Cherre Moraga

Cherre Lawrence Moraga[1] (born September 25,1952) is a Chicana writer, feminist activist, poet, essayist,and playwright. She is part of the faculty at StanfordUniversity in the Department of Drama and Compara-tive Studies in Race and Ethnicity. Her works explorethe ways in which gender, sexuality and race intersect inthe lives of women of color.

1 Early lifeMoraga was born of mixed blood parentage on Septem-ber 25, 1952 in Whittier, California located approxi-mately 10 miles southeast from Los Angeles.[2] Raisedin Californias San Gabriel Valley, Moraga felt the ef-fects of her mixed ethnicityMexican and Anglofroman early age. Her early writing acknowledges the com-plex relationship of being able to pass for white, whileemotionally deeply identifying with the non-white part ofher identity and her extended Chicano (Mexican Ameri-can) family. In her article, La Guera, she compares thedierence between her life being fair-skinned, with hermothers life as an easily identiable Hispanic woman.For a long time, she used her Anglo looks to her ad-vantage, until she realized that, it is frightening to ac-knowledge that I have internalized a racism and class-ism, where the object of oppression not only someoneoutside of my skin, but the someone inside my skin.[3] In those moments, she realized that she herself hadbeen undermining her Chicana culture, by conformingto an Anglo culture, as she calls it. Her family has re-mained a large focus of her writingher Mexican Amer-ican mother, specically, who was forced to leave schoolat an early age to support her younger siblings. As a work-ing class writer, Moragas acknowledges that the main in-spiration to become a writer was her mother, who was aneminent storyteller.[4] Moraga earned her Bachelors de-gree from Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles, Cal-ifornia, a nonsectarian college, which Moraga describesas Radical Catholic. She graduated in 1974 earning aBachelors Degree in English. Soon after attending Im-maculate Heart College, she enrolled in a writing classat the Womens Building and produced her rst lesbianpoems.[2][5] In 1977 she moved to San Francisco whereshe supported herself as a waitress, became politically ac-tive as a burgeoning feminist, and eventually found herway to women of color feminism. She earned her Mas-ters Degree in Feminist Writings from San FranciscoState University in 1980. This was the same period of herassociation with Gloria Anzalda, and the project of This

Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women ofColor, which would be published in 1981.

2 BiographyMoraga was one of the few writers to write and introducethe theory on Chicana lesbianism. Her interests includethe intersections of gender, sexuality, and race, partic-ularly in cultural production by women of color. Thereare not many women of color writing about issues thatqueer women of color face today: therefore, her work isvery notable and important to the new generations. In the1980s her works started to be published. Since she is oneof the rst and few Chicana/Lesbian writers of our time,she set the stage for younger generations of other minoritywriters and activists.[6]

3 LesbianismAfter her college years, Moraga openly accepted her les-bianism, after hiding it from others and herself, and itwas then that she compared the feelings and emotionsshe was experiencing to her mothers feelings. She wasmaking a connection between the way that the societywas discriminating her by being a lesbian and the feel-ings her mother faced by the oppression of being poor, awomen of color and with a lack of education. My les-bianism is the avenue through which I have learned themost about silence and oppression, and it continues to bethe most tactile reminder to me that we are not free hu-man beings describing lesbianism as poverty, just as be-ing dark, women or simply poor. Her own acceptance as alesbianmade her embrace her ethnic background and sex-ual orientation, which later helped and guided her throughthe struggles she faced. She understood that even in hergeneration, women continued to be discriminated againstand were not free since there are still many standards thatthe U.S society has constructed and strengthen through-out the years.[4]

Moraga began writing early in her life, but did not get se-rious until after she came out as a lesbian. She then gotinvolved with the feminist movement. She writes abouthaving to choose between referring to herself as a Chi-cana lesbian or a lesbian Chicanalinguistically, onlyone of these two identities can serve as the essential partof her being, while the other can only serve as a modi-er. Knowing and being proud of her sexuality was eas-

1

2 5 WORK

ier for Moraga to express her feelings and thoughts onwriting. Her work has been part of who she is a womenthat identies as a Chicana and a lesbian. In Loving inthe War Years, Moraga cites Capitalist Patriarchy: A Casefor Social Feminism as an inspiration when realizing herintersecting identity as a Chicana lesbian, saying, Theappearance of these sisters words in print, as lesbians ofcolor, suddenly made it viable for me to put my Chicanaand lesbian self in the center of my movement. [7]

