University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository Spanish and Portuguese ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 9-12-2014 My/Mi lengua franca: "Language," Manipulation, and Cultural Heritage in Chicana Art and Literature Elena Avilés Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/span_etds Recommended Citation Avilés, Elena. "My/Mi lengua franca: "Language," Manipulation, and Cultural Heritage in Chicana Art and Literature." (2014). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/span_etds/4 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Spanish and Portuguese ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Elena Avilés Candidate Spanish and Portuguese Department This dissertation is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Dissertation Committee: Dr. Tey Diana Rebolledo, Co-Chairperson Dr. Enrique Lamadrid, Co-Chairperson Dr. Holly Barnet-Sanchez Dr. Alicia Gaspar de Alba i MY/MI LENGUA FRANCA: “LANGUAGE,” MANIPULATION AND CULTURAL HERITAGE IN CHICANA ART AND LITERATURE BY ELENA AVILÉS B.A., Spanish and Chicana & Chicano Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, 2003 M.S., Counseling, California State University, Los Angeles, 2006 M.A., Spanish, University of New Mexico, 2010 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctorate of Philosophy Spanish and Portuguese The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico July, 2014 ii © 2014, Elena Avilés iii DEDICATION Para mis padres, Esther Reyes Ramos Avilés y José Severo Avilés Saavedra Martínez. Gracias por su amor, esfuerzo e infinito apoyo. Que este estudio agrade sus deseos de conservar nuestra cultura. Gracias a todas las mujeres cuyo sentido de herencia me ha dado la fuerza para seguir avanzando–especialmente a mi abuela Elena y Trinidad, y mis tías Ramona, Ana y Margarita. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge the support of my family and community. To all my relatives and friends, thank you. S ou have been my advocates and teachers. Rebecca, Lola and Maya, thank you for your love, support and care. I thank my parents for their incessant encouragement and words of wisdom. M V J ( ) This work is in part for them, for our collective future. No one achieves success without a support network. A special thanks to my life-long friends Alvaro M. Huerta, Jenny Bracamontes, Carmen Arenas, S R -P J P N M T Valdivia, and María Romero. I thank everyone at UNM from Lorena, Karol, Nohemí, Bridget, Jannette, Linda, Evelyn, Vivianne, Felipe and Carrie to the entire WOCA group, especially Theresa Avila and Anna Cabrera. I also thank Rosa Isela Cervantes, director of El Centro de La Raza Center and Lawrence Roybal, director of the Graduate Resource Center and their staff. I especially acknowledge the mentorship and Chicana guidance from Dr. Tey Diana Rebolledo, M , and Dr. Margarita Cota-Cárdenas. I also would like to thank my dissertation committee for the opportunity to work with such a stellar collective of scholars: Dr. Tey Diana Rebolledo, Dr. Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Dr. Holly Barnet-Sanchez and Dr. Enrique Lamadrid. Dr. Rebolledo is a truly outstanding scholar, mentor and person. Completion of this dissertation was made possible from the generous support of the Bilinski Foundation, directed by Dr. Anita Obermeier and Dr. Pamela Cheek. The Feminist Research Institute, The Center for Southwest Studies, The Office of Graduate Studies, El Centro de La Raza and The Department of Spanish and Portuguese also provided institutional support. Most of all, I am indebted to family, but especially my father and mother, who made my Sandra Cisneros‘ vision ‘s needs come true with a space, a real house, to make my dreams a reality. A special acknowledgement is reserved for Pedro Samuel Torres for his love, sense of humor, and encouragement across all the years. v MY/MI LENGUA FRANCA: “LANGUAGE,” MANIPULATION AND CULTURAL HERITAGE IN CHICANA ART AND LITERATURE BY ELENA AVILÉS B.A., Spanish and Chicana & Chicano Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, 2003 M.S., Counseling, California State University, Los Angeles, 2006 M.A., Spanish, University of New Mexico, 2010 Ph.D., Spanish and Portuguese, University of New Mexico, 2014 ABSTRACT Chicana feminist literary and artistic cultural production since the second half of the twentieth century is characterized with a critical sensibility commissioning the arts to actively interrogate how cultural mores misconstrue female identity. By questioning the ― ‖-representation of cultural myths and images, Chicanas expose the patriarchal language and hegemonic discourse that code and sign cultural icons. Chicana feminist interrogations of traditional representations of La Malinche illustrate how signs are a construction, and thus, indefinite and plastic, like language. By combining various methodologies such as semiotics, visual analysis, cultural and feminist studies, this study underscores the significance of the development of feminist critical, poetic and visual language to Chicana revisionist representations of the figure of La Malinche. vi The theme of language use in Chicana reinterpretations of La Malinche offers an innovative conceptualization to the advancement of Chicana language practices as a strategy to critically examine the gendered and cultural aesthetics of identity. This dissertation examines how Chicanas manipulate heritage through a ― k ‖ interpretation of culture in the signification of ―language‖ (La Malinche) and in their own language use in order to alter interpretations of Chicana identity. The analysis of Chicana feminist representations of La Malinche is a study of how women traverse the borderlands of literary and artistic practices to gain visibility and voice. I evaluate the interrelationships between Chicana critics, artists and writers, drawing from art historians and literary critics to show how literature and art empowered women to work toward a metalinguistic awareness of self. The relationships and intersections between the textual and visual representation on La Malinche demonstrate an often-unrecognized dialectical relationship among writers and artists and literary critics and art historians. Ongoing representations of La Malinche reflect the continuance of innovative, original and imaginative forms of speaking about Chicana identity that reveals the dialogic and heteroglot nature of Chicana voices, as Chicana placas, a concept I call the development of a Chicana lengua franca. Key Words: Chicana, Art, Literature, Representation, Language, La Malinche, Placas vii TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 1: LA CHICANA AND LA MALINCHE IN THE CHICANO MOVEMENT ........................ 22 LA MALINCHE (A CASE OF MANIPULATION) ........................................................................................................... 25 REPRESENTATIONS OF LA MALINCHE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY ................................................................ 30 LA MALINCHE IN CHICANO CULTURAL HERITAGE .................................................................................................. 35 QUESTIONING HISTORY: MAL–IN –CHISMO/ES ....................................................................................................... 43 ¿Y YO QUÉ? CHICANA FEMINISM AND THE MOVEMENT ......................................................................................... 49 SACANDO SUS LENGUITAS: CHICANA FEMINIST VOICES EMERGE .......................................................................... 53 A MOTHER’S VOICE STILL RINGS ............................................................................................................................... 58 CHAPTER 2: BIRTHING A NEW CREATIVE ACT AND SPIRIT OF INTEGRATION IN LANGUAGE: FROM SYMBOLIC TO THE SEMIOTIC MEANING OF LA MALINCHE ..................... 61 CREATIVE PLAY WITH LANGUAGE: THE SUBALTERN CALL TO ACTION .............................................................. 62 A STRUGGLE TO EXIST IN LANGUAGE ........................................................................................................................ 68 ¡PEGA EL GRITO! THE BURST OF VOICE .................................................................................................................... 72 ENTERING INTO A SPACE ............................................................................................................................................. 83 I TOO HAVE A LANGUAGE, MAN ................................................................................................................................. 90 CHAPTER 3: CHASING THE SIGN: CHICANA PLACAS, HOME(L)Y REVOLUTIONS, AND DOMESTICANA ............................................................................................................................................... 99 CHICANA IMAGINATIONS: GLOSSING SPACES ........................................................................................................ 100 CHICANA PLACAS ........................................................................................................................................................ 107 HOME(L)Y REVOLUTIONS ........................................................................................................................................