Davalos, Karen Mary and Alicia Partnoy. “Translating the Backslash,” Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social 4: 1 (fall 2004): 6-18. Chicana/Latina Studies: THE JOURNAL OF MUJERES ACTIVAS EN LETRAS Y CAMBIO SOCIAL Volume 4 Issue 1 Fall 2004 Davalos, Karen Mary and Alicia Partnoy. “Translating the Backslash,” Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social 4: 1 (fall 2004): 6-18. Chicana/Latina Studies One LMU Drive, Suite 4400 Loyola Marymount University Los Angeles, California 90045 E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] Tel: 310-338-5750, 310-338-3011 Fax: 310-338-5270 Web: www.malcs.chicanas.com Cover art by Favianna Rodríguez, “Femicidio: Las Mujeres de Juárez Exigen Justicia,” (detail) silkscreen, 2004, appears courtesy of the artist. Journal design by Ashlee Goodwin. CHICANA/LATINA STUDIES: THE JOURNAL OF MUJERES ACTIVAS EN LETRAS Y CAMBIO SOCIAL (ISSN: 1550-2546) is published twice a year, in spring and fall, by MALCS with the generous support of Loyola Marymount University. The Journal is a peer-reviewed, bi-annual publication of a feminist Chicana/Latina academic organization dedicated to building bridges between community and university settings, transforming higher education, and promoting new paradigms and methods. As the publication of a diverse association that aims to provide space for those historically marginalized, the Journal publishes academic articles and creative works by Chicanas/Latinas of the Americas and is receptive to all scholarly methods and theoretical perspectives that examine, describe, analyze, or interpret our experiences. Chicana/Latina Studies: the Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social continues Voces: A Journal of Chicana/Latina Studies. Chicana/Latina Studies is available by annual membership in MALCS and by separate annual subscription ($50 for institutions and $40 for nonmember individuals). Forty percent of member dues are allocated for a subscription. For information on membership please visit our website http://www.malcs.chicanas.com. All articles and all editorials are to be regarded as the expressions or viewpoints of the particular writers and not as the offi cial position of the Journal, MALCS, or LMU. Copyright © 2004 by Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social. All rights reserved. ISSN 1550-2546 Davalos, Karen Mary and Alicia Partnoy. “Translating the Backslash,” Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social 4: 1 (fall 2004): 6-18. Karen Mary Davalos Editorial Staff EDITORS 2003-2008 Loyola Marymount Univ., Alicia Partnoy Loyola Marymount Univ. NATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD Norma Alarcón UC Berkeley, Nancy “Rusty” Barceló Univ. of Washington, Norma E. Cantú Univ. Texas San Antonio, Antonia I. Castañeda St. Mary’s Univ. San Antonio, Deena J. González Loyola Marymount Univ., Aída Hurtado UC Santa Cruz, Juana Mora CSU Northridge, Emma Pérez Univ. of Colorado, Laura Rendon CSU Long Beach, Sonia Saldívar-Hull Univ. Texas San Antonio, Adaljiza Sosa-Riddell UC Davis ASSOCIATE EDITORS Rita Cano Alcalá Scripps College, Maylei Blackwell (section editor) UCLA, Luz Calvo Ohio State Univ., Dolores Delgado Bernal Univ. of Utah, Nora Erro- Peralta Florida Atlantic Univ., Francisca Godinez CSU Sacramento, Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs Seattle Univ., Michelle Habell-Pallán Univ. of Washington, Ana María Juárez Texas State U San Marcos, Tiffany Ann López UC Riverside, Magdalena Maiz-Peña Davidson College, Lara Medina CSUN, Gilda Ochoa Pomona College, Ana Patricia Rodríguez Univ. of Maryland, Mónica Russel y Rodríguez Northwestern Univ., Sandra Soto Univ. of Arizona, Juana Suárez UNC Greensboro, Edén Torres Univ. of Minnesota, Angharad Valdivia UI Champaign-Urbana, Deborah Vargas UC Irvine LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY COLECTIVA Rebeca Acevedo, Marta Baltodano, Tiffany Castro-Kalish, Deena J. González, Michelle González, Yvette Lapayese, Magaly Lavadenz, Nina Maria Lozano-Reich (guest curator), Sylvia Morales, Gloria Orozco Davalos, Karen Mary and Alicia Partnoy. “Translating the Backslash,” Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social 4: 1 (fall 2004): 6-18. Editors’ Commentary Articles Commentary Contents 6 20 86 110 Poetry 130 Creative Writing 146 Review 152 Occasional Section 162 Contributors 167 Acknowledgment 168 Guidelines for Contributors 4 CHICANA/LATINA STUDIES 4:1 FALL 2004 Davalos, Karen Mary and Alicia Partnoy. “Translating the Backslash,” Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social 4: 1 (fall 2004): 6-18. Articles 22 Body Counts on the Mexico-U.S. Border: Feminicidio, Reifi cation, and the Theft of Mexicana Subjectivity by Alicia Schmidt Camacho 62 Alicia Sotero Vásquez: Police