Moragas perspective on most of her work and writ-ings exploring multiple intersecting identities as a Xi-canadyke in the U.S., which composes the raza iden-tity and sexual orientation, and how this has shaped herinteractions with both the gay and lesbian movement andthe Chicano movement. Nevertheless, the oppositionalconsciousness that she brings in her work has served asone of her most important characteristics. This opposi-tional consciousness is in stark contrast to the assimila-tionist core of many of the activist movements that Mor-aga criticizes.[8]

4 BooksShe is perhaps best known for co-editing, with GloriaAnzalda, the anthology of feminist thought This BridgeCalled My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color in1981; which was one of her most successful books thatwon the Before Columbus Foundation American BookAward in 1986.[9] Along with Ana Castillo and NormaAlarcon, she adapted this anthology into the Spanish-language Esta puente, mi espalda: Voces de mujeres ter-cermundistas en los Estados Unidos. Writings in the an-thology, along with works by other prominent feministsof color, call for a greater prominence within feminismfor race-related subjectivities which included her com-plex bicultural position to Anglo and Chicano culture,and ultimately laid the foundation for third wave femi-nism or ThirdWorld Feminism in the USA. Her rst sole-authored book, Loving in the War Years: lo que nuncapas por sus labios (1983), a combination of autobio-graphically modulated prose and poetry, is also an inu-ential critical work among Chicana feminists and otherfeminists of color, and among scholars working in Chi-cano Studies.In this book she establishes the connectionsbetween her mother and herself, her sexuality and the in-uence her mother had on her life[10] Her play Giving upthe Ghost, published in 1986, focuses mainly on Chicanalesbianism and the main heroine embracing her lesbian-ism rather than denying it. The play was presented andpremiered at the Theater Rhinoceros in San Franciscofrom February 10 to March 12 in 1989; it was directedby Anita Mattos and Jose Guadalupe Saucedo. In a plugfor the show, political activist Angela Davis recently said,"[Ghost] is an emotionally haunting encounter that asksus as women to look back over our shoulders and face theunforgettable. Cherrie Morgan drums up the pulse of the

past in all of us. It is important because during this time,the civil rights movements were at its climax. Integratingall womens issues into one and cooperating in solidarity.She published A Xicana Codex of Changing Con-sciousness: Writings, 2000-2010, in 2011.[11][12] Herplay New Fire: To Put Things Right Again had itsworld premiere January 1129, 2012, in San Francisco,California.[13][14][15] Cherrie Moraga was named a 2007USA Rockefeller Fellow and granted $50,000 by UnitedStates Artists, an arts advocacy foundation dedicated tothe support and promotion of Americas top living artists.She won a Creative Work Fund Award in 2008, andthe Gerbode-Hewlett Foundation Grant for Playwritingin 2009.[13] The Last Generation (1993) is a politicizedand intensely personal collection of poetry and prose thatargues for a reconceptualization of on gender, sexuality,and ethnic identity, race, art and nationalism and the pol-itics of survival.[16]

From 1994 to 2002, she published a couple of volumesof drama through West End Press of Albuquerque, NM.The rst one was Heroes and Saints (1994), which wonan award. This play focuses on the issues faced by thelarge immigrant population working in the elds poi-soned by pesticides.[17] The Hungry Woman (2001) shemakes the links between the mystical and the Chicanopolitics with her own perspective as a lesbian feminist.Watsonville/Circle in the Dirt (2002) these plays bring to-gether the struggles of farmworkers and their resistanceto cultural domination as well as the threat of economicenslavement. Her plays have been shown throughout theSouthwest, in Chicago, Seattle and New York. Anotherwork was done in 1995, Heart of the Earth, where heradaptation of the Popol Vuh, the Maya creation myth,opened at the Public Theatre and INTAR Theatre in NewYork City.[18]

5 Work

Moraga has taught courses in dramatic arts and writing atvarious universities across the United States and is cur-rently an artist in residence at Stanford University. Herplay, Watsonville: Some Place Not Here, performed atthe Brava Theatre Company of San Francisco in May,1996, won the Kennedy Center for the Performing ArtsFund for New American Plays Award, from the Kennedycenter for the Performing Arts.[19] Barbara Smith, AudreLorde and Moraga started Kitchen Table: Women ofColor Press in 1983, a group which did not discriminateagainst homosexuality, class, or race. it is the rst pub-lisher dedicated to the writing of women of color in theUnited States.[20]

