Debra Blake's Chicana Sexuality and Gender

Chapter 2, page 73-74 “ Castellanos’s poetry, essays, and plays reveal an acute awareness and pointed disclosure of the systems of domination that enclose women, the and the indigenous in Mexico. Moreover in a book of essays published in 1973 exploring the condition of women, Castellanos describes the very issues that Chicana writers engage. ‘The boldness of exploring one’s self’ the need to become conscious of one’s bodily existence or the unheard-of pretension to confer a meaning on one's spiritual existence are severly repressed and punished by the social apparatus.”

 

In Chapter 2, Blake continues to portray the ongoing issues between these Chicana artists who are submerged into operational social boundaries.  Blake adds on the idea that these feminists, specifically Chicana feminists alongside feminists of color are challenging the traditional spaces and gender roles (71). Blake demonstrates how this challenge to traditional forms by feminist, go against the white, middle-class dominated as depicted by Castellanos. Blake says, “Castellanos’s poetry, essays, and plays reveal an acute awareness and pointed disclosure of the systems of domination that enclose women, the and the indigenous in Mexico... Castellanos describes the ...‘The boldness of exploring one’s self’ the need to become conscious of one’s bodily existence or the unheard-of pretension to confer a meaning on one's spiritual existence are severely repressed and punished by the social apparatus” (Blake 73). Furthermore, Blake is portraying the idea that there is this evident form of oppression that ultimately affects Chicana writers, and artist from engaging into creative works. These forms of oppressions and described by Blake demonstrate the perpetuated repression of these women, specifically of color who attempt to pursue creative, artist, writing etc. works.