Reference no: EM133321181

Question: Tell me your understandings of the word "Chicana". Who is a Chicana? What does it mean to be a Chicana? Lastly, describe Mirandé and Enrique's description of Chicanas experiencing triple oppression. Make sure to explain your answers clearly.

Case Study: The Triple Oppression of Chicanas as Colonized Women Perhaps the unique characteristic of the Chicana is in the nature of her triple oppression. Chicanas suffer more than the double oppression of women who are members of a colonized group; they are also internally oppressed. As noted earlier, Chicanas are part of an economically and politically exploited colony. They are victims of attempted cultural genocide as the dominant group has sought insidiously to destroy Chicano culture and render its institutions subordinate and dependent. Chicanos, however, have resisted assimilation, and, as we shall show, women have played a critical part in this resistance. The second form of oppression results from their gender. As women, Chicanas experi- ence the universal oppression that comes from being female. Although references to female-dominant matriarchies are common, in reality such societies are rare, if not nonexistent. Despite vast cross-cultural differ- ences in the status accorded women, in most societies, past and present, they have been subordinate to men (see Rosaldo and Lamphere 1974, p. 13). Even in matrilineal society, "the woman is never anything more than the symbol of her lineage. Matrilineal descent is the authority of the woman's father or brother extended to the brother-in-law's village" (Levi-Strauss 1969, p. 116). Thus, although group placement runs through the female line in matrilineal descent groups, authority still runs through the male line (Schneider and Gough 1961, p. 7). Finally, Chicanas carry an additional burden of internal oppression by a cul- tural heritage that tends to be dominated by males and exaggerates male 240 Seven Women will be heard above other minorities. Women-white women -the wives, lovers and mothers of those in power, of course will be heard above the clamor of male and female minorities" (Cotera 1972, p. 25). Since white women were less of a threat to white men than either Chicanos or Chicanas, they were more likely to be accepted and incorporated when minority restrictions were lowered. White women were hired before Chicano men, who in turn were hired before Chicanas (Nieto-Gomez 1974, p. 42; Sosa Riddell 1974, p: 162). Why should a Chicana support the Anglo women's movement if she was still the last to be hired and the first to be fired? To her it made little differ- ence if she was unemployed because she was a woman or because she was a Chicana.