After reading the book, I learned that there are several ways to empower Chicana or U.S Mexicana. The three main ways that I have acknowledged are empowerment through adding the missing pieces of history, creating a mythic or fictional character or symbol, and reconfiguring cultural stories. I strongly agree that these three agents can deliver empowerment for Chicana or U.S Mexicana.

Chapter one discusses that history was written based on the dominating power’s perspective, so Chicana was stereotyped according to what the dominant power wanted them to be. In order to change the stereotype, Chicana artists use their artworks to add positive elements that were excluded from the history, creating a new stereotype of Chicana. “At the same time, they replace negative elements of the representations by unearthing submerged cultural memories of the figures as powerful, active forces” (Blake, 14). It can be established that Chicanas were under-represented by the dominant power. However, in the status quo, Chicanas have the opportunity to deliver the missing pieces of history through gathering personal narratives and compiling them so that they could add the missing pieces of their history. These missing pieces will be able to serve the future generation Chicanas by empowering them through the similar struggles that the older generation Chicanas faced.