"Chicana Sexuality and Gender" Debra J. Blake

In Chicana Sexuality and Gender by Debra J. Blake argues that Chicana artists, authors, and oral historians play a critical way in the way marginalized narratives and representations of Chicanas can be (re)remembered and empowered. Through an alternative, re-imagining process of iconic figures and symbols to better depict their subjectivities, Chicanas have integrated a feminist and non-heteronormative lens to promote a counter-culture and counter-memory of Chicana hxtory and representation that has been tainted by the effects of colonization. Throughout the novel, Blake offers various instances where queer Chicana feminist scholars and artists have re-imagined icons such as Coyolxauhqui, La Virgen de Guadalupe, La Lorona, and La Malinche to reveal how cultural productions created by feminist muxeres of color create a rupture in the dominant discourse and heightens a sense of belonging with this reconfiguration of Chicana feminism struggle and survival. 

What I find particularly empowering and beautiful about this book is the ability for muxeres of color to continue to exist and resist systems of oppression by finding creative ways to liberate themselves from the violence and limitations placed upon themselves. Post-coloniality reveals how the bodies and sexuality of muxeres has become taboo. It is ingrained in us that we are objects of desire, rather than those who do desire. However, to re-imagine and reconfigure figures utilized to police our bodies such as La Virgen, artists such as Professor Lopez and writers such as Glora Anzaldúa reveal how it is possible to decolonize from this way of thinking by reclaiming the memory and narrative of these ingrained subjectivities to better represent Ch/Xicanas' sense of self and culture to empower the community.