Synopses & Reviews
A Xicana Codex of Changing Consciousness features essays and poems by Cherrandiacute;e L. Moraga, one of the most influential figures in Chicana/o, feminist, queer, and indigenous activism and scholarship. Combining moving personal stories with trenchant political and cultural critique, the writer, activist, teacher, dramatist, mother, daughter,
comadre, and lesbian lover looks back on the first ten years of the twenty-first century. She considers decade-defining public events such as 9/11 and the campaign and election of Barack Obama, and she explores socioeconomic, cultural, and political phenomena closer to home, sharing her fears about raising her son amid increasing urban violence and the many forms of dehumanization faced by young men of color. Moraga describes her deepening grief as she loses her mother to Alzheimerandrsquo;s; pays poignant tribute to friends who passed away, including the sculptor Marsha Gandoacute;mez and the poets Alfred Arteaga, Pat Parker, and Audre Lorde; and offers a heartfelt essay about her personal and political relationship with Gloria Anzaldanduacute;a.
Thirty years after the publication of Anzaldanduacute;a and Moragaandrsquo;s collection This Bridge Called My Back, a landmark of women-of-color feminism, Moragaandrsquo;s literary and political praxis remains motivated by and intertwined with indigenous spirituality and her identity as Chicana lesbian. Yet aspects of her thinking have changed over time. A Xicana Codex of Changing Consciousness reveals key transformations in Moragaandrsquo;s thought; the breadth, rigor, and philosophical depth of her work; her views on contemporary debates about citizenship, immigration, and gay marriage; and her deepening involvement in transnational feminist and indigenous activism. It is a major statement from one of our most important public intellectuals.
Review
andldquo;Cherrandiacute;e Moragaandrsquo;s A Xicana Codex of Changing Consciousness is a hope fulfilled. After the passing of Gloria Anzaldanduacute;a, Chicana/o studies suffered something like an eclipse of the moon but here comes radical, creative light into our lives and scholarship once more. Moragaandrsquo;s intellectual and emotional courage about sexuality, race, queerness, and feminist energy shows us that Barack Obama and all Americans also live in the time of Latinos and Xicanas. Underlying these essays is the creative question andlsquo;how can this new demography of many colors and genders be cultivated into a new democracy?andrsquo;andrdquo;andmdash;Davandiacute;d Carrasco, author of Religions of Mesoamerica: Cosmovision and Ceremonial Centers
Review
andldquo;andlsquo;I am no prophet, only a witness to the writing already on the wall that divides my own native homelandandrsquo; says Cherrandiacute;e Moraga in the opening of her contemporary codex. Moraga speaks directly, as a powerful voice of a pivotal generation, a generation that is aging and coming to terms with its urgent, collective story. This political memoir in essays is a testimony to the awakening of an indigenous consciousness that has been disappeared in the memory of colonized Americas. The collection is blessed by the drawings of Celia Herrera Rodrandiacute;guez. They provide the ceremonial flow. They represent the voices of the plants, earth and elements that give dreaming to the human mind. What a powerful offering in a time of reckoning.andrdquo;andmdash;Joy Harjo, Mvskoke Nation, poet, musician, performer, playwright
Review
andldquo;Moragaandrsquo;s prose is characteristically trenchant and her stance unapologetic as ever. But there is a tender quality of reflection here, too, even nostalgia, that strikes a new note. . . . [T]he sense of trying to hang on to, to remember, something vanishing is palpable in this book. It is a posture that Moraga strikes superbly, and the result is a strong articulation of resistance and, yes, hope, from one of the most important queer Chicana intellectuals of our time.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Nostalgia, evolving consciousness, and the concept of (w)riting andndash;writing to remember / making rite to remember / having the right to rememberandndash;lyrically permeate the pages of this book. Moragaandrsquo;s ideas have matured and become more profound with the passage of time; I look forward to reading more of her eloquent resistance and wisdom in the coming years.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;This is an overall compelling, timely, and on many fronts, prophetic read. There is just enough background discourse on Chicana feminist thought and history for those uninitiated readers, and many new critical reflections and insights for the more seasoned readers wondering what this author has to offer since her last influential work. Both will potentially walk away from this book with an overdue sense of indignation, as well as a sense of hope that within the burgeoning nest of Chicana consciousness and social activism, lies the golden egg of a just, social democracy in the United States.andrdquo; - Christiane Grimal, GRAAT Anglophone Studies
Review
andldquo;A Xicana Codex reminds readers about the contributions women of color have made to feminist inquiry. . . . The book is a must for everyone, especially those interested in the intersections informing transnational women of color feminist practice.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;While I may turn to other writings for cultural criticism, Moraga provides what I have not been able to find on any other front: an indigenous Xicana path that insists on transgression as a political and spiritual imperative in a national environment whose core values are corrupt.andrdquo;
Synopsis
Collection of essays and poems that address the challenges of being a Chicana, a lesbian, and a feminist in the changing world of the twenty-first century.
About the Author
Cherrandiacute;e L. Moraga is an award-winning playwright, poet, essayist, and activist. She is the author of Loving in the War Years and co-editor, with Gloria Anzaldanduacute;a, of This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. Moraga is a founding member of La RED Xicana Indandiacute;gena, a network of Xicana activists committed to indigenous political education, spiritual practice, and grassroots organizing. She is an Artist-in-Residence in the Drama Department at Stanford University, where she also teaches in the Program in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity.
Table of Contents
Drawings by Celia Herrera Rodrand#237;guez xiii
Prand#243;logo: A Living Codex xv
Agradecimentos xix
A Xicana Lexicon xxi
One. Existo Yo
A XicanaDyke Codex of Changing Consciousness 3
From Inside the First World: On 9/11 and Women-of-Color Feminism 18
An Irrevocable Promise: Staging the Story Xicana 34
Two. The Warring Inside
What Is Left of Us 49
MeXicana Blues 51
Weapons of the Weak: On Fear and Political Resistance 54
California Dreaming 73
Cuento Xicano 76
Indand#237;gena as Scribe: The (W)rite to Remember 79
The Altar of My Undoing 97
Three. Salt of the Earth
Aguas Sagradas 105
And It Is All These Things That Are Our Grief: Eulogy for Marsha Gand#243;mez 107
Poetry of Heroism: A Tribute to Audre Lorde and Pat Parker 111
The Salt That Cures: Remembering Gloria Anzaldand#250;a 116
Four. The Price of Beans
South Central Farmers 133
The Other Face of (Im)migration: In Conversation with West Asian Feminists 135
Floricanto 146
Modern-Day Malinches 148
What's Race Gotta Do With It? On the Election of Barack Obama 151
This Benighted Nation We Name Home: On the Fortieth Anniversary of Ethnic Studies 163
Still Loving in the (Still) War Years: On Keeping Queer Queer 175
Epand#237;logo: Xicana Mind, Beginner Mind 193
Appendix: Sola, Pero Bien Acompaand#241;ada: The Art of Celia Herrera Rodrand#237;guez 201
Notes 209
Bibliography 229
Index 237