"Chicana Sexuality and Gender" by Debra J. Blake

Debra Blake does a wonderful job of explaining the reconstruction of four iconic female Mexican figures. In her book Chicana Sexuality and Gender, she explains how these four figures have gone through a transformation since the sixteenth century due to the social rebellion of Chicanas. The quote I want to talk about is: “Women’s culture sites possess the potential to incorporate a range of individual and group positions from embryonic consciousness of women’s oppression to insurgent feminism” (pg. 79). I feel that this quote explains how this reconstruction of four iconic figures came about. Such figures had been used for decades by dominant power to repress women and their sexuality, and maintain gender roles. Because of this, women were forced to stand up for themselves, and they were able to use what once was used against them, as a figure of empowerment against the oppressor. This is what Chicana writers and artists did, and together they accomplished this shift in perspective about what the figures symbolized. Personally, growing up La Virgen de Guadalupe was a symbol of pureness and innocence, and I saw that in my own culture all the time. Mexican men have a lot of respect for La Virgen, and hold her to the highest standards, and growing up seeing this did more harm than good. It wasn’t until college that I saw what the figure of La Virgen had become and how her image was being used. Eventually I left the Catholic religion, but I appreciate the feminist perspective of La Virgen more than ever due to our current social and political climate, figures like that are much needed.