Getting to the good stuff ....
The original function of this site was to provide a free online educational resource to the public. While the site has grown, this core set of resources on Chicanas & Latinas in the United States remains the heart and soul of Chicanas.com...
"I am currently in a Mexican American Studies class, in which we were assigned a research topic. I was chosen to do Gender issues. I have tried looking up some articles at my school, but for some reason a lot of the information deals a lot with Chicanos only. It's difficult to find articles on the women. If you can please help me by emailing me any type of information that you think might be helpful....or any articles that you know by name of author and title that I could look up at my school's library, I would greatly appreciate it.
--an early email request to this website
Happily, the available resources have exploded in the last ten years, ..... This page is specifically designed to serve as a initial research resource for students who may not have access to an extensive Chicana/o library collection. The beauty of the Web is that you can at least see what types of resources are available--hopefully you can request them through Interlibrary Loan or better, suggest that your school's library join the 90s and add these works to their collections.
Finally, students, don't miss this valuable info about college scholarship opportunities!
Gabriela Arredondo et al., Chicana Feminisms: A Critical Reader. Durham: Duke University Press, 2003. Amazing contemporary collection of the latest research in Chicana feminisms, including Maylei Blackwell's study of Chicanas in the Chicano movement and Ana NietoGomez's response; Norma Cantu on Canicula; Olga Najera-Ramirez on rancheras; and Patricia Zavella on Chicana sexuality.
Aida Hurtado, Voicing Chicana Feminisms: Young Women Speak Out on Sexuality and Identity (New York: NYU Press, 2003). Focusing on young women between the ages of 20 and 30, Hurtado uses ethnographic interviews to explore the relationship between Chicana feminism and the lived experiences of Chicanas.
To better support independent bookstores, chicanas.com has chosen to partner with Powells new and used bookstore in portland, oregon. Please also browse our local guide to Chicana/o and Latina/o bookstores.
Sonia Saldivar-Hull, Feminism on the Border : Chicana Gender Politics and Literature (Berkeley: UC Press, 2000). An amazing new work in which a Chicana academic draws on her personal experiences to connect the specifics of a Chicana identity with global identities of women of color and Third World Women. She does a beautiful job of linking these embedded, interwoven connections. Also see her "Feminism on the Border: From Gender Politics to Geopolitics." in Criticism in the Borderlands, ed. by Hector Calderon and Jose David Saldivar, Durham: Duke University Press, 1991. Excellent introductory discussion of Chicana feminist theory*
Adela de la Torre and Beatriz M. Pesquera, eds. Building With Our Hands: New Directions in Chicana Studies. Berkeley: UC Press, 1993. Excellent interdisciplinary edited collection includes articles on Chicana history, identity, economics, sociology, and education by Antonia Castaneda, Angie Chabram Dernersesian, Emma Perez, Deena Gonzalez, Angelina Veyna, Vicki Ruiz, Rosa Linda Fregoso, Maria de los Angeles Crummett, Denise Segura, and Elisa Facio.
Catriona Esquibel, With Her Machete in Her Hand
Esquibel offers a critical analysis of Chicana lesbian literature from the 1970s to 2000 with careful attention to the centrality of gender and sexuality in Chicana and Chicano scholarship. Also see her online resource, Annotated Bibliography of Queer Chicana (and a few Latina) FictionsNorma Alarcon, ed. Chicana Critical Issues. Berkeley: Third Woman Press, 1993. This edited collection is a project of MALCS (Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social) and contains sixteen articles on Chicana literature, sexuality, history, organizing, health, and domestic violence. The last chapter is a helpful bibliography by Lillian Castillo-Speed of other materials in Chicana Studies, 1980-1991.
Gloria Anzaldua, ed. Making Face, Making Soul/Haciendo Caras: Creative and Critical Perspectives by Feminists of Color. This anthology builds on the work begun by Gloria's earlier work with Cherrie Moraga on This Bridge Called My Back in bringing together a diversity of poetry and prose by Chicanas and other women of color. The book includes some fifty works of poetry, short stories, and critical essays as well as an excellent introduction in which Gloria calls for "...teorias that will rewrite history using race, class, gender and ethnicity as categories of analysis, theories that cross borders, that blur boundaries--new kinds of theories with new theorizing methods."
Tey Diana Rebolledo & Eliana S. Rivero, eds. Infinite Divisions: An Anthology of Chicana Literature. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1993. This is the mother of all anthologies on Chicana literature, with a comprehensive survey of poetry and prose over 200 years of Chicana history, and an informative introduction. Over fifty-six different authors with some previously unpublished works.
