Chicana feminism is not easy to label in simple terms. It developed simultaneously in different social, political, and artistic groups that more often than not nurtured from each other. Chicana feminism, like Chicanas themselves should better be understood in terms of dialoguing and relationships, with the surrounding culture, with other feminist groups, and even within the inner dualities of the Chicana herself as Anzaldúa wrote about.
These are 15 moments I consider relevant in giving a glimpse of what Chicana feminism is about
In the end of May 1971 in Houston, Texas, the Conferencia de Mujeres por la Raza became the first national Chicana convention to address women’s role in the community and in the movement (Bueno, 2015 :61).
One of the central themes was the self-determination of women, in opposition to the generally passive status they were traditionally attributed in nationalist ideology.
In opposition to the "loyalists" countermovement, women in favor of holding onto conservative values of Chicano culture, Chicana activist Francisca Flores wrote the famous remarks “our culture hell!” later that year in the influential journal Regeneración.
The intensity and conciseness of the phrase would make it a slogan for the Chicana feminist movement (García, 1989 :228).
Two students at the California State University, Anna Nieto-Gómez and Adelaida Del Castillo, founded the newspaper Hijas de Cuahutémoc in 1971 to inform and inspire Chicana readers through articles on history, political action and socioeconomic problems affecting Chicanas (Encuentro Femenil, 1973/1997 :110).
The newspaper lasted a few issues and was later repurposed as the first Chicana feminist journal under the name of Encuentro Femenil, giving a publishing space for Chicana thought at the time (Encuentro Femenil, 1973/1997 :111).
Political activists Ino Alvarez, Evey Chapa and Marta Cotera form the Chicana caucus Mujeres por la Raza among the ranks of the the Raza Unida Party to support women candidates running for office and to collaborate closely on initiatives related to women affairs (Orozco, 2010/2019, Handbook of Texas Online)
In September 1973, Estela Portillo-Trambley edited a special issue on women in the journal El Grito, entitled Chicanas en la literatura y el arte. The issue included short narratives, poems, and a musical comedy from fifteen writers, Portillo-Trambley among them (Sánchez, 1985 :3; Fernandez, 1994/2002 :38).
This became the first time Chicana creative writing was anthologized (Barvosa-Carter, 2000 :269).
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In September 1976, the group of artists known as Las Chicanas (Judy Baca, Judithe Hernández, Olga Muñiz, Josefina Quesada, and Isabel Castro) exhibited Venas de la Mujer in the Woman's Building. The exhibiton combined graphic arts in different formats like drawing, painting, and graffiti with performance on site (Davalos, 2017 :28).
It was one of the few Chicana works to be displayed in the Woman's Building, given the bias and discrimination women of color experienced on the place (Zetterman, 2016 :68).
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In the beginnings of 1979, the experiences of condescension and disdain Gloria Anzaldúa experienced in her relation with white feminists at a woman's retreat started the driving impulse for what would become a declaration of unity and solidarity amongst women of color in "This Bridge Called My Back"
Edited along with Cherríe Moraga and published for the first time in 1981, the book is a compilation of essays, short fiction, poetry, and artwork divided in sections that speak of the feminist of color experience in society and within feminist groups (Anzaldúa & Moraga, 1983 :xxiv).
"This Bridge Called My Back" is a key text in Chicana feminism and feminism of color, and it placed editors Moraga and Anzaldúa at the forefront of Chicana queer and feminist literature.
In 1979, Chicana writer Norma Alarcón founded Third Woman Press. She believed that a publishing house devoted to the diffusion of writing by women of color coordinated by women editors was necessary in the literary landscape of the late 70s.
Alarcón with Ana Castillo translated "This Bridge Called My Back" under the title "Esta Puente, Mi Espalda" and published it in 1989, adding another layer to the Chicana literary connection.
Starting in 2011, Third Woman Press initiated a revitalization process to continue publishing literary production from contemporary writers.
Adapted from http://www.thirdwomanpress.com/about/
Another important publishing house devoted to placing the spotlight in the work of women of color was Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press.
Formed in 1980 when black feminism writers Barbara Smith and Audre Lorde met at a poetry reading to discuss on the landscape of publishing and how to make an impact on it (Smith, 1989 :11). Cherríe Moraga was considered among the founding authors of the publishing house. Her anthology "This Bridge Called My Back" was republished in Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press and it became one of their best sold books. Moraga also coedited a short fiction anthology named "Cuentos: Stories by Latinas".
Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social (MALCS) is born in the University of California, Davis, in spring of 1982. The organization strives to provide opportunities for academic development to Chicanas and Latinas, and empower them in roles of activist and academic leadership.
Adapted from https://malcs.org/about/herstory/
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"The House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cisneros is published in 1984. The novel has received wide possitive popular and critical success, which has earned it over 6 millions of copies sold and translations in over 20 languages.
"The House on Mango Street" comments on the tension between tradtion and a culture that is magical but reppressive from the point of view of a 12-year-old girl. It is an accomplished example and a recurrent entry point to the biographic tendencies and the confessional tone that is commonly favored in Chicana realist fiction.
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In 1987, Gloria Anzaldúa publishes "Borderlands/ La Frontera. The New Mestiza", her most well-known work and an introduction to some of the theoretical concepts that she would develop in her future writings.
Looking inside her own life experience, Anzaldúa analyzes the social, political, ideological, sexual, linguistic and spiritual borders that make up her queer, indigenista Chicana identity, and she reflects on the constant shifting and reinvention the new mestiza has to endure to find a home in herself.
The different sections in the book evoke cosmological archetypes of Aztec origin that would reappear in her bibliography to explain concepts of deconstruction and synthesis that occur in people between borders.
With information from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borderlands/La_Frontera:_The_New_Mestiza, Borderlands/ La Frontera preface by Gloria Anzaldúa, and "From Borderlands and New Mestizas to Nepantlas and Nepantleras" by AnaLouise Keating.
Alma M. Garcia's curatorial work in 1997 book "Chicana Feminist Thought: The Basic Historical Writings" is a statement in itself. It recovers foundational documents in the struggle of Chicana feminists from the 60s and the 70s (García, 1997 :22), and it shows that some of the obstacles at the time still lay in the way for feminists of color, which could make the texts say more about current circumstances than one could expect.
Especially refreshing is the honest description of events without the celebratory rhetoric of hindsight. Feminists in the 60s and the 70s did not have a straight path to follow and they had to plan, negotiate and retrace their steps constantly. Inner conflicts in feminist groups and political uncertainty are far from exclusive to these days, and reading the composure with which pioneer Chicana feminists faced their conflicts may prove inspirational for feminism now.
References:
Anzaldúa, G. (1987). Borderlands/la frontera (Vol. 3). San Francisco: aunt lute books.
Barvosa-Carter, E. (2000). Breaking the silence: Developments in the publication and politics of Chicana creative writing, 1973-1998. Chicano renaissance: Contemporary cultural trends, 261-279.
Bueno, Marianne M. (2015). "Conferencia de Mujeres por La Raza". In Wayne, Tiffany K. (ed.). Women's Rights in the United States: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Issues, Events, and People. Santa Barbara, California
Davalos, K. M. (2017). Chicana/o remix: Art and errata since the sixties. NYU Press.
Encuentro Femenil (1973) “Introduction to Encuentro Femenil” in M.E. Sánchez (Ed.) Chicana feminist thought: The Basic historical writings. Routledge, 1997.
Fernandez, R. (2002) “Abriendo Caminos in the Borderland” in Y.F. Niemann (Ed.) Chicana Leadership: The froniters reader. U of Nebraska Press.
Garcia, A. M. (1989). The development of Chicana feminist discourse, 1970-1980. Gender & Society, 3(2), 217-238.
García, A. M. (2014). Chicana feminist thought: The basic historical writings. Routledge.
Keating, A. (2006). From borderlands and new mestizas to nepantlas and nepantleras: Anzaldúan theories for social change. Human architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-knowledge, 4(3), 3.
Moraga, C., & Anzaldúa, G. (Eds.). (1983). This bridge called my back: Writings by radical women of color. Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, New York.
Niemann, Y. F. (Ed.). (2002). Chicana leadership: The frontiers reader. U of Nebraska Press.
Orozco, Cynthia E. (2010/2019) "MUJERES POR LA RAZA," Handbook of Texas Online. Accessed May 16, 2020, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/vimgh.
Sánchez, M. E. (1985). Contemporary Chicana poetry: A critical approach to an emerging literature. Univ of California Press.
Smith, B. (1989). A press of our own kitchen table: Women of color press. Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies, 11-13.
Zetterman, E. (2016). Claims by Anglo American feminists and Chicanas/os for alternative space: The LA art scene in the political 1970s. American Studies in Scandinavia, 48(1), 61-83.