On June 1, 1990, Bishop Rene H. Gracida of the Diocese of Corpus Christi issued a decree to director of Reproductive Services Inc., Rachel Vargas, banning her from receiving church sacraments such as communion, holy matrimony, and a Christian burial for her support of abortion. In the decree, Bishop Gracida explained, “Your [Vargas] cooperation in procuring abortions is a sin against God and humanity and against the laws of the Roman Catholic Church. The value of human life must always be protected in the Christian community and society at large.” Vargas responded by calling herself “a good Christian and a good Catholic” and stating, “…I’m just more committed to the issue of choice. What I believe does not guarantee me a place in hell.” …show more content…
As a Mexican-American woman, feminist, and Catholic, Vargas’s case represents the devastating reality many religious women face when confronting women’s issues that conflict with church interest. Some women, similar to Vargas, continue to practice their religion despite ostracism, while other women sever their relationship with the church, or continue to allow the church to influence their decisions. Limited research examining the complex relationship between religion and Mexican American women exist, especially within a feminist context. Mexican-American women, or Chicanas, who are traditionally Catholic, challenged the patriarchal system of the Church and its inherent influence on Mexican culture by attempting to reconstruct the popular religious and cultural image of the Virgin of Guadalupe from an oppressive figure to a feminist icon in their quest for equality, sexual liberation, and reproductive rights at the height of Chicana feminism. Chicana feminism developed in the 1960s and 1970s, during a time of social movements established across the United States focusing on varying aspects of inequality such as race and gender. The Chicano movement, or el movimiento, established during the late 1960s, attempted to enforce civil rights for Mexican-American citizens. Influenced by the black civil rights movement, Chicanos demanded voting rights, equal job and educational opportunities, and restoration of land grants. Despite the progressive attitudes of the Chicano Movement and the Civil Rights Movement, sexism existed within each organization. For Chicanos, they believed Chicanas must remain at home and only participate in the movement when needed for organizing and cooking at events. Chicanas desired much more than a domestic role in their crusade for racial equality; they demanded leadership roles and respect from their male counterparts. Influenced by the United States’ women’s movement for gender equality, Chicanas developed their own consciousness and aspired freedom from cultural sex roles not only plaguing the Chicano Movement but their everyday life. In their developed consciousness, Chicanas discover they no longer desire a limited role as mother. Instead, they aspire for a higher education and establishing a career. They want to delay motherhood for a few years, and will determine when and how many children to conceive, not the Catholic Church. Chicana feminist, Martha P. Cotera illustrates in her book Diosa y Hembra: The History and Heritage of Chicanas in the U.S. the limiting role Chicanas played in society, “The Indian woman then, like the Chicana today, was exhorted about staying home, being a housewife, and in general concerned about little else except home, church, and the family.” Because of this, Chicanas avidly supported birth control and abortion, and they implored ideas of the sexual revolution occurring in the women’s movement to their own struggles. For so long, their Catholic heritage suppressed reproductive rights and sexuality as an attempt to control women. The Catholic Church plays an important role in the Mexican American community because the majority of Chicanos considered themselves Catholic, but more importantly because Catholicism remains inherent in Chicano culture.
Chicano men incorporated the church’s dominance over women into their life at home. Carmen M. del Río in her article “The Virgin of Guadalupe Revisited: Religion, Culture, Sexuality in the Works of Chicana/Latina Writers” details the entanglement of religion and culture, “These Chicana/Mexicana writers' devastating critique of the Catholic Church, of institutionalized religion, extends to their own Culture…as well as their experiential, popular culture, which fully embraced and internalized these beliefs and put them to full use in its pursuit of male supremacy and domination of women…Since the Church proved to be the institution par excellence to keep women in line, it is no wonder that many men in Chicana/Mexicana cultures have traditionally insisted that their women go to church, pray, be pious and reverent, even when they themselves may never step in a …show more content…
church.” Because of the interplay between religion and culture and the Church’s influence on the community, Chicanas publicly challenged the church in their fight for reproductive rights and an open sexuality. Some Chicanas, such as columnist for the newspaper El Grito del Norte based in New Mexico, Enriqueta Vasquez, expressed the need to immediately start on transforming the church, “Let’s clarify issues. Shall we worry, for example, about the fact that Jesus Christ was a man and the Bible is written by men, or do we get down to business and face the Catholic Church (90 per cent of us are Catholic) for putting guilt chains on us, instead of letting us know how truly spiritual we are?” Vasquez continues in her article about the plaguing issue of sex in the Chicano community, “And what of our culture as to sex?
