La Chicana: The Mexican-american Woman

This book is about the women who have had to deal with the barrio dudes, with the Angelo pioneers who called them whores, with the parents who urged them to emulate the Virgin of Guadalupe. Evangelina and Alfredo mount an astoundingly thorough exploration of the sociological and historical influences that have formed the Chicana of today.

"La Chicana" is the story of a marginal group in society, neither fully Mexican or fully American, who suffer under triple oppression: as women, as members of a colonized culture, and as victims of a cultural heritage dominated by the cult of "machismo," Tracing the role of Chicanas from pre-Columbian society to the present, the authors reveal the antecedents and roots of contemporary cultural expectations in Aztec, colonial, and revolutionary Mexican historical periods. A discussion of the contribution of modern Chicanas to their community and to feminism and a look at literary stereotypes and the emergence of Chicana literature to counter them round out this perceptive and sympathetic analysis.