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92
is writing about are not of that land. “Foreign” and “stranger” both also
indicate an outsider. The doubling of what are essentially synonyms
reinforces the shock of what is to follow and immediately signals that the
interlopers are not visitor but invaders. Castillo then refuses call horses
by name, preferring to call them what they may be called by someone who
had never seen a horse – “four-legged/ creatures.” The ignorance of
knowing the name for a horse in compounded by the ignorance of the
people in not recognizing the danger presented by the invaders. Instead,
they “bow” and do not drive the “white foreign strangers” out of their
land. This forced subservience results in a loss not only of culture (“and
nothing anymore/ was our own”) but even of the color of their skin, which
became “the color of caramel.” It is not clear whether Castillo means this
metaphorically or if she is alluding to the literal lightening of skin through
miscegenation.
The final stanzas bring us back to the present and to the legacy of
conquest:
Yet we bowed,
as we do now –
On buses
going to factories
where “No Help Wanted” signs
Object Description
| Title | "As shelters against the cold": women writers of the Black Arts and Chicano movements, 1965-1978 |
| Author | Ryder, Ulli Kira |
| Author email | uryder@usc.edu; uryder@gmail.com |
| Degree | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | American Studies & Ethnicity |
| School | College of Letters, Arts and Sciences |
| Date defended/completed | 2008-08-27 |
| Date submitted | 2008 |
| Restricted until | Restricted until 27 October 2010. |
| Date published | 2010-10-27 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | McKenna, Teresa |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Sanchez, George J. Johnson, Dana |
| Abstract | This dissertation examines the work of women writers in the Black Arts and Chicano movements during the years 1965-1978. I argue that understanding the intersectional nature of the women's experiences is crucial for understanding their literary output. Further, I argue that Chicanas and African American women of this era challenged homogenous notions of community and racial identity and that we can trace the development of the Third World feminism and multiculturalism that came to the fore in the 1980s to this earlier period. Thus, this study also impacts the way we conceptualize identity formation and the creation of the literary canon. Investigating the ways in which these women integrated nationalist and feminist rhetoric and activism in their work is crucial for a full understanding of this critical period in U.S. history. At stake is an understanding of how Chicana and African American women in the United States have formed identities and communities; struggled for liberation and equality; and become part of the U.S. literary canon. |
| Keyword | Black Power; Black Arts movement; Chicano movement; civil rights; racial identity formation; womanism; borderlands theory; feminism; Third World feminism; nationalism; intersectionality |
| Geographic subject (country) | USA |
| Coverage date | 1965/1978 |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m1698 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Rights | Ryder, Ulli Kira |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Filename | etd-Ryder-2415 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume40/etd-Ryder-2415.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 97 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@lib.usc.edu |
| Full text | 92 is writing about are not of that land. “Foreign” and “stranger” both also indicate an outsider. The doubling of what are essentially synonyms reinforces the shock of what is to follow and immediately signals that the interlopers are not visitor but invaders. Castillo then refuses call horses by name, preferring to call them what they may be called by someone who had never seen a horse – “four-legged/ creatures.” The ignorance of knowing the name for a horse in compounded by the ignorance of the people in not recognizing the danger presented by the invaders. Instead, they “bow” and do not drive the “white foreign strangers” out of their land. This forced subservience results in a loss not only of culture (“and nothing anymore/ was our own”) but even of the color of their skin, which became “the color of caramel.” It is not clear whether Castillo means this metaphorically or if she is alluding to the literal lightening of skin through miscegenation. The final stanzas bring us back to the present and to the legacy of conquest: Yet we bowed, as we do now – On buses going to factories where “No Help Wanted” signs |
