Garcia, Marlene

Hello,

            My name is Marlene Garcia I am a fourth year transfer student. My major is Gender studies and I will also be minoring in Chicana/o studies. My parents both migrated from Guadalajara, Jalisco to the United States during the late 80’s, and of course they were in pursuit of the American dream. I was born in East Los Angeles in 1991 and raised in Whittier. Being a first generation Mexican-American female has helped shape my identity, I consider myself a Chicana feminist. Because Mexican culture, like many other cultures, revolves around the domestication of its women, I decided at a young age to step away from the gender role I was being told to follow. Chicana/o and Gender studies courses have encouraged me to continue pushing the boundaries of my culture, my gender and my power.

“There’s No Place Like Aztlan: Embodied Aesthetics in Chicana Art”

            In the section titled, “Virgins, Mothers, and Whores, Oh My!” Gaspar mentions the female trinity of Chicana identifications. These three women not only represent a virgin, a mother, and a whore, they also signify the roles many Latina women grow up with. As young female children we are forced upon a role of pureness and innocence our virginity must be kept until marriage. As we get older marriage becomes the goal society and our culture forces us to envision. Throughout this process of keeping our virginity till marriage, if we break this set rule we are condemned into the category of whore. Chicana artist use female sexuality as a powerful tool, the whore is given value, but how can this knowledge be transferred over to young women? The idea of whore being bad, evil, and disgusting is placed in young women’s heads at a very young age.

“Out of the House, the Halo, and the Whore’s Mask: The Mirror of Malinchismo”

            In this essay Gaspar introduces the different types of feminist that have existed in the past and exist now. Society should not assume that all women belong to a “sisterhood”, not all feminists believe in fighting for the same cause. In this case how should Chicana artist fight for better representation worldwide?