Chicana Sexuality and Gender by Debra Blake

In “Chicana Sexuality and Gender: Cultural Refiguring in Literature, Oral History and Art” by Debra Blake, makes a point how iconic cultural figures play in the everyday lives of Chicanas. In her book, she tells the stories of many Chicanas who have been greatly affected by cultural icons who conform these women into strict gender roles, and sexual identities. Furthermore, she reveals how these women rework and do not conform in these particular icons that limit their sexuality and live by specific gender roles.

In Chapter 1 Blake summarizes about iconic Mexican cultural symbols like the La Llorona and La Virgen De Guadalupe, which are figures that parents enforced on their daughters.  Furthermore, she delves into particular Chicana artists who have reworked these cultural icons. These icons represent the strict gender roles parents would impose, “Unlike the religious depiction of Guadalupe with hands folded in prayer and eyes downcast, this Chicana does not wait passively for help from God or anyone else. She provides for her own well-being and that of her people through active self-defense” (Blake 60). In this particular section, Blake introduces Ester Hernandez, the first artists to refigure Guadalupe, which reimagines her into a karate kicking warrior. La Virgen represents wholesomeness and innocence, while Hernandez reimagines her as a warrior goes to show how Hernandez does not choose to follow gender specific roles, one of which is that women should be pure and depend on men.