Gunther, Sophie

Hi,

My name is Sophie Gunther and I am a fourth year World Arts and Cultures major and Southeast Asian Studies minor.

     In reading Gaspar de Alba's "Out of the House, the Halo, and the Whore's Mask: The Mirror of Malinchismo" I was struck by her interpretation that even in an exhibition that prided itself on the representation of Chicana artists, women were still blatantly underrepresented and somehow the curated feminist images only solidified the dominance of patriarchy within the Chicano/a art movement. I am wondering how feminism within this movement has changed since 1998. I would like to assume that women are better represented and more accepted, but Gaspar de Alba speaks of similar gender dynamics in her 2004 article "There's No Place Like Aztlán." How are perceptions of the female changing in the Chicano/a art community and the wider Chicano/a or Hispanic community as a whole?

     "There's No Place Like Aztlán" brought up many thoughts and questions, but what interested me most was the idea of an imaginary space that resides only in communal (and personal) memory. This nonexistent homeland can therefore be a utopia and fulfill whatever need an individual or community requires. I am thinking of this especially because I am Jewish and our former "imaginary homeland" became very real and is not the utopia many Jews think it should be. Israel is a very real place with very real problems. So I'm not entirely sure what my question is, as it seems shallow to place a judgement on real vs imaginary homelands, but I see many Jews, myself among them, questioning identity in relation to this biblical homeland that is far from ideal, and I guess I find the idea of Aztán kind of liberating. Of course, as Gaspar de Alba outlines clearly in her article, there are many issues with the myth rooted especially in gender politics and "freedom" of interpretation seems restricted to male values, but I suppose my question is: would the ability to return to a physical Aztán make discovering identity any easier? Does the true value of a homeland reside in memory and interpretation rather than physical reality?