We seem afraid to talk of sex and womanly functions.” Del Río, in her article, also examines the dynamics of sexuality and religiosity by focusing on writer Sandra Cisneros. Cisneros, as a Catholic, faced the issue of a suppressed sexuality, “Religion and our culture, our culture and religion, helped create that blur, a vagueness about what went on "down there.” So ashamed was I about my own "down there" that until I was an adult I had no idea I had another orifice called the vagina. . . How could I acknowledge my sexuality, let alone enjoy sex, with so much guilt? In the guise of modesty my culture locked me in a double chastity belt of ignorance and vergüenza,
shame.” Chicanas, outraged by the suppression and oppression created by the Catholic church, officially outlined resolutions against the institution during the first National Chicana conference held in Houston, TX in 1971. Featured in a small book of about sixteen pages titled Chicanas Speak Out, the resolutions from the conference along with a statement from Elma Barrera and an article written by Mirta Vidal describe the events of the Chicana Conference. Vidal, in her article “Women: New Voice of La Raza,” summarizes the Chicanas push for equality and their challenge to all oppressive institutions including the Catholic Church, “With their growing involvement in the struggle for Chicano liberation and the emergence of the feminist movement, Chicanas are beginning to challenge every social institution which contributes to and is responsible for their oppression, from inequality on the job to their role in the home. They are questioning "machismo," discrimination in education, the double standard, the role of the Catholic Church, and all the backward ideology designed to keep women subjugated.” Organizer of the first National Chicana Conference, Elma Barrera, opened the Chicana workshop with a statement expounding on the Church’s role suppressing women’s access to birth control and abortion, “You know, it's really funny the way that the Church has . . . grasped onto this "sinful" thing about abortion and birth control. It's really funny how the laws only apply to the woman and not to the man. . . . Chicano men . . . fool around, have mistresses, and yet, when it comes to abortion or birth control with their wives, it's a sin. . . .” Birth control and abortion comprised a large portion of the workshop’s resolutions as it weaved itself into the larger conversation of sexuality. On the topic of sexuality, Chicanas wrote,
Catholicism glorifies and portrays mothers as the main foundation of the family through the example of the passive and unconditional loving Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ. This idea of mothers as unconditional loving beings has been passed on and reproduced in the Chicana/o community. Gil Cuadros and Reyna Grande, through their autobiographical work, testify against this predominate idea of mothers being always caring and loving persons. Even though most mothers fall into the norm of a normal mother, normality is subjective; therefore Cuadros and Grande’s work represent the complexities of reality. Grande’s The Distance Between Us and Cuadro’s City of God are autobiographical narratives that incorporate reality as a form of testimonial of existence, an act of healing and resilience.
Sandra Cisneros once said “'Hispanic' is English for a person of Latino origin who wants to be accepted by the white status quo. ’Latino' is the word we have always used for ourselves.” In the novel I read, The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros the main character a twelve-year-old Chicana (Mexican-American girl), Esperanza, saw self-definition as a struggle, this was a major theme in the novel through Esperanza’s actions and the ones around her. Esperanza tries to find identity in herself as a women as well as an artist throughout the novel through her encounters. Esperanza was able to provide the audience an image that was vivid of her surroundings by her diction and tone. Esperanza presents a series of stories that she deals with in her neighborhood as she is growing up. Esperanza arose from poverty and always dreamt of having a house of her own. Sandra Cisneros' strong cultural and gender values have a tremendous influence in The House on Mango Street. Cisneros feels that the Mexican-American community is very abusive towards the treatment of women because men are seen as the powerful, strong figure. Women are seen as failure and can’t strive without men in a Mexican-American community. In this novel you can see a cultural approach which examines a particular aspect of a culture and a gender studies approach which examines how literature either perpetuates or challenges gender stereotypes.
Torres, Hector Avalos. 2007. Conversations with Contemporary Chicana and Chicano Writers. U.S.: University of New Mexico press, 315-324.
The grandmother holds a special place in the family for that reason. Women organize feast days, celebrate rituals and offer prayers. The mother sets up the alter in the home where prayers are offered for the living and the dead. She makes the home a domestic church. Hispanic women are the evangelizers and teachers of values, yet their leadership has often gone unrecognized.
Delgadillo, Theresa. "Forms of Chicana Feminist Resistance: Hybrid Spirituality in Ana Castillo's So Far From God."Modern Fiction Studies. 44.4 (1998): 888-914. Delgadillo, Theresa. "Forms of Chicana Feminist Resistance: Hybrid Spirituality in Ana Castillo's So Far From God."Modern Fiction Studies. 44.4 (1998): 888-914. .
The traditions my parents instilled in me at a young age are important to me. They are part of my Latin culture and identity. One of the most important traditions that I value the most is our devotion to “La Virgen de Guadalupe” (The Virgin of Guadalupe), and although I don't go to church or share a specific a religion, I believe in La Virgen as a protector and a guardian figure and maintain her presence in my daily life.
For most of the people in the Spanish-speaking world, religion is a large part of daily life, and a large percentage of those people are Catholics. According to America Magazine, in 2010, the largest population of Catholics in the world resided in Latin America and the Caribbean. Mexico has the second-largest Catholic population of any country in the world, with 85 percent of its residents identifying themselves as practicing Catholicism (Catholic). One of the main beliefs of the Catholic faith is the sanctity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of Jesus Christ.
The Lady of Guadalupe is a huge part of the Mexican tradition, and how many people look up to her in a very godly way. She is important, because she reminds people of their appreciation for their own cultures, along with the other cultures that are all over the world. The Lady of Guadalupe is someone that is the exact replica of the Virgin Mary. But, the only difference is, is that the Virgin Mary is a saint that is represented in the European culture, and the Lady of Guadalupe in the Aztec and Native culture of Mexico. The lady of Guadalupe is a positive influence on different religions, especially Christianity.
Moraga, Cherrie. “Queer Aztlan: the Reformation of Chicano Tribe,” in The Color of Privilege 1996, ed Aida Hurtado. Ann Arbor: University Michigan Press, 1996.
The role of strong female roles in literature is both frightening to some and enlightening to others. Although times have changed, Sandra Cisneros’ stories about Mexican-American women provide a cultural division within itself that reflects in a recent time. The cultural themes in Cisneros’s stories highlight the struggle of women who identify with Mexican-American heritage and the struggle in terms of living up to Mexican culture – as a separate ethnic body. The women in Sandra Cisneros’ stories are struggling with living up to identities assigned to them, while trying to create their own as women without an ethnic landscape. In Sandra Cisneros’ stories “Woman Hollering Creek: and “Never Marry a Mexican” the role of female identities that are conflicted are highlighted, in that they have to straddle two worlds at once as Mexican-American women.
Writing in the 20th century was great deal harder for a Chicano then it was for a typical American at this time. Although that did not stop this author, Sandra Cisneros. One of her famous novels, Woman Hollering Creek was a prime example of how a combined culture: Mexican-Americans, could show their pride and identity in this century. In conjunction, gave the opportunity for women to speak their voice and forever change the culture of Latino/a markets. Not only did it express identity/gender roles of women and relationships, but using these relationships to combine the cultures of Mexican and American into a hybrid breed. This novel, should have been a view-point for the future to show that there is more to life than just gender and race. Concluding this, the articles that helps define this is “The Latino/a Canon and the Emergence of Post-Sixties Literature” and “What is called Heaven”.
Gonzalez, Araceli. “Discussion #2.” Chicano Studies 10. University of California Davis. Wellman 229. 8 October 2013.
Catholicism glorifies and represents mothers as the main foundation of the family through the example of the passive and unconditional loving Mary, the mother of Jesus Crist. This idea of the mother as unconditional lover beings has been passed on and reproduced in the Chicana/o community. Gil Cuadros and Reyna Grande through their autobiographical work testify against this predominate idea of the mothers being caring and loving persons. Even though most mothers fall into the norm of a normal mother, normality is subjective, therefore Cuadros and Grande’s work represent the complexities of reality. Grande’s The Distance Between Us and Cuadro’s City of God are autobiographical narratives that incorporate reality as a form of testimonial of existence, an act of healing and resilience. Given that these author’s life experiences can be
... decades ago. This book is one that will allow the reader to view many aspects of sexuality from a social standpoint, and apply it to certain social attitudes in our society today, these attitudes can range from the acceptance of lesbian and gays, and the common sight of sex before marriage and women equality. The new era of sexuality has taken a definite "transformation" as Giddens puts it, and as a society we are living in the world of change in which we must adapt, by accepting our society as a changing society, and not be naive and think all the rules of sexuality from our parents time our still in existence now.
Sexuality has become one of the key determining factors in one’s gender. While many want to initially say that gender is solely based on sexual orientation fail to take in to account many cultural practices, which not only influence gender, but create certain gender roles. The initial creation of Mexican gender roles, as Gloria Gonzalez-Lopez suggests, is the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church “over the course of almost five hundred years,” created beliefs that virgins are desirable and that a non-virgin is of a lower moral class (38). From this Mexican women began maintaining their virginity, not because of the moral implications, but because of social mobility. Virginity has been created to be something beautif...