Moraga is currently involved in a Theatre communica-tions group and was the recipient of the NEA TheatrePlaywriting Fellowship Award[9] Her plays and publi-cations have won and received national recognition in-

3cluding a TCG Theatre Residency Grant, a National En-dowment for the art fellowship for play writing and twoFund for New American Plays Awards in 1993. She wasawarded the United States artist Rockefeller Fellowshipfor literature in 2007.In 2008 she won a Creative WorkFund Award. The following year, in 2009 she received aGerbode-Hewlett foundation grant for play writing.[4][6]

6 Selected bibliography A Xicana Codex of Changing Consciousness: Writ-

ings 2000-2010 (2011). Durham: Duke UniversityPress. ISBN 0-8223-4977-9

Watsonville: Some Place Not Here; Circle in the dirt:el pueblo de East Palo Alto (2002). Albuquerque:West End Press. ISBN 0-9705344-5-0.

The Hungry Woman (2001). Albuquerque: WestEnd Press. ISBN 0-9705344-0-X

Waiting in the Wings: Portrait of a Queer Mother-hood (1997) Ithaca: Firebrand Books. ISBN 1-56341-093-1.

Art in America ConAcento (1994). AnthologizedinWomenWriting Resistance: essays on Latin Amer-ica and the Caribbean (2003). Cambridge, Mas-sachusetts: South End Press. ISBN 0-89608-708-5.

Heroes and Saints and Other Plays (1994). Albu-querque: West End Press. ISBN 0-931122-74-0.

The Last Generation: Prose and Poetry (1993).Boston: South End Press. ISBN 0-89608-467-1

The Sexuality of Latinas (co-editor, 1993). Berke-ley: Third Woman Press. ISBN 0-943219-00-0.

Shadow of a Man (1992) Giving Up the Ghost: Teatro in TwoActs (1986). LosAngeles: West End Press. ISBN 0-931122-43-0.

Cuentos: Stories By Latinas (co-editor, 1983). NewYork: Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press. ISBN0-913175-01-3.

Loving in the War Years: Lo que nunca pas por suslabios (1983). Boston: South End Press. ISBN 0-89608-195-8.

This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by RadicalWomen of Color (co-editor, 1981). Watertown,Massachusetts: Persephone Press. ISBN 0-943219-22-1

Esta puente, mi espalda: Voces de mujeres tercer-mundistas en los Estados Unidos (co-editor, 1988).San Francisco: ism press. ISBN 978-0-910383-19-6.

7 Selected critical works on Cher-re Moraga

Alarcn, Norma. The Theoretical Subject(s) ofThis Bridge Called My Back and Anglo-AmericanFeminism. Criticism in the Borderlands: Studies inChicano Literature, Culture and Ideology. Eds. Hc-tor Caldern and Jos David Saldvar. Durham andLondon: Duke University Press, 1991. 28-39.

Allatson, Paul. I May Create a Monster: Cher-re Moragas Hybrid Denial. Antpodas: Journal ofHispanic and Galician Studies 11-12 (1999/2000):103-121.

Allatson, Paul. Cherre Moraga. The GreenwoodEncyclopedia of Multiethnic American Literature.Ed. Emmanuel S. Nelson. Westport, CT: Green-wood Press, 2005. Vol. 3: 1520-23.

Gilmore, Leigh. Autobiographics: A Feminist The-ory of Womens Self-Representation. Ithaca: CornellUniversity Press, 1994.

Ikas, Karin Rosa. Chicana Ways: Conversationswith Ten Chicana Writers. Reno: University ofNevada Press, 2002.

Negrn-Muntaner, Frances. Cherre Moraga.Latin AmericanWriters on Gay and Lesbian Themes:A Bio-Critical Sourcebook. Ed. David William Fos-ter. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994. 254-62.

Vivancos Perez, Ricardo F.Radical Chicana Poetics.London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

Yarbro-Bejarano, Yvonne. Cherre Moraga. Dic-tionary of Literary Biography. Vol. 82: ChicanoWriters First Series. Eds. Francisco A. Lomel andCarl R. Shirley. Detroit: Gale/Bruccoli Clark Lay-man, 1989. 165-77.

