With Her Machete in Her Hand: Reading Chicana Lesbians (Chicana Matters) [Paperback]

Catriona Rueda Esquibel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2, 2006 | ISBN-10: 0292712758 | ISBN-13: 978-0292712751 | Edition: annotated edition

With the 1981 publication of the groundbreaking anthology This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa ushered in an era of Chicana lesbian writing. But while these two writers have achieved iconic status, observers of the Chicana/o experience have been slow to perceive the existence of a whole community-lesbian and straight, male as well as female-who write about the Chicana lesbian experience. To create a first full map of that community, this book explores a wide range of plays, novels, and short stories by Chicana/o authors that depict lesbian characters or lesbian desire. Catrióna Rueda Esquibel starts from the premise that Chicana/o communities, theories, and feminisms cannot be fully understood without taking account of the perspectives and experiences of Chicana lesbians. To open up these perspectives, she engages in close readings of works centered around the following themes: La Llorona, the Aztec Princess, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, girlhood friendships, rural communities and history, and Chicana activism. Her investigation broadens the community of Chicana lesbian writers well beyond Moraga and Anzaldúa, while it also demonstrates that the histories of Chicana lesbians have had to be written in works of fiction because these women have been marginalized and excluded in canonical writings on Chicano life and experience.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"I am wildly ecstatic about this project and thoroughly grateful for Esquibel's interventions in the cause of Chicana lesbian authors ... now extending into this cutting-edge and highly readable critical text." Alicia Gaspar de Alba, UCLA, author of Chicano Art Inside/Outside the Master's House: Cultural Politics and the CARA Exhibition

Review

I am wildly ecstatic about this project and thoroughly grateful for Esquibel's interventions in the cause of Chicana lesbian authors . . . now extending into this cutting-edge and highly readable critical text. (Alicia Gaspar de Alba, UCLA, author of Chicano Art Inside/Outside the Master's House: Cultural Politics and the CARA Exhibition )

Product Details

• Paperback: 263 pages
• Publisher: University of Texas Press; annotated edition edition (January 2, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0292712758
• ISBN-13: 978-0292712751
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #298,529 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #49 in Books > Gay & Lesbian > Literature & Fiction > Literary Criticism

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderfully Written, Accessible, Fascinating Book, February 24, 2006

By 

Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes (Ann Arbor, MI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: With Her Machete in Her Hand: Reading Chicana Lesbians (Chicana Matters) (Paperback)

Catriona Rueda Esquibel's book is a superb exploration of Chicana (and more broadly defined, Latina) lesbian literature and culture. She has an engaging style, and even incorporates some personal (autobiographical) anecdotes, giving us a good sense of who she is and why she cares so deeply about this topic. Readers will find in this book invaluable information and analysis. The author is to be commended for her important contribution to this field.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Chicana Lesbian Lit Reference, February 12, 2009

By 

Juan D. Ochoa "juanoch" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: With Her Machete in Her Hand: Reading Chicana Lesbians (Chicana Matters) (Paperback)

I can only say great things about this book. Rueda Esquivel's thorough research and critical analysis of Chicana Lesbian literature from the 1970's to the year 2000 is breathtaking. Chapter after chapter, you will not only be fascinated, but you will be left with a wave of optimism for the future of Chicana and Chicano scholarship. If you are taking a course in Chicana feminisms, Chicana Lesbian literature, or want to read an analysis that posits gender and sexuality in relation to race and class, then you must pick up a copy of this book. This book requires you to either have some background in Chicana lesbian literature or can introduce you to the fabulous works being produced by Chicana lesbians.

I hope that this is only the first step in critically engaging with Chicana lesbian literature. If, as Rueda Esquivel comments, you want to venture out of the traditional Moraga/Anzaldua Chicana lesbian canon then I recommend that you read tatiana de la tierra's, For the Hard Ones: A Lesbian Phenomenology, and or Myriam Gurba's, Dahlia Season.