Contribution to Book
Rethinking the Lens of Spanish: Grounding a Chicana Feminist Language
Contemporary U.S. Latinx literature in Spanish: Straddling Identities
(2018)
Abstract
This essay examines the significant role Chicana feminist writers play in contesting mainstream perspectives on U.S. Spanish. Through the development of Chicana and U.S. Latina feminist discourse centered on the reclamation and affirmation of one’s inherited tongue, women have generated robust methodologies to understand the benefits of embracing the hybridity, intersectionality, and complexity of communication. From Gloria Anzaldúa’s “mestizaconsciousness” and Cherríe Moraga’s “theory in the flesh” and “coming from a long line of vendidas” to Ana Castillo’s “Xicanisma” and Emma Pérez “sitio y lengua,” a new understanding of identity formation about the languages defining one’s cultural reality enabled women the ability to challenge the hegemonic identity politics for women by fostering narratives of “selfhood” that rethink the lens of Spanish in Chicana feminism.
Keywords
- Self (Philosophy),
- Personal narratives,
- Mexican-American women -- Social life and customs,
- Feminism
Disciplines
Publication Date
2018
Editor
Amrita Das, Kathryn Quinn-Sánchez, Michele Shaul
Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan
Series
Literatures of the Americas
ISBN
9783030025984
DOI
10.1007/978-3-030-02598-4_2
Publisher Statement
© Palgrave Macmillan, part of Springer Nature
Citation Information
Avilés E. (2018) Rethinking the Lens of Spanish: Grounding a Chicana Feminist Language. In: Das A., Quinn-Sánchez K., Shaul M. (eds) Contemporary U.S. Latinx Literature in Spanish. Literatures of the Americas. Palgrave Pivot, Cham