Yarbro-Bejarano, Yvonne. De-constructing theLesbian Body: Cherre Moragas Loving in the WarYears. The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader. Ed.Henry Abelove, Michle Ana Barale and David M.Halperin. New York: Routledge, 1993. 595-603.

Yarbro-Bejarano, Yvonne. The Wounded Heart:Writing on Cherre Moraga. Austin: University ofTexas Press, 2001.

8 Awards National Association for Chicana and Chicano Stud-ies Scholars Award, 2001.

4 11 NOTES

David R. Kessler Award. The Center for Lesbianand Gay Studies, City University of New York. (Inhonor of contributions to the eld of Queer Studies),2000.

The First Annual Cara Award. UCLA ChicanoStudies Research Center/ Cesar Chavez Centerfor Interdisciplinary Instruction in Chicana/ChicanoStudies, 1999.

The Fund for New American Plays Award, a projectof the John F. Kennedy Center for the PerformingArts, 1995 and 1991.

Lifetime Achievement Award, Ellas in Accin, SanFrancisco, 1995.

Lesbian Rights Award, Southern California Womenfor Understanding (for Outstanding Contributionsin Lesbian Literature and for Service to the LesbianCommunity), 1991.

The National Endowment for the Arts Theater Play-wrights Fellowship, 1993.

The PEN West Literary Award for Drama, 1993.

The (Bay Area Theatre?) Critics Circle Award forBest Original Script, 1992 (Heroes and Saints).

The Will Glickman Playwriting Award, 1992.

The Drama-logue Award for Playwriting, 1992.

The Outlook Foundation, Literary Award, 1991.

The California Arts Council Artists in CommunityResidency Award, 1991-2 /1993-5.

The American Book Award, Before ColumbusFoundation, 1986.

The Creative Arts Public Service (CAPS) Grant forPoetry, New York State, 1983.

TheMacDowell Colony Fellowship for Poetry, NewHampshire, 1982.

9 See also Black feminism

Chicana feminism

Third-world feminism

List of Mexican American writers

List of women writers

10 References (Spanish) Pignataro, Margarita Elena del Carmen(Arizona State University PhD thesis). Religioushybridity and female power in Heart of the Earth:A Popol Vuh Story and other theatrical works byCherrie Moraga. (Spanish: El hibridismo religio-so y la fuerza femenina en Heart of the Earth: APopul Vuh Story y otras obras teatrales de Che-rre Moraga) (Dissertation/Thesis). 01/2009, ISBN9781109102925. UMI Number: 3353695. - Thiswork has an abstract in English and is written in theSpanish language.

11 Notes[1] Pignataro, p. 1. Cherrie Lawrence Moraga: Introduc-

tion

[2] Cherrie Moraga. University of Illinois at Chicago. Re-trieved 2013-12-22.

[3] Moraga, Cherrie. La Guera (PDF). jonescol-legeprep.engschool.org.

[4] Moraga, Cherrie (September 1979). La Guera (PDF).Retrieved 2013-12-22.

[5] Cherre Moraga & The Welder"". Literature of Work-ing Women. Workingwomen.wikispaces.com. Retrieved2013-12-22.

[6] Cherrie Moraga: Chicana/o-Latina/o Studies. StanfordUniversity. Retrieved 2013-12-22.

[7] Moraga, Cherre L. (1983). Loving in the War Years.Boston: South End Press. p. 123. ISBN 0-89608-195-8.

[8] Cherrie Moraga: Assimilation and Activism. Introduc-tion to Comparative Queer Literary Studies. 2013-03-10.Retrieved 2013-12-22.

[9] Cherrie Moraga. Voices From the Gaps. University ofMinnesota. Retrieved 2013-12-22.

[10] Yarbro-Bejarano, Yvonne. The Wounded Heart: Writingon Cherre Moraga. Austin: University of Texas Press,2001.

[11] A Xicana Codex of Changing Consciousness: Writings,20002010

[12] Manus, Willard (March 13, 1998). Giving Up the Ghost,About a Chicana Lesbian, Opens Mar. 13 in San Diego.Playbill.

