously advocated women's rights and denounced slavery. The fundamentals of Lucille Clifton's pieces relate openly to slavery, her family, strong women and her heritage. Both these women use the effectiveness of speaking and writing to try and expose the exposition of social injustice and the inequality between the genders. Truth's famous speech, “Ain’t I a Woman?”

This book also had positive and negative points. For example, a positive point is how women were trying to become independent, as well as gain their individual rights. “In a lengthy series of resolutions, Cady Stanton and the others called for an end to all discrimination based on sex. Cady Stanton’s appropriation of the Declaration of Independence was a brilliant propagandistic stroke.” (Banner 40-41) In the attempt of gaining their rights, Cady Stanton and other women gathered the strength to speak demand their suffrage.

Helga flees and faces assimilationism and school internalized racism. In Harlem, the novel exposes how the white culture exploits the culture of African American. Helga flees again as she fears sexual objectification. She moves to Denmark where exploitation is still evident as Helga is treated as a sex object. Consequently, she rejects this society and returns to Harlem.

The novel provides many references to how race and sexuality indicate the various ways in which colonial discourse defines its subjects. Beside her apparent victimization and lack of agency, Anna is a subversive character; she creates her subjectivity as a subaltern woman showing the effects of colonization and creating a female identity based on the senses and memories. Finally, Voyage in the Dark is a novel of exile, a recurrent theme in twentieth-century literature, and a vivid account of the colonial and modern experience of the migrant in the imperial

The forefront of the feminist sociology theory, Intersectionality, challenges the interdependent systems of discrimination that are deeply woven in American history. This concept acknowledges that a colorblind movement propels the majority forward and leaves the minorities in the dust. Even though, this movement admits to the imbalance of opportunities between people of color and their white counterparts, Intersectional Feminism is an unified movement that gives all woman the platform they need dismantle oppressive institutions. “Intersectionality was a lived reality before it became a term” (Crenshaw). The term, Intersectionality, was coined in 1989 by Kimberle Crenshaw, but years prior to being named, around the late 1960’s and early 1970’s,

Kingsolver uses media in the book to show how women are over sexualized. Kingsolver shows women treated and seen as objects that are used for others’ gain, not as individuals with their own thoughts. There are also examples where the women are mentally and physically abused, and the consequences of these problems. The Bean Trees is a novel that questions the treatment of women and girls in not only the time it was written, but even in today’s society where many of these issues are still present. Kingsolver wrote her novel to spread awareness to the discrimination and injustice through a cohesive narrative and her characters’ development to connect to her

1. Three political issues that are most evident for women during the 1960’s and 1970’s Chicana/o Movement are oppression, machismo, and control over their bodies. Chicana’s encountered oppression from La Raza because they focused on getting equal rights for the men and completely put the women’s needs aside. Women were not accepted by the leaders in the Chicano Movement or the Anglo establishment (Vidal 22).

Shirley Chisholm, in her address to Congress on May 21, 1969, advocated for women’s rights in juxtaposition to African American’s rights - both predominant issues at the time, because she believed women, unlike African Americans, would continue to be discriminated against and denied equal rights even after racial inequality was adequately addressed, a topic she felt passionately about. To explain, in her speech, Chisholm reflects upon the fact that although prejudice against African Americans is still a point of controversy among American society, it is slowly beginning to recede and become resolved as people express their stance on racial equality and commensurateness. On the other hand, preconceptions and enmity towards women is still socially

The political struggles of Chicana women during the 1960s and 1970s heavily involved a confrontation with both sexism and racism. At the time, the Chicano Movement was fighting against the discrimination and oppressive nature against Mexican Americans present within the United States. The culturally nationalistic movement stressed both freedom and liberation for the population. However, the immediate constraints of male domination within Chicana women’s daily lives helped mold a concern of the traditional gender roles within a patriarchal society. It seemed hypocritical that it was only men that were deemed able to achieve freedom and liberation (García).

The predominant ideas put forth in the piece from the Combahee River Collective were those that addressed the shortcomings of the feminist movement to include all women and to address the full range of issues that oppress individuals and groups of people in our patriarchal society. This greatly furthered my ongoing development and understanding of what intersectionality is, what its goals are, and how it can help everyone instead of the predominately white, cisgendered, heterosexual, upper middle class women that composed and continue to compose a large portion of the feminist movement. One of the biggest shortcomings that are addressed in this piece focused on the racism within the feminist movement and its limited or even minimal efforts

While she is there she is not considered Cuban enough in the same way that she is not considered American enough when she is in the States. Her essay further discusses the battle against injustices that Hispanic women suffer in America. Attempting to find liberation for Hispanic women from society’s oppression, she concludes that in order to reach true equality, power within feminist movement must be shared among all ethnicities. She notes how important it is for “Euro-American feminists to acknowledge their prejudice” (18) in order to “work together on deciding the priorities for the [feminist] movement and not only for the Euro-American

The film prejudice and pride, revealed the struggle of Mexican Americans in the 1960s-1970s. In the film it showed Mexican Americans, frustration by the President discrimination and poverty. In this film I learned about the movement that led to the Chicano identity. This movement sparked, when the farm workers in the fields of California, marched on Sacramento for equal pay and humane working conditions. This march was led by César Chavez and Dolores Huerta.

In the story, “The Myth of a Latin Woman” is about the author Judith Ortiz Cofer talking about her life and growing up as a Puerto Rican girl. She talks about the struggles she had to go through, like always being under heavy surveillance by her family. She would be under their watch because she was a girl and was expected to protect her family’s honor and to behave like in her family’s terms “proper senorita”. I agree that she was forced to mature fast just at her teenage years; a point that needs emphasizing since so many people believe Cofer could never act her age.

I discovered my love for English throughout my Puente classes. It exposed me to my passion for writing and learning new things. An example of this was when we read “ Borderlands” by Gloria Anzladúa which deals with how we identify ourselves composed of poems and written text. Explaining her story of being a Chicana; someone who is Mexican American dealing with the differences of both cultures.