Chicana Feminism

Early Chicana Feminism

Historical evidence has been documented to reveal women's participation in revolutionary and political movements throughout Latin America even before the 20th century. What is known as Chicana feminism emerged out of several sociopolitical struggles in the United States in the late 1960s and 1970s, called the Chicano Movement, or El Movimiento. In response to social inequalities faced by Chicanos in the United States, ranging from inadequate funding of urban schools that served predominantly Chicanos, to what was viewed by the Chicano community as a disproportionate number of Chicano men being drafted and killed in the Vietnam War, to the struggles of Mexican farmworkers, led by César Chávez and Dolores Huerta, Chicana activism in these protest movements is evident. However, as Chicana activists in the Chicano Movement articulated in their emerging feminist consciousness, women's lack of visibility and secondary leadership roles became a source of conflict among Chicano men and Chicana women within the movement.

Early Chicana feminist thought within the movement largely critiqued the sexism of Chicano activists. While male Chicano activists protested both the racial and economic subordination of Chicano people, many Chicanos did not place gender as another mode of oppression that occurred alongside racial and economic oppression. Chicanas within the movement thus began to frame early components of Chicana feminism-a critique of what they viewed as an inherent contradiction of movement politics, which challenged racial and economic oppression yet reinforced traditional, unequal gender roles between women and men. This contradiction resulted in feelings of [Page 250]disillusionment and discontent with the Chicano Movement, leading some Chicana feminist activists to create gender-specific publications in the form of journals, magazines, and newsletters to provide an outlet for Chicana feminist discussions. Journals such as Regeneración and El Grito Del Norte featured writings by now well-known early Chicana feminists Anna Nieto-Gómez, Marta Cotera, and Enriqueta Longeaux y Vásquez, among others.

However, even among early Chicana feminists, some crucial, ideological differences existed. For example, Anna Nieto-Gómez used labels such as “Loyalists” and “Feminists” to define what she saw as two strands of women activists in the movement. For Nieto-Gómez, a Loyalist was described as a Chicana who did not challenge the sexism of her male activist counterparts because of her belief that fighting sexism would distract or otherwise threaten the main purpose of the movement: racial and economic equality. Nieto-Gómez defined feminists as Chicanas like herself who believed that Chicana feminist thought could only strengthen the Chicano Movement and that fighting sexism faced by Chicanas both in the dominant culture and in Chicano culture was necessary in the liberation of all Chicano people.

...