Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of MALCS

Chicana/Latina Studies:
the journal of MALCS

Co-Editors
Tiffany Ann López
&
Josephine
Méndez-Negrete

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Chicana/Latina Studies:
the Journal of Mujeres Activas
en Letras y Cambio Social

formerly Voces: the Journal of Chicana/Latina Studies

MALCS: Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social

Table of Contents for Issue: volume 9 number 2 (Spring 2010)
Author: Enedina Casarez Vasquez Title: Artist's Statement: Art as Life and Life as Art Abstract: none available Pages: 8 - 10
Authors: Tiffany Ana López and Josie Méndez-Negrete Title: Editors' Commentary: Lived Experiences and Cultural Practices Abstract: none available Pages: 14 - 24
Author: Tanya González Title: Is Ugly the New Sexy? The Complexities of Latina Sexuality on Ugly Betty Abstract: ABC's Emmy and Golden Globe winning television show Ugly Betty stars America Ferrera as Betty Suarez, an intelligent Mexican American executive assistant who lives in Queens, New York, but works at Mode in Manhattan. An adaptation from the Colombian telenova, Yo soy, Betty la fea, this television show works on a fairy tale premise: the ugly protagonist with a heart of gold will eventually obtain happiness by virtue of her goodness. However, Ugly Betty offers a protagonist with multiple love interests, constantly involving her in a variety of love triangles, begging the question, "Is ugly the new sexy?" The following analysis of Betty as a sexual subject demonstrates that Ugly Betty,within the limits of Hollywood representation, offers complex subjects instead of one-dimensional types. The show's use of a Latino camp aesthetic continually introduces elements, like Betty's sexuality, that push the limits of how we perceive Latinas/os on television and in everyday life. As a result, Ugly Betty surprisingly illustrates Chicana/o and Latina/o feminist theories about identity construction. Pages: 28 - 61
Author: Adelina Anthony Title: Bruising For Besos Abstract: Bruising for Besos is the first solo play from Adelina Anthony's The Xiqana Xronicles a cycle of four plays, each dedicated to one of the four directions and created from a Xicana-Indígena, feminist, and queer platform. These plays are conceived by the artist as "offerings" to the directions, to our ancestors, to our communities of today and tomorrow, and more importantly, to her mother. In Anthony's words, "The cycle works to examine the intersections of multiple oppressions and to show a body metaphorically walking through a medicine wheel. While each play is meant to stand alone, the interconnectedness of the themes and storylines seek to create a larger web of meanings and questions around our survival as Chicanas/os. If story is medicine, then these plays work towards our necessary healing, and the rite of performance requires the audience as active witness." Anthony's artistic goal is to premiere one play every year until the cycle is complete. Notably, she will refrain from publishing the entire multiple play cycle that comprises The Xiqana Xronicles until all four plays have been performed. As each play is meant to stand alone yet also in community with the other plays, it may well be that the version of Bruising for Besospublished in this volume of C/LS will change depending on what the other stories in the cycle finally dictate. One of Anthony's aspirations is that together the works will challenge our sense of temporality; the audience might experience or enter the cycle at any point and participate in a memory-making of their choosing. Anthony says of the work, "I am writing these pieces with a personal and communal intention. They are first and foremost the offerings I promised my mother--that i would take the experience of what she and my family have survived (and also what we haven't survived) in order to make peace with the legacies of violence I inherited. But these are not necessarily auto-dramas; they are fiction; they are art; they are spirit work. These plays take up the knowledge of surviving domestic violence, and through the transgressive process of honest art-making, I allow the story to shape itself. And this is how it becomes part of the communal work. I know the stories touch upon the experiences of many of us. The recent staging of the work in Los Angeles confirmed that the communities I am writing for are also hungry for these voices and images. My hope as others read the text is that they imagine the world vividly and always remember that plays are not written for the sole purpose of the page--they must be performed. In the ephemeral space of performance, the transmission of shared energy creates a wholly sacred and cathartic experience, and it confirms that the solo work is never just about one individual." Dedicated to the West, Bruising for Besos begins in the place of death and with the examination of self. This print version is based on the world premier production in 2009. Fist of Wild Flowers, the second work in The Xiqana Xronicles multiple play cycle, will open in 2011. Bruising for Besos had its world premiere on February 20, 2009, at the Davidson/Valentini Theatre at the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center, under the guidance of Jon Imparato, the Director of the Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Center. It was directed by Rose Marcario; produced by Allison Moon, with dramaturgy by Jon Imparato, set design by Robert Selander, lighting design by John Pedone, sound design by D'Lo, music consultation by Lorenzo Herrera y Lozano, and costume design by Adelina Anthony. The stage manager was Michelle Born. Bruising for Besos was presented in workshop form in part or full at the following places from 2004-2008: Stanford University, University of California at Davis, University of California at Santa Cruz, La Peña Cultural Center, and allgo (a statewide queer people of color organization in Texas). The first incarnations of the script came out of Cherrie Moraga's playwriting courses, and she provided initial dramaturgy. Pages: 62 - 95
Authors: Ana M Juárez and Marta L Salazar Title: Commercializing Death and Desegregating Gender: Twentieth Century Funerary Practices in Central Tejas and the Boder Abstract: Based on several years of ethnographic research, including auto-ethnography, participant-observation, and interviews, we argue that social, political, and economic processes, especially the commercialization of funerary practices, have created changes in Mexican American families and gendered identities. During the early twentieth century, funerary practices occurred within a patriarchal family and were often divided by gender. As commercialization increased mid-century, some practices moved outside the family, with many tasks moving to a patriarchal and segregated mortuary industry. At the same time, women created new economic opportunities in the flower and grave decorating industry, and men increased their involvement in family-based cemetery visits. Although second-wave feminist theory suggests that increasing women's involvement in public business and men's involvement in private families would result in greater gender egalitarianism, our research suggests that this is not always the case. Instead, as third-space Chicana feminists have argued, social structures and practices such as race and class counter assumed equalizing effects and reproduce gender inequality. Pages: 98 - 139
Author: Dolores Zapata Murff Title: Elvira: A Testimonio on Employment and Sisterhood Abstract: none available Pages: 140 - 143
Author: Juanita Cabello Title: Josefina López' Hungry Woman In Paris (2009): A New Latina Chick Lit/Travel Narrative Abstract: none available Pages: 146 - 156
Author: Cindy Cruz Title: Gilda Ochoa's Learning From Latino Teachers (2007) Abstract: none available Pages: 158 - 161

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