Brutality against an Undocumented Mexican Woman by Rita E. Urquijo-Ruiz by Evangelina Arce by Arminé Arjona Poetry 112 Calles 116 Páramo 118 Elegía by Arminé Arjona 119 Rotos Ángeles by Arminé Arjona 120 God is Moving by Luzma Umpierre 122 The Cat’s Meow by Luzma Umpierre 124 Misfortunes by Luzma Umpierre 126 Estamos Homeless by Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs by Claudia Rodríguez Creative Writing 132 Hijas de Juárez 136 Colita de Rana by Alicia Gaspar de Alba 138 Pay Day by Alicia Gaspar de Alba by Juana Suárez Review 148 Review of Señorita Extraviada by Karen Mary Davalos Commentary 6 Translating the Backslash and Alicia Partnoy 88 Esa larga cicatriz by Elena Poniatowska 96 Chicanas/Latinas y las nuevas garras del imperialismo by Antonia I. Castañeda Occasional Section 154 Tongues of Fire: A Tribute to Gloria E. Anzaldúa by Maylei Blackwell CHICANA/LATINA STUDIES 4:1 FALL 2004 5 Davalos, Karen Mary and Alicia Partnoy. “Translating the Backslash,” Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social 4: 1 (fall 2004): 6-18. EDITORS’ COMMENTARY: Translating the Backslash Karen Mary Davalos and Alicia Partnoy The Editors trace some of the meanings of the backslash between “Chicana” and “Latina” and the journal’s subtitle and history. In 1993, Chicana feminist Angie Chabram Dernersesian brought the backslash or virgule to public attention in her analysis of the symbol between “a” and “o” in the words “Chicana/o” and “Chicano/a.” Examining cultural productions of the 1970s, she argued that it “split” the Mexican American singular subject into a “plurality of competing identities” and proclaimed the “end of the nongendered Mexican American subject of cultural and political identity” (39). The grammatical premise of the backslash may confuse the uninitiated. In Spanish the word “Chicanos” refers to a group of males and females or a group of males, but feminists and heritage speakers in the United States are more sensitive to the authority of patriarchy which imagines a group of men or boys. In addition, Spanish and English code- switching—that is the linguistic and political moments in which “Chicano” became a word in English—allowed “Chicano” to silence women when employed as an adjective, as in the phrase “the Chicano Movement.” The diagonal line and its feminine and masculine endings, as Chabram Dernersesian points out, affi rmed women’s presence and created a sign that “could better accommodate multiple subjects” (42) as well as “combat exclusion” (40). Reading the Diagonal The Editors employ the backslash between “Chicana” and “Latina” in a similar way. We value its ability to challenge exclusion and encompass multiple identities. It serves to open our subjectivity and community, and it 6 CHICANA/LATINA STUDIES 4:1 FALL 2004 Davalos, Karen Mary and Alicia Partnoy. “Translating the Backslash,” Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social 4: 1 (fall 2004): 6-18. EDITORS’ COMMENTARY allows for our differences. But the diagonal symbol also engages new questions and functions, all of which set the tone and vision for our editorship. This commentary lays out that vision and explores some of the tensions and ambiguities encompassed within the virgule. Following our feminist lesbian philosopher and activist, Gloria Anzaldúa, we embrace contradiction and ambiguity as sites of possibilities and creativity: our writing and editorship does not fear disagreements or solutions. While our commentary does not pretend to discuss all of the meanings presented or imagined by the backslash, we trust that our experiential knowledge will continue to serve as a guide for traversing the space between “Latina” and “Chicana.” The following are some readings of the diagonal: 1) Chicana Studies is the place from which and for which Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social (MALCS) emerged. This history is acknowledged and reclaimed in the co-joined phrase “Chicana/Latina”. The left of the backslash invites readers to remember that Chicana Studies is part of a social movement, a liberatory action. It is rooted in the “radical social politics” (Sandoval 2000, 150) that emerged and fl ourished in the late 1960s, became a national movement by the early 1970s, and continued to transform everyday life in the 1980s. On a national level the Chicana/o Movement may have stalled out in the 1990s, but people are still fi ghting for decent education, housing, health care, language-rights, political representation, and human dignity. When we reach the close of the twenty-fi rst century, social analysts will tell us how we have witnessed national activism against sweatshop labor, anti-immigrant legislation and legislators, English-only mandates, imperialism, and criminalization of youth and organizing for