32 - The Insubordination of Latina Literature

Summary

While Latina literature cannot be understood as an absolute phenomenon but rather as a heterogeneous cultural practice drawing from the diverse genealogies of women’s specific ethnic backgrounds, the attempt to challenge gender norms, heteronormativity, and power relations must be considered paramount. As demonstrated in the influential writings of Gloria Anzaldúa and Cherríe Moraga, the act of writing is a powerful tool of liberation that embraces the potentiality of collective creativity and oppositional consciousness, what this essay terms the insubordination of Latina literature. This approach foregrounds texts that formulate discursive acts in which literary and political categories propose radical social and cultural transformations. I begin by examining the works of Anzaldúa and Moraga, whom I consider prominent contributors to a U.S. Latina literary renaissance emerging after the Civil Rights and Women’s Liberation movements. In the essay’s second half, I trace the development of U.S. Latina literature in the 20th century’s last two decades and the 21st century, reading Latina literature in the context of queer, lesbian, and feminist epistemologies.