Kim Garza, Monica

I would like to do my presentation on Monica Kim Garza.

Alicia Gaspar de Alba's piece "Out of the House, the Halo, and the Whore's Mask: The Mirror of Malinchismo" focused on the intersection of identities that come as a form of oppression. For Chicano women, they not only face racial oppression but also the inherent class oppression as well as the gender inequality that stems from multi-generational patriarchal systems that place women below men. Gaspar de Alba also makes note that often this gender oppression is often perpetuated by the men in the Chicana's own community, the Chicano men. And this is a cultural aspect that has been embedded so much so that it is seen as normal, merely the way it is. This is why the Chicano Civil Rights movement often focused on carnalismo, aka brotherhood, and excluded the empowerment of their Chicana counterparts. Chicano men often only valued the women in relation to their image as "la virgen", providing, nurturing, and ultimately a mode of providing for the men and the men only. This is exemplified in the character of people like Corky Gonzalez, who despite being a leading force in the Chicano movement, feared that the Chicano women would become rigid and is quoted as saying "I'm for equality, but I still want to see some sex in our women". This inequality for Chicanas is exemplifies in the CARA exhibition, in which their was a vast inequality in the representation ratio of female artists to male artists; ultimately this is an exhibition of the fact that even in moments in which Chicanx are meant to be praised, women are underrepresented and ultimately seen as less contributing to the cultura. The Chicana identity then becomes one of empowerment for the women, while simultaneously acting as an identity of oppression in the Chicano world. My question is, how can Chicano artists work to create a space capable of not only showcasing Chicana art but also spotlighting it? Should Chicano artists work to carve these spaces given that many Chicana artists are not even allowed the opportunity?