Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Dear Elsa Flores,

I am pleased to have this great opportunity of writing to you. I have seen your work and in fact, I am currently working on a project that will reflect the outstanding work you have accomplished. I am writing this letter with the attempt to inform you of important information that has been gained through readings, lectures and research in my Chicanas /Latinas in the U.S. course. I would like to explain certain concepts that have been discussed in class through our readings.  In books titled Chicana Art: The Politics of Spiritual and Aesthetic Alterities by Laura E. Perez and Borderlands: The New Meztiza by Gloria Anzaldua I have constructed great interest in concepts like alterity, spiritual hybridity and cultural tyranny.  I would like to go in depth with these concepts and trace similarities found within my own identity.
In Chicana Art, Laura uses visual artworks produced by other Chicanas. She pays attributes to the diverse groups of artist whose post 1965 work have critiqued and re-imagined the intersecting empires of spirituality and politics. Perez focuses on representations of the "spiritual" which she defines largely as "the system of beliefs, institutionalized or not, about the nonmaterial component of human nature and/or the natural world that may encompass what in the Westernized world we describe as the divine, and about the life of the conscious and unconscious mind” (Perez, 2007).  The book honors artist’s creative and political re-imaginings of complex inherited religious symbolism. She uses religious symbols and artifacts to trace the significance of their meanings. It is through the “Body,Dress” and “Tierra, Land” that we get a better understanding of what Laura is implying. Laura describes how Chicana artists appeal to a culturally combination of spirituality to challenge racism and patriarchy. She makes use of the Mesoamerican and other non-western notions of art and art making to create a beneficial version of spirituality. She also brings about the Virgin of Guadalupe and the Sacred Heart. This completes the representation of spirituality and allusions to my cultural traditions. Her work and other Chicana artists mentioned in this book are essential contributions to my roots.

Laura Perez critiques highlight Chicana artists’ and their uses of spiritual symbols. They are seen as a method of fighting racism, sexism, and classism. She in fact sometimes highlights the religious traditions that have effected these systems. Alterity is seen in the reading as the sense of the other or “otherness” ( 2007). It is the ideal respective ness to cultural difference. Her examination is broad in range. She is found surrounding a wide range of visual media, including sculpture, lithograph, video, and clothing. Perez articulates the complex hybridity and historical "hauntings" present in these artists’ work. In doing so, her self consciousness creates her own "altar" to honor a previously-neglected individual . Her book gives emphasis to not only the variety contained within this subgenre, but also the comprehensive nature of spiritual experience itself. As an introduction to Chicana art or an interpretation of its themes and concepts for more scholars, Laura Perez brings about this piece.
In Borderlands: The New Mestiza by Gloria Anzaldua, history is traced back. She enacts in her own journey through her ancestors. Gloria shows the world of recitation through historical facts. The poetic interpretation of an ethnocentric Anglo historian’s vision of U.S. domination over Mexico is also caught. Anzaldua’s work is to unmake man-made “rules” (1987) in the traditional culture of “Cultural Tyranny” that “works against women.”  Anzaldua accepts “all parts of her identity, even those that clash,” including her Indian heritage, her status as a woman and a lesbian, and her life as a Chicana on the U.S. and Mexico border. She “breaks down dualities that serve to imprison women and by viewing “alterity as power.” She also “declares herself both male and female”. An acceptance of all parts of oneself leads the New Mestiza to “migrate” between parts of her. It is “between knowing herself…not knowing who or what she is…and the fear of not owning who she is…She is all of the above, a woman without an official history and the woman who constructs her own historical legacy. Anzaldua offers a book that defines this New Mestiza Consciousness, “a feminist consciousness, one that goes beyond filiations.”  She “as a mestiza I have no country…as a lesbian I have no race” (1987)
Throughout the identity of the “New Mestiza”, I was able to identify with the traditional culture of the cultural tyranny and how it worked against me.  I have witnessed the man made rules as Anzaldua explains and I have become a part of the rules. The tyranny within the traditional culture is the inability to speak and to be heard. Similarities were brought within both of us. I felt that as I read her work I reflected upon my own experiences and struggles. There is in fact a cultural tyranny present in the lives of the “ New Mestizas” I call it Mestizas in plural because her experiences and my own are not unique. It is the idea that one can escape which allows me and other Chicanas to rebel and contradict ones culture.
Anzaldua who in the book is both  a woman and a Chicana, grew up in an atmosphere of oppression and confusion. The atmosphere is also a landscape where the question arose as to, “who am I?” This question of course is not easily answered. The restrictions are seen to be placed by cultural institutions, for all their self-importance to protection and aim to suffocate. It is also interpreted that though the “rules” imposed in our oppressed culture, men are to be listened to. I t is “the culture nad the church that insist that women are subservient to males.” (Anzaldua, pg.39) When regarding our voices, the being submissive includes obeying without question and keeping silent.

When raising the question of who am I? I came about the realization that living in the border of two different cultures and where one seems to oppress my person, I myself need to find who I am. I write to you to inform you that works like yours, Perez, Anzaldua and many other chicana artists allow that other side of us to reveal. It was not through the Chicana Art text that I noticed the significance and meaning of otherness. It is tracing back the politics of the spiritual of the chicanos/as that link us to the meaning of cultural difference. It is then more the significance to understand the spiritual paralyzing nostalgia and the cultural discontinuities that characterize a lot of the Chicano culture. These artists characterize the importance of remembrance to understand the work of women. Laura Perez does a great job in developing the outlook of such great artists and drawing the connections to our traditions. It is by re-imagining and formulating the beliefs and practices passed down through our culture, that I can maintain consciousness to reintegrate a spiritual mind.  
In the reading Borderlands: A New Mestiza, I was introduced to a great artist as well. This artist introduced herself with the verses of a famous Mexican group. Gloria then follows by giving a description of where she comes from and her awareness of her land and her ancestors. I drew a lot of connections with Gloria for various reasons. First, the sense of not being accepted and the cultural tyranny in which I am in. I found to appeal to her and I found myself nodding as I read. I understand the significance ones culture and tradition has on us. It is even more difficult when my parents traditions and customs are being imposed in a country where they are being oppressed. It is then where as Anzaldua stated a sense of confusion that also arose. I am to obey and follow the traditions which have been imposed to my family for generations, but what then can occur when you don’t agree to them. What can I then conclude when I am found lost in this land? Anzaldua is a Mestiza, but a “new” one. She rebelled and went against what was imposed, and I have felt to do the same. I respect the traditions and customs, but refuse to submit to all. I am an independent and self reliant person whom should not have only one road to follow, but many.
I would like to conclude by thanking you for giving the opportunity to inform you of what has been discussed in my class. I would also like to thank you for being a great Chicana artist. You, Gloria and Laura represent the Chicanas here in the United States, which is our land.

Sincerely, Esmeralda