[13] Ivan Villanueva (December 13, 2011). Cherrie MoragaAims to Ignite a New Fire. The Advocate. Retrieved2011-12-18.

[14]

5[15] Cspedes, Erika Vivianna (2012-01-13). Moraga Re-turns With A New Fire; To Put Things Right Again. Sil-icon Valley De-Bug. Retrieved 2013-12-22.

[16] Cherrie Moraga Biography - (1952 ), This BridgeCalled My Back: Radical Writings by Women of Color.JRank Articles. Retrieved 2013-12-22.

[17] Moraga, Cherre L.: Heroes and Saints. NYU Schoolof Medicine. 1998-02-19. Retrieved 2013-12-22.

[18] THE HUNGRY WOMAN - Cherrie Moraga. SmallPress Distribution. Retrieved 2013-12-22.

[19] VG/Voices from the Gaps Project: Merideth R. Clearyand Erin E. Fergusson

[20] Short, Kayann. Coming to the Table: The Dierential Pol-itics of This Bridge Called my Back, Genders 19 (1994):pp. 4-8.

12 External links Ocial site Cast Out: Queer Lives in Theater (University ofMichigan Press, edited by Robin Bernstein) includesMoragas essay, And Frida Looks Back: The Art ofLatina/o Queer Heroics.

Esta puente, mi espalda: Voces de mujeres tercer-mundistas en los Estados Unidos (co-editor, 1988).San Francisco: ism press. ISBN 978-0-910383-19-6 (paperback); ISBN 978-0-910383-20-2 (hard-cover)

6 13 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

13 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses13.1 Text

Cherre Moraga Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherr%C3%ADe_Moraga?oldid=668326345 Contributors: Kingturtle, Whisper-ToMe, Bearcat, David Gerard, OldakQuill, Jossi, D6, Rich Farmbrough, Stephen, Nklatt, Bgwhite, Pigman, Bruxism, Jaxl, Driskil3,Rockero, SmackBot, Evanreyes, Wizardman, Ser Amantio di Nicolao, BrownHairedGirl, Gobonobo, Irn, CmdrObot, Cydebot, Bcpots,Treybien, Aristophanes68, Alaibot, Berria, Dugwiki, Natalie Erin, Zigzig20s, Rachelnt, Xeno, Danedouard00, Waacstats, Mrathel, Koote-nayvolcano, Johnpacklambert, Ryan Postlethwaite, Aboutmovies, Danslation, Lawrlafo, Dakinijones, Sennen goroshi, Solar-Wind, Writer9,Kbdankbot, Addbot, Download, Yobot, Sulair.speccoll, AnomieBOT, Vilartatim, Wikignome0529, Omnipaedista, Ulaapstonall, DrilBot,Pensativa, RjwilmsiBot, Eve27 2009, Helpful Pixie Bot, JohnOFL, BZTMPS, BG19bot, Seergenius, Henriettapussycat, Mdy66, Amer-icasstudies, Myxomatosis57, Smashenhurst, VIAFbot, Rebecca1990, Awesomeness2013, Patria23, MoragaAuthor, Rfvperez, Kboeckl,Thelittlemuse, Richard Giddens Jr, KasparBot and Anonymous: 27

13.2 Images File:Books-aj.svg_aj_ashton_01.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Books-aj.svg_aj_ashton_01.svg

License: CC0 Contributors: http://www.openclipart.org/cgi-bin/navigate/education/books (note: the link no longer works since reorga-nization of the OpenClipArt website). Original artist: Original author: AJ Ashton (on OpenClipArt). Code xed by verdy_p for XMLconformance, and MediaWiki compatibility, using a stricter subset of SVG without the extensions of SVG editors, also cleaned up manyunnecessary CSS attributes, or factorized them for faster performance and smaller size. All the variants linked below are based on thisimage.

File:Edit-clear.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f2/Edit-clear.svg License: Public domain Contributors: TheTango! Desktop Project. Original artist:The people from the Tango! project. And according to the meta-data in the le, specically: Andreas Nilsson, and Jakub Steiner (althoughminimally).

13.3 Content license Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

Early lifeBiographyLesbianismBooksWorkSelected bibliographySelected critical works on Cherre MoragaAwards See alsoReferencesNotesExternal linksText and image sources, contributors, and licensesTextImagesContent license