Mujerista moviemaking: Chicana filmmakers Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo

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Content MUJERISTA MOVIEMAKING: CHICANA FILMMAKERS SYLVIA MORALES AND LOURDES PORTILLO by Teresa "Osa" Hidalgo-de la Riva A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY CINEMA-TELEVISION (CRITICAL STUDIES) August 2 004 Copyright 2004 Teresa "Osa" Hidalgo-de la Riva Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 3145209 Copyright 2004 by Hidalgo-de la Riva, Teresa (Osa) All rights reserved. INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. ® UMI UMI Microform 3145209 Copyright 2004 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. DEDICATION this is dedicated to all my relations past, present, and future — my wild flowered and royal mestiza familia a special aesthetic and activist thanxxxx — to the effort of enduring generations who for many many moons, across several continents, survive, create and blossom. via the power of mujerista visions, a treatise wishing to focus on the arrival into some rainbowed peace and love of a cosmic and global village. con safos siempre, y que/ Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE of CONTENTS Page DEDICATION PAGE ii ABSTRACT ................... _ vi POETIC PREFACE: Dear Reader viii - - WHAT'S at STAKE for ME? ix - - CYBER CAFE COMMmiCATIONS~-'~~MoreJia~'~Mic¥oacan~.......... Mexico xvi - - WHY is this''THWsYs'YMPORTmT'To''cULTU^'NOW?~~^~xxii CHAPTER ONE - INTRODUCTION 1 MERA MERA MEDIA MAKERS: Agents of Creative Change in the Age of Movimiento A. THESIS and FOCUS of STUDY 1 - - MERA MERA MOVIE-MIENTO MEDIA 'MAKERS........................"............... "” ’2 B. DEFINITION of TERMS and ISSUES RELATED''io''MUJERISTA' MOVING IMAGE CULTURE 5 - - MUJERISTA MODES of PRODUCTIONS'"..........................................”......"lO - - FURTHER DEFINITIONS of KEY CALO 'CONCEPTS..................... 14 C. HOW this STUDY BREAKS NEW GROUND ~~2 8 -- ISSUES of IDENTITY: And Of Coming"Out 4 7 D. BRIEF OVERVIEW of the REST of the STUDY''"'""'~~~~~~''' ........""'”54 CHAPTER TWO................................................. 71 DISCOVERY''of'xiCIWA''FILM'GOm ''WOMW'CENTRIC MOTHERS and FAMILIAS - Brief Bios and Career Herstories - - SYLVIA MORALES - BRIEF BIO and CAREER HERSTORY 74 - - LOURDES PORTILLO - BRIEF BIO and CAREER HERSTORY79 - - The LARGER PICTURE: The Struggle Against the Existing Racial and Gender Restrictions 89 - - CHI CANO CINEMA BEGAN RAW and PROUD..............................................94 - - DISCOVERY of XICANA FILM GODDESSES YIdentity "and......... Movement Politics 105 iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER THREE........................... 135 The DEBUT " mDJERI'sT ~ a "M0VIEs ''^ LOURDES PORTILLO; The Movement Between Fiction and Documentary — MUJERISTA AESTHETICS and ACTIVISM in LA CHI CANA 135 - - QUAKING/SHAKING MOTHER EARTH: Terremoto and Other"" Natural Un-Rest 155 - - DISCOURSE on the DIFFERENCES "and" SIMILARITIES....... IDENTITY and MOVEMENT POLITICS ..... 168 - - The EMPERORrS NEW CLOTHES: On Performing Radical Popular Cultural Criticism 171 - - FICTION/DOCUMENTARY and NEW " cHICANA"STYLES".....................179 - - Documentary . 181 CHAPTER FOUR................................ 205 The CINEMAT'lc'"BODY"'of'"SYLVIA"MORALES (TRANS)FORMED: The Evolution of Sylvan Productions — The HOPE of FICTION.............................. _ 209 CHAPTER FIVE................................ 227 The CINEMATi'c"'BODY""of"'LOU^ES"'PORTILLO .......... (TRANS)FORMED: The Evolution of Xochitl Productions — POEMS, PRAYERS, and PROMISES of PAYBACK 255 — COMPARISONS and CONTRASTS _ 2 62 A. Two Styles of Geopolitics 262 B. Collaborations with Chicano Male Counterparts 267 CHAPTER SIX ..............._........................................................................................... 277 MUJERISTA RE-READINGS: The Ideology and Image of Love — FURTHER TALES of LA VIDA LOCA P/V - - SISTERS are DOIN’ it for THEMSELVES 277 - - SEXUAL HEALING in LA LIMPIA _.................... 