Chicana Poetry and Analysis:

While political discourse and feminist literature played considerable roles in the Chicana
Feminist movement, Chicana also expressed their ideals and dissatisfactions through poetry.
While it takes more abstract route, poetry provides readers with an emotional connection with
the writer, and inevitably, the movement itself. The poetry of Chicanas fosters a sense of
identity and solidarity with its readers, and provides the author with a creative outlet.
Distinguished writers such as Ana Castillo have used poetry to supplement their cause and
present a personal insight.
Chicanas in Literature: Chicanas have used literature as a means of activism and
expression. In her book Home Girls, Alvina E. Quintana states that Chicana literature crosses
disciplinary boundaries because it unifies the cultural, historical, and literary in a way that
forces scholars to confront the limitations of artificial barriers. With this, Quintana is
asserting that literary works give a more cohesive perspective on the issues and theories of
Chicanas. Ana Castillo is a well-known author in both the Chicana community and abroad. As
one of the most renowned Chicana writers, Castillo has penned prolific poetry, novels, and
short stories regarding the Chicana experience. Other contemporary Chicana writers include
Sandra Cisneros, Helena Maria Viramontes, and Michelle Serros.
Gloria E. Anzalda was a queer Chicana poet, writer, and feminist theorist. Her poems and
essays explore the anger and isolation of occupying the margins of culture and collective
identity. Anzalda has been awarded the Lambda Lesbian Small Book Press Award, a Sappho
Award of Distinction, and an NEA Fiction Award, among others. She is the author of several
books of poetry, non-fiction, and childrens fiction. Her book, Borderlands/La Frontera: The
New Mestiza (1987) and her essay, La Prieta, are considered to be groundbreaking works in
cultural, feminist, and queer theories. With Cherre Moraga, Anzalda co-edited This Bridge
Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (1981).
Chicanas in Literature: Chicanas have used literature as a means of activism and
expression. In her book Home Girls, Alvina E. Quintana states that Chicana literature crosses
disciplinary boundaries because it unifies the cultural, historical, and literary in a way that
forces scholars to confront the limitations of artificial barriers. With this, Quintana is
asserting that literary works give a more cohesive perspective on the issues and theories of
Chicanas. Ana Castillo is a well-known author in both the Chicana community and abroad. As
one of the most renowned Chicana writers, Castillo has penned prolific poetry, novels, and
short stories regarding the Chicana experience. Other contemporary Chicana writers include
Sandra Cisneros, Helena Maria Viramontes, and Michelle Serros.
Below is another poem by Gloria Anzaldua.

This poem, also, expresses the

mentality of women attempting to be in all cultures at once. In the first line

Anzaldua makes clear that a woman cannot define herself as one race or
another. She reveals that a woman cannot deny all of the parts of her past
that make her who she is.

Minority women are a part of the women of the

world and cannot be left out of womens rights movements, just as a woman
cannot simply overlook the races that make up her being. This poem, also, uses
both Spanish and English to show that the languages can combine to make one
poem, just as women can combine to work for the rights of all women.