Rosalinda Fregoso. The Bronze Screen: Chicana and Chicano film culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993. Here's Rosalinda's excellent review of Alison Anders' film, La Vida Loca, posted via UC Berkeley.*
Alma Garcia, ed., Chicana Feminist Thought: Basic Historical Writings. New York: Routledge, 1997. An edited collection of pivotal texts documenting the historical development of a Chicana feminist consciousness by chingonas such as Mirta Vidal, Elizabeth Martinez, Enriqueta Longeaux Vasquez, Marta Cotera, Anna Nieto Gomez, and Adelaida Del Castillo.
Alvina Quintana. Home Girls: Chicana Literary Voices. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1995*
Tey Diana Rebolledo, Women Singing in the Snow: a Cultural Analysis of Chicana Literature. Tucson : University of Arizona Press, 1995*
Mary Romero, ed. Challenging Fronteras: Structuring Latina and Latino Lives in the U.S. An exciting new collection of essays on the construction of identity, the immigration experience, gender and work, and economic restructuring among Latinos in the U.S.*
Vicki Ruiz, From Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth Century America, Oxford Press. A twentieth century history of Mexicanas and Chicanas in the U.S. by la estimada Chicana historian Vicki Ruiz. "Whether living in a labor camp, a boxcar settlement, a mining town, or an urban barrio, Mexican women nurtured families, worked for wages, built extended networks...., and participated in community associations--efforts which solidified the community and helped Mexican Americans find their own place in America."
Carla Trujillo, Living
Chicana Theory, Third Woman Press. Carla's exciting new
collection of essays "redefines the ways that theory is written,
talked about, and practiced." With selections by Anzaldua,
Yarbro-Bejarano, Sandoval, Alarcon, Castaneda, Moraga--todas las chingonas
de chicana studies hoy--Carla has outdone herself pulling together
this impressive resource.
Bibliographies & library collections in Chicana/o Studies
Librarians are wonderful wonderful resource people! Your local college or community librarian is trained to know any and every possible resource for your topic, so I want to encourage you to be persistent in seeking their help. The links below show some of the reference works available in some of the better Chicana/o Studies Collections in California--you might want to print out one of these lists and take it to your librarian to see what's available locally...or what you can request.
Rose Adams' list of Chicana/o and Latina/o library resources at Stanford
The Chicano Studies Library (housed with the Ethnic Studies Library) at Berkeley (via CLNET) with the largest Chicana/o Studies holdings in the state.
UC Berkeley's Bibliography of Chicanos/Latinos in Film and Media
The California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives (CEMA) at UC Santa Barbara houses an absolutely breathtaking collection of Chicana/o art and posters. CEMA archives original copies of Ana Nieto Gomez's early feminist journal, Encuentro Femenil, as well as the private papers of Chicana feminist writer/scholar Ana Castillo. Also available are scores of original artwork by the Royal Chicano Air Force, the Oscar Zeta Costa archives, and archives from San Francisco's Galeria de la Raza and East L.A.'s Self-Help Graphics.
The Tloque Nahuaque Collection at UC Santa Barbara also houses an extensive of Chicana/o Studies collection.
Other
scholars and scholarly resources on the 'net
Catriona Rueda Esquibel of San Francisco State University maintains an excellent website on 20th century Queer* Chicana Fictions her). The site offers a comprehensive annotated bibliiography on Chicana and Latina queer fictions.
UCLA's Chicana/Latina Net managed by Webjefa Romelia Salinas - the original Chicana/o website.
The National Association of Chicana and Chicano Studies (NACCS) homepage features information about this national scholarly association.
Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social is an academic association of Chicana, Latina, and indigenous women scholars. See their website here and the blog for the latest news.
Don't forget the Chicanas.com index of Chicanas in academe...
Syllabi
Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano & Renato Rosaldo, "Intro to Chicana/o Cultural Studies," Stanford University
Catriona Esquibel, "Representations of Chicana Lesbians" (UC Santa Cruz)
Alicia Gaspar de Alba maintains a professional website with multiple course syllabi including Chicana Feminisms, Barrio Popular Culture, Intro to Chicana/o Life & Culture, Border Consciousness, and Chicana Lesbian Literature.
Maylei Blackwell, "Women's Movements in Latin America" and "Transnational Organizing in the Americas," UC Los Angeles