Queer Aztlan Summary

In the book ”Queer Aztlan: The Re-formation of Chicano Tribe” written by Cherrie Moraga, she mentioned the Mexican border. The American army captures the Mexican capital in 1847, and the Mexican border was created in 1848 in order to let the Mexicans away their homeland which is lost at Mexican-American War. Moraga thinks there is a border between male and female, the male using the female but don’t give them help. Moraga also mentioned, “In a queer Aztlan, there would be no freaks, no others to point one’s finger at” (Moraga 235). This was talk about the fictional border.

In the book ”Naturalizing Mexican Immigrants: A Texas History”, Menchaca mentioned that “The making of the U.S.-Mexico border began with international disputes over where

Texas territory began and ended” (Menchaca 16). The border is a country construction to differentiates different country. This border is a real barrier.

In the book “Recovering History, Constructing Race” was also written by Martha Menchaca, she talks about the border in a different way. She mentioned that border is fictional. This fictional border was between the races and “solely benefitted white people”. Because of this fictional border, Chicano was classified as the lower class people with no privileged. This border redefined the relation between humans. This was a reason that why Chicano movement occurred because the Chicano want to fight the oppression. They don’t want other people to define them, they want to know who they are by themselves.

Through our reading, the border was represented in two ways which are real and fictional. In both cases, the border was build because they want to differentiate a group, people. All these three representations help us to define the Chicano identity and category. And then, those people are against with their civil rights. The Chicano movement was to break down the real and fictional borders to get them more chances.