La Chicanas By Martinez Summary

Reading this passage, I could feel the frustration and the longing for people to understand the La Chicanas behind Martinez’s writing. How throughout history, the Chicanas have been forced to endure so many different types of oppressions by many different types of people. What Martinez calls triple oppression, oppression by “the forces of racism, imperialism, and sexism,” and that every woman who is not white, is able to feel this type of oppression. And she’s right- as a white woman I will never fully comprehend what it feels like to be constantly oppressed purely because of my skin color. Like other minority women, the Chicana’s were told that their movement and beliefs were not up to standard when it came to the liberation movements. Just like the black women, the lesbians, or any other minority group, they had to face the fact that people believed that their views and beliefs were not worthy of being a part of any liberation. To hear that must be so disheartening and discouraging. They could have easily been like
Yet, while being this overly sexy Chicana, they are still supposed to be a virgin, hold tight to their womanhood, and care for their children. This is just ridiculous, but it’s true when thinking of women portrayed in Hollywood. Gloria from Modern Family, Jennifer Lopez’s character in Maid in Manhattan (which is a whole other stereotype the Chicana women face), the Chicanas in Orange is the New Black, they are all portrayed as these sexy, spicy, loud women who need to care for their children. I even noticed that when my cousin married a woman from Mexico and we went down there for the wedding, I noticed some of my American family members saying “they’re not as loud and crazy all the time like I thought they would be.” This proves how my family had already stereotyped and categorized Lupita’s family before even knowing them as