CARA's Politics of Representation

      While I was reading CARA’s Politics of Representation, the section that I found captivating was the one where Armando Rendon talks about Malinches and Adelitas. She explains that Adelitas signifies the women who were loyal supporters and followers of their man and Malinches were Eve-like traitors of la causa. Rendon says that a woman should be allowed to go to college so she could potentially meet a young promising Chicano rather than getting stuck with a Macho man. These ideas did not allow women to advance in any sort of way because well-educated Chicanos were instead marrying Anglo women and Chicanas were discouraged from attending college.

      Another point that stood out is how feminists were looked down upon by the Macho leadership of the Chicano and other female supporters. They were considered anti-Chicano and were labeled as white middle-class wannabees. The feminists’ beliefs were not parallel to any of the beliefs they were being held to by the Chicanos that disagreed with the views the Chicana feminists held; they most likely felt that these new ideas that were being introduced by the feminists were a threat to their own beliefs. It shows how men were accustomed to the subordinate view of women and now that women were finally getting the strength to speak up for themselves they viewed it negatively. Up until this day, the lack of support for Chicana feminists can be seen when you look at the Chicana/o community, some still have the belief that men are superior than women in many areas. In the CARA exhibition, this exclusion is also showed by the low presence of Chicana artists compared to Chicanos.