Questions for Readings: Out of the House and There's no Place Like Home

After reading the essay "Out of the house, the Halo, and the Whore's Mask I had several questions. My biggest issue was previously covered on the blog, as to why there are such limited roles that women were assigned to. There is mention of the virgin, the mother, and the revolutionary however, there is also mention of an even smaller grouping of Adelitas and Malinches.  There is an infinite number of roles that a woman can take on and for this reason I like the exhibit called "Las Tres Marias." It allows the viewer to look at themselves right in the middle of two women being depicted in these patriarchal roles and lets you wonder where you fit in. My question to Alicia Gaspar de Alba is, if you were standing in front of "Las Tres Marias" exhibit what role or or more accurately roles would you see when looking into that mirror and how would those roles line up to the traditional roles created for women, if at all?

In the essay "There's No Place Like Aztlan: Embodied Aesthetics in Chicana Art I found a sense of familiarity. When I was young I remember going to Mexico to visit my family sometimes for extended stays and even though I was of Mexican descent I did not really fit in, while back home they were trying to put me into ESL classes just because my parents spoke Spanish primarily so I didn't really feel like i belonged here nor there. However, I wasn't that connected to the culture growing up I had never heard of Aztlan before and that sense of belonging that it represents, the non-existing "homeland." I know it has also been mentioned before in the blog that this Aztlan was primarily a place for chicanos and not chicanas, which seems nonsensical to me that if your feeling alienated and create this utopia to help you get through the strife why would you alienate your female counterparts too. So my question is why do you think this was done, was it simply because the long ingrained patriarchal roots? If there is two groups going through a struggle wouldn't unity seem like a better option? As a woman who has probably gone through some kind of sense of non-belonging is there an Aztlan for you? What is your utopia and is so different that others wouldn't be able to unite under this idea along you instead of alienating one another? Not saying that you alienate people just trying to understand why the Chicano men would alienate their women.