Queer Aztlan essays

Queer Aztlan essays When one is raised in a Latin family, they are brought up with certain traditions and most importantly certain morals. And being a gay or lesbian is one of those morals, which one should never challenge. In the essay of Queer Aztlan, Cherrie Moraga explains the struggle she went through to find her self in a community that would not accept her kind. At the fore front of the Chicano movement, Cherrie was very eager to find her place. She knew that her voice was strong; the only hard part was that she wanted to express her views not only as young Chicana, but of a lesbian Chicana. In the essay Cherrie talks about the chicano movement and how it was a machismo dominated movement. The feminist voice was not heard, and openly gay men and lesbians were not accepted. Many critics believe that the movement died out in the seventies, but as Cherrie explains El movimiento did not die out in the seventies; it was only deformed by the machismo and homophobia of that era. At the time in the world AIDS was the big story on the news, and it seemed as though the media portrayed AIDS as a disease carried only by gay men. With the way the chiano community viewed gays and lesbians, Cherrie felt that there was no way she could address how she felt within in this barricaded community. The other main point Cherrie brings are her feelings towards Aztlan (Homeland). To her Aztlan gave language to a nameless anhelo inside me, Aztlan seemed like the heart of Chicano nationalism; the right to control there resources, language, and cultural traditions, these were the rights guaranteed to the people by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. She felt that the rights guaranteed were never rights at all, Aztlan was now in the hands of the Anglo, and the once sacred land; would never be sacred again. One could only agree with Cherrie as the theory of land is power was put to action after the Mexican-Ame ...