User:Andreaplascencia/Chicana feminism

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La Virgen de Guadalupe and La Malinche have become symbolic means of suppressing Chicana women's sexuality through the patriarchal dichotomy of puta/virgin, the positive role model and the negative one, historically and continuously held up before Mexican women as icons and mirrors in which to examine their own self-image and define their self-esteem. Gloria Anzaldúa's canonical text addresses the subversive power of reclaiming indigenous spirituality to unlearn colonial and patriarchal constructions and restrictions on women, their sexuality, and understandings of motherhood. Anzaldúa writes, "I will no longer be made to feel ashamed of existing. I will have my voice: Indian, Spanish, white". La Malinche is a victim of centuries of patriarchal myths that permeate the Mexican woman's consciousness, often without her awareness.

In the same way La Malinche has become a prominent figure for the Chicana feminist movement, so has La Virgen de Guadalupe. La Virgen de Guadalupe, in the Catholic faith, has long been looked to as an exemplary figure of purity and motherhood, especially in Mexican/Chicano culture. Members of the Chicana Feminist Movement, such as artist Yolanda Lopez, sought to reclaim the image of La Virgen and deconstruct the ideal that virginity is the only measurement for determining a woman's worth and virtue. For women like Lopez, the image of Guadalupe possessed a significance that wasn't pertinent to religion at all.

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