VivirLatino

When I first came to Chicana feminism, I felt much the same way Bianca did. I lived in the Midwest, so I had only heard of “chicana” in a very passing sense. Nobody knew what the word meant exactly (are you a Mexican from Chicago?), and nobody explained that there had been a whole group of women that had etched out a fierce commentary against the sexism and violence they were subjected to, even living in “radical” communities. As I tripped around more and more with the Chicana feminist community, I gradually got to feeling more comfortable in my own skin–but even today, I identify more with this than I do with Chicana feminists:

When I first started to hear about “Latina Feminisms” it was presented to me as “Chicana Feminisms.” I was initially resistant to the terms “Hispanic” and “Latina” for numerous reasons, but primarily because I KNEW how restrictive and exclusive the terms were. Today, I’ll identify as “Latina” in communal settings (hence the title of this site) and for collective purposes, but I’m more connected to Caribbean communities. You see, when I was finding my way I was pushed away from “Hispanic” and Latino spaces and embraced without question by Caribbean peoples. I was raised in a Caribbean home, not a Latin@ one.

I was so unclear of the terminology as nobody had told me what the term Chicana/Xicana represented or how it was created. For a very long time in such discussions, I felt excluded. I felt like US feminisms had been expanded, but only for US Black women and Chicanas. How could all of the activism of women from the Caribbean have been excluded?

I felt like “Chicana” meant “California” or “Texas”–absolutely NOT Michigan or South Dakota or Idaho etc. My experience did not include “border” except in a more marginal sense. And I absolutly did not and in many ways, *still* do not know how to negotiate a more open space for myself and other Chicanas like me in Chicana/Latina feminism.

But yet, I firmly feel that it’s SO necessary that we *do* negotiate that space. That women who are in some way connected to each other through the assimmilation, immigration, colonization experiences come together and organize and talk. And name experiences.

I don’t know if that’s possible. We are SO varied, and SO different. Can there be a Latina feminism? Specifically, can there be a Latina feminist *movement* that reaches not just certain regions, but all of the U.S.? And maybe even our homelands?

What do you think?