In her introduction to her 1981 anthology, This Bridge Called My Back., Cherríe Moraga declares, “I am a woman with a foot in both worlds; and I refuse the split. I feel the necessity for dialogue. Sometimes I feel it urgently”. The Chicana lesbian exists in the intersection between Chicana/o/x and feminist communities. The focus of my project is to highlight the experiences of young Chicana lesbians and depict their struggle against constant erasure in both movements. In the 1960s and 1970s, there was a new generation of young Chicana lesbians whose collective political consciousness manifested itself through the development of radical theory and poetry. Their unique positionality allows one to explore the racism and homophobia within the feminist movement and the patriarchy and homophobia in the Chicana/a/x movement. By examining works from revolutionary Chicana lesbians, such as Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa, my project aims to honor the struggles these women endured within the feminist and Chicano/a/ communities and how their lived experience remains impactful today.
– Isabel Carmona
The Girls Our Mothers Warned Us About
Defining the New Age of Chicanas
Wrestling with Identities: Experiences of a Chicana Lesbian