278 — TRANSFORMING DESIRE and BAL~ANCE"in"C0RPU's'" ...........2 94 - - COMPARISON and CONTRAST of LA LIMPIA and "CORPUS..........309 - - A GIANT STEP for WOMANKIND: Liberating Mujerista....... Erotica and the Mujerista Moviemaking of Morales and Portillo 314 iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ■BIBLIOGRAPHY 324 APPENDIX 342 A. INTERVIEWS - - With Sylvia Morales by Osa 342 — With Lourdes Portillo by Osa 358 B. FILM/VIDEOGRAPHY 394 - - Sylvan Productions 395 - - Xochitl Productions 398 - - Royal Eagle Bear Productions c/s 400 v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo are two of the most influential Chicana filmmakers of the 21st century. These mujerista moviemakers stand as vital examples of how women of color, through self-representation in film, gain political empowerment and experience personal healing. They continue to be inspirations and mentors to many Chicana filmmakers. They helped others heal from the misrepresentations and under representations of the past, not only in the mass media, but also from Chicano, white feminist, gay and lesbian communities, which have all marginalized or left out women of color, and lesbian women of color. When I speak in terms of "mujerista healing” for the purpose of this project, I define and use this term metaphorically and qualitatively, rather than quantitatively or literally. More specifically, these definitions aim towards and derive from neospiritual womanist/mujerista visions of ancient matrilineal non-western ways of thinking and being. This study gives a basic comparative overview of their respective lives and careers as mujerista artistas; the different career paths that were available to pursue vl Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and also that they were restricted to, and their struggles against the existing racial and gender restrictions. It also explains why it is valuable to examine their work together: e.g., its historical emergence at a particular crucial cultural and political moment, and location and the ability to compare and use various strategies in dealing with the same obstacles. A comparative analysis of Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo's respective bodies of work offers the ways in which these films specifically address the movement between fiction and documentary, the focus on women's issues, the familial context, and the political issues of the time. It emphasizes major points and illustrates them by referring to all of the various works — including first/early works, production, reception, and criticism. This comparative dimension also comes out in the examination of their styles, themes, uses of different genres and tones, and their changing political engagements, emphasizes major points, and illustrating them by referring to their various works. An APPENDIX containing several interviews with Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo follows. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. POETIC PREFACE: Dear Reader... Well, I wanted to begin this discourse, this immediate task of writing a dissertation, in the form of a personal letter, because this level of writing is more primary, basic, informal and direct. For survival purposes, as a world traveler woman, I trust this type of "talk" or "discourse" most. On the other hand, in the world of academia and private patriarchal towers of highest education, I desire a hybrid mix of lingo, siempre. For survival purposes, the level of the personal transforms within the geographic political historically specific self, into the un, sub, meta and supra modes of consciousness. This is why I find it necessary to speak in a more "common language" first. In respect to the immediate task I've chosen, I am also curious to develop a reasonably sustained argument that would contribute in a progressive way to overall world thought and culture. At the same time, I walk a tightrope balancing act to stay true to so many values, her-stories, and languages at war with what is compulsory world knowledge indoctrinated/permeated within U.S. public schools as what is supposedly true world democracy and his-tory. So viii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. what about OUR story? Maya Angelou already told us 'Why that Caged Bird Sings. '1 Yet, I know in my heart, and with my blood, that something is wrong with this picture. Calor Ebonics and other forms/modes of linguistic mutations, alternations and transformations are readily accepted in this treatise/dissertation.2 The occasional use of ancient "flor y canto" will be encouraged as a coping strategy to deal with the harsh realities of living in occupied Aztlanr realities that are seldom forgotten within the discourse of this dissertation.3 WHAT'S at STAKE for ME? In this mode of self-conscious experimentation with form and content in this project, I intend to remain playful with the seriousness of proper Queen's English. I reckon if necessary, I could argue further for this attempt to rupture and challenge limits and boundaries of academic discourse (university/universe/universal knowledge) vernacular. As a teacher in numerous social institutions, I have discovered that the bridge between the highly literate and the growing epidemic of world illiteracy is one of the immediate crises for which higher academic elitism is directly responsible.4 ix Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Nevertheless, for survival purposes I understand the importance at particular times to stay metaphorical, evasive, and subversive in language. Subcultural icons of meaning that need to stay free from the confines of too rigid rules and regs custom made to protect, serve, and feed hegemonic world culture censors. Dick Hebdige offers a pointed explanation of how these subcultural meanings come about to subvert dominant paradigms - and simultaneously how global capitalism continues to rapidly subsume/consume any original attempts through the commodification of popular cultural symbols and fetishes.5 Language is a most basic form of symbolic meaning and for relationships of how consciousness is represented in both thought and culture. For example, for some, Alice in Wonderland didn't stop burning her bra and punching her pillow. And for Others, Alicia en Aztlan couldn't find "enuf" to pay the bills, feed and clothe the kids.6 Personally, what motivates me to accept this mission, this task, this gift of writing a doctoral dissertation is that I am very interested on both micro and macro levels in a mujerista aesthetics and activism. On the micro level, I am interested in how Chicana x Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. veterans filmmakers Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo have individually created and survived as women artists, and how their works have helped create audience/spectator positions that generate a diverse range of responses. At this level I take the liberty to interject my own experience as part of another generation of xxxxicana film/video makers, whose works reveal an array of productive similarities and differences.7 As important role models to many, these two women develop a nueva Chicana feminista/vomanist point of view and have offered inspiration, continual support and encouragement of live hands-on access for future generations of Xicana film/video makers. Included in this group of beneficiaries are Frances Salome Espana, Nancy de los Santos, Eloise de Leon, Berta Jottar, Olivia Chumacero, Maria Elena Chavez and her tocaya Cortinas, Aurora Guerrero, Maritza Alvarez, Susana Moreno, and Womyn Image Makers (WIM) east of Los Angeles, to name a few. I would like to acknowledge that I am thankful to be one of the film/video makers that Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo have influenced. On the macro level, I wish to understand how these two directors function and survive as cultural producers X! Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. in a particular moment in history, the contemporary realm. Of major interest is the dialectic of how their works have already influenced and can continue to influence the shaping of particular cultures and how those cultures have influenced and shaped these media makers. On this level, current local/global, socio economic, personal and political dimensions are collectively understood. For example, I am concerned with the question "Is there a Chicana aesthetic?" And, more particular, "Is there a mujerista aesthetic?" If so, what is the difference between these two terms, that is, between Chicana and mujerista and their respective aesthetics? The first time I heard and recall registering the concept "mujer" was in the early 1970's as I came into my own Chicana consciousness. As a child my p a p i took us via long hot road trips from south side stocktone, califas, to his borderland hometown of del rio, tejas. I heard from tios and primos that mujeres were to stay at home in the kitchen, cleaning, cooking the next meals, doing laundry, and taking care of the smallest children. My dad, however, allowed his girls to go fishing with the men. Even the preparation for this outing was a big xii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. event: getting bait and tackle, picking up all the fisher-men and boys, throwing them in the back