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Cherríe Moraga
(1952 -)
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 Loving
in the War Years / lo
que nunca paso por sus labios
by
Cherríe Moraga
"I am a
Chicana lesbian. My own particular relationship to being a sexual
person; and a radical stand in direct contradiction to, and in
violation of, the women I was raised to be." Through the
poetry, prose, and personal stories in Loving in the War Years,
Cherrie Moraga explores this contradiction, weaving her confusion
and pain with her eventual self-acceptance. She writes about
prejudices she suffers because she is half-white and a lesbian
born in a Catholic, Chicano culture. She tells of her frustrations
with the importance men were given as she was growing up and the
exclusion of lesbian women of color from the women's movement. In
her struggles, she draws from those parts of her upbringing which
are necessary to her physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being
- the love of her mother's home, the sense of community among
Chicana women, the smell of the candles in church, and the
spiritual need to respect something beyond herself - creating a
portrait of beauty, anger, and independence. "Spirituality
which inspires activism and, similarly, politics which move the
spirit - which draw from the deep-seated place of our greatest
longings for freedom - give meaning to our lives." Some
knowledge of Spanish may be helpful with these writings, but even
without it Cherrie Moraga's words will touch your heart and your
mind. -- From 500
Great Books by Women; review by Holly Smith
 Waiting
in the Wings : Portrait of a Queer Motherhood by
Cherríe Moraga
At age 40, Chicana
writer and activist Cherrie Moraga decided she wanted to have a
child. Waiting in the Wings comprises diary entries made
during her pregnancy and the first difficult years of her son's
life, as well as retrospective essays on motherhood, partnership,
men and woman, and families. Moraga's writing is a rich, fluid mix
of English and Spanish that explores the personal, social, and
spiritual consequences of lesbian motherhood.
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Excerpt:
Cherrie Moraga, "The Danger Lies in
Ranking the Oppressions" (1983)
"In this country, lesbianism is a
poverty-as is being brown, as is being a woman, as is being just
plain poor. The danger lies in ranking the oppressions.
The danger lies in failing to acknowledge the specificity of the
oppression. The danger lies in attempting to deal with
oppression purely from a theoretical base. Without an
emotional, heartfelt grappling with the source of our own
oppression, without naming the enemy within ourselves and
outside of us, no authentic, non-hierarchical connection among
oppressed groups can take place." (Moraga, 52-53)
From Cherrie Moraga, Loving
in the War Years/lo que nunca paso por sus labios
Boston: South End Press, 1983.
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Excerpt:
Cherrie Moraga was born in Los Angeles in
1952. She is of Chicana/Anglo descent which has influenced her
experiences as a lesbian poet, playwright, essayist, editor,
teacher, and activist.
Moraga describes herself as "La Guera,"
which means fair-skinned. She was born with the features of her
Chicana mother and the skin of her Anglo father. The history of
her family has been a large influence on Moraga's writing. Her
respect for her mother comes from the hardships and struggles
that she endured throughout her childhood. At a young age her
mother became the main support of her own family after her
father left. She worked to survive and had little opportunity to
get an education. Without a formal education in English,
Moraga's mother was considered illiterate in this country. Her
fluency in Spanish was not passed on to Moraga or her siblings
in the hope that they may be able to pass more effectively in
"white" society. Because Moraga was fair-skinned,
"passing" became a part of daily life that made it
easier for her to succeed in the United States. Moraga realized
the advantages of having "white privilege" (a term
that refers to the privileges of being white and therefore
having more advantages in life). This had a counter-affect on
Moraga's ability to connect fully with her Chicana background,
pulling her further from her mother and the knowledge of who she
really was. Moraga explains, "From all this, I experience a
huge disparity between what I was born into and what I grew to
become..."
This site includes some poetry by Moraga, as
well as a bibliography of works about Moraga.
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By George Albert Méndez
Question: How does Moraga characterize
herself as a traitor?
Excerpt:
The term that Moraga uses to describe that
cardinal rule which all Chicanas must follow is heterosexism:
"[T]he Chicana's sexual commitment to the Chicano male."
Because Mexicans, and consequently Chicanos, have always
emphasized and valued the males of their societies over the
females, the consensus reached among males and females of these
societies denounces any behavior that deviates from this norm.
As a result, "Chicanas begin to turn [their] backs on each
other either to gain male approval or to avoid being sexually
stigmatized by them under the name of puta, vendida,
jota." It was in denouncing these values that Moraga
became a traitor of her people--sexually, culturally, and
politically...
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From GayGate.com
Excerpt:
Cherrie Moraga was born on September 25, 1952,
in Whittier, California. The daughter of a Chicana and an Anglo,
she studied at a small, nonsectarian private college in
Hollywood, and earned her B.A. in 1974. For the next three years
she worked as a high school teacher in Los Angeles. During this
time she enrolled in a writing class at the Women's Building and
produced her first lesbian love poems. Her discovery of Judy
GRAHN's poem "A Woman Is Talking to Death" coalesced
in her the need to write not only as a lesbian but as a Chicana,
a process of politicization that was further enhanced by her
subsequent meeting with Grahn in person. In 1977 Moraga moved to
San Francisco, and in 1980 received an M.A. from San Francisco
State...
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Contains plot details and commentary featuring
the writer's play, which chronicles the struggles of Mexican
immigrants working in California.
Excerpt:
This searing play takes place in California's
central valley where Mexican immigrants are employed at survival
wages to work in fields poisoned by pesticides. Their ramshackle
government homes are built over dumps where toxic waste poisons
the water. The community has suffered a high incidence of
cancer--especially in children--, birth defects, and other
illnesses related to long-term intake of toxic substances...
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Names Index:
A B
C D
E F
G H
I J
K L
M N
O P
Q R
S T
U V
W X
Y Z
| Authors
Index | Scholars
Index |
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