Questions for Professor Gaspar de Alba

Question for Out of the House, the Halo, and the Whore's Mask: the Mirror of Malinchismo:

I understand from the essay that there is no such thing as a Chicana feminist which made me question; how would one suggest females identify themselves as if they are in fact Chicanas who believe in feminism?  As an American born Mexican, I always considered myself as a Chicana. As for feminism, although I would not identify myself as an extreme feminist, I do truly resonate and believe in the ideas and values it promotes within our patriarchal society. I wouldn't consider myself a feminist mainly because I don't make it my main priority to avidly advocate for the rights of women and their grounds of equality to men on a day to day basis. In a way, after taking a few Chicano studies classes I started to identify myself as a Chicana feminist, at least up until professor Gaspar de Alva introduced the idea that Chicanas cannot identify themselves as feminists. She explained that it's almost paradoxical to be such a thing because of the patriarchal ideals found within the Mexican culture. If you believe in Christianity or Catholicism for example means that you are accepting the roles of patriarchy. To me, feminism is a fight for equality while being a Chicana is more just a piece of my identity, which really does nothing for others. If I had to identify as one or the other, I would drop the word Chicana all together and identify myself as a feminist because I think being a feminist has more weight and is more important to me. Yet in efforts of incorporating both aspects, I would like to consider myself as a Chicana with feminist values.

Question for There's No Place Like Azlan: Embodied Aesthetics in Chicana Art:

The myth of Aztlán was born 120 years later after the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, which sold the northern half of Mexico to the United States and illustrated the Aztlan's characteristics of dispossession, how was one of the catalysts for the first manifesto of the Chicano Movement entitled "El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán" illustrate a patriarchal ideology? The word choice in " el plan espiritual de Aztlan" exemplifies and indicate a sexual hierarchy that will prevail in the nation of Aztlan. The emphasis and use of the word "forefathers" indicate a prone patriarchal environment, as well as phrases like "our cultural values of life, family, and home will serve as a powerful weapon to defeat the gringo dollar value system and encourage the process of love and brotherhood", seem to indicate a heroic role brothers will play as they are aided and supported by their "adelitas." All the connotative implications that "El plan Espiritual de aztlan" have, the concept of home and family seem to be the most problematic because they both are heavily gendered areas, which in essence allows and eases the role of gender politics.