Entry Question
What topics from the second half of the semester would you like to engage with for the final project? Do you want to propose a question?
Theory in the Flesh
Poet, playwright, and cultural activist Cherrie Moraga proposes that theory in the flesh means a theory “where the physical realities of our lives- our skin color, the land or concrete we grew up on, our sexual longings- all fuse to create a politic born out of necessity.” Theory in the flesh happens when “we do this bridging by naming ourselves and by telling the stories in our own words.” Moraga explains that it implies the “refusal of the easy explanation to the conditions we live in.”
What are the conditions Mosquita y Mari live in?
Oral/slide Presentations
Group Discussion
Select ONE of these quotes from Cherríe Moraga’s essay and discuss the parallelism with the personal essay and the socio-economic circumstances portrayed in Mosquita y Mari.
.”I was educated, and wore it with a keen sense of pride and satisfaction, my head propped up with the knowledge, from my mother, that my life would be easier than hers.” (23)
.”And yet, the real story was that my family, too, had been poor (some still are), and farmworkers. My mother can remember this in her blood as if it was yesterday. But this is something she would like to forget (and rightfully), for to her, on a basic economic level, being Chicana means being less.” (23)
. “It was through my mother’s desire to protect her children from poverty and illiteracy that we became “anglocized” the more effectively we could pass in the white world, the better guaranteed our future.” (23)
.”I had no choice but to enter into the life of my mother. I had no choice. I took her life into my heart, but managed to keep a lid on it as long as I feigned being the happy, upwardly mobile heterosexual.” (23)
.”My lesbianism is the avenue through which I have learned the most about silence and oppression… in this country, lesbianism is a poverty- as is being brown, as is being a woman, as is being just plain poor.” (23-4)
.”We women have a similar nightmare, for each of us in some way has been both oppressed and the oppressor. We are afraid to look at how we have failed each other. We are afraid to see how we have taken the values of our oppressor into our hearts and turned them against ourselves and one another.” (27)
This coming-of-age film follows a pair of Chicana teens who develop a profound relationship against the backdrop of Southeast Los Angeles. When straight-A student Yolanda — aka Mosquita decides to help struggling girl Mari with her homework an intense friendship and queer affection evolve between the two.
Selena is a biopic of the Grammy Award-winning South Texas singer whose life tragically ended just as she was taking Tejano music into mainstream US America, México, and Latin America. The movie uses Selena’s voice in the soundtrack and is a representation of her most famous live concerts. Made with her family participation, the film focuses on her upbringing as a Chicana and her family member’s negotiations with their desire of keeping their heritage alive and achieving success in the US.
