In Gloria Anzaldúa’s essay “Speaking in Tongues: A Letter to 3rd World Women Writers”, she discusses the agency that comes with writing as well as some of the difficulties that may come with writing for third world women of color. Throughout the Chicano and Puerto Rican movements, writing has proved to be a source of agency and conflict for those involved, particularly women. Both groups of activists, Chicano nationalists and the members of the Young Lords Party, discussed the importance of education reform. The criticisms of education are intersectional with the difficulties of writing faced by third world women of color discussed by Anzaldúa.
In her deeply personal essay, Anzaldúa claims that writing for women of color is one of the few …show more content…
The Chicano movement was a “full-fledged transformation of the way Mexican Americans thought, played politics, and promoted their culture.” (Garcia, 8). It was a “body of ideas, strategies, tactics, and rationalizations that a community uses to respond to external challenges… not so much a singular social process as a coalescing of numerous philosophical and historical currents…” (Garcia, 4). The Chicano movement consisted of four phases; 1) A critique of assimilation in the United States (Garcia, 19) 2) An interpretation of the past, a need for a legacy, and a sense of peoplehood (Garcia, 11-12), 3) An emphasis on celebrating the indigenous past, and an embrace of racial pride (Garcia, 12) 4) Finally, development of parties, platforms, and manifestos (Garcia 12-13). The last phase is important for examining the intersectionality between Chicano activists and Anzaldúa’s third world women writers. The last phase of the Chicano movement led to the development of the Plan Espiritual de Aztlan, a pro-indigenous manifesto that criticized “the brutal “gringo” invasion of (their) territories” and advocated Chicano nationalism and self-determination. They called for a complete reformation of the educational system education relative to their culture, such as proper historical representation of their people and bilingual
In her deeply personal essay, Anzaldúa claims that writing for women of color is one of the few …show more content…
The Chicano movement was a “full-fledged transformation of the way Mexican Americans thought, played politics, and promoted their culture.” (Garcia, 8). It was a “body of ideas, strategies, tactics, and rationalizations that a community uses to respond to external challenges… not so much a singular social process as a coalescing of numerous philosophical and historical currents…” (Garcia, 4). The Chicano movement consisted of four phases; 1) A critique of assimilation in the United States (Garcia, 19) 2) An interpretation of the past, a need for a legacy, and a sense of peoplehood (Garcia, 11-12), 3) An emphasis on celebrating the indigenous past, and an embrace of racial pride (Garcia, 12) 4) Finally, development of parties, platforms, and manifestos (Garcia 12-13). The last phase is important for examining the intersectionality between Chicano activists and Anzaldúa’s third world women writers. The last phase of the Chicano movement led to the development of the Plan Espiritual de Aztlan, a pro-indigenous manifesto that criticized “the brutal “gringo” invasion of (their) territories” and advocated Chicano nationalism and self-determination. They called for a complete reformation of the educational system education relative to their culture, such as proper historical representation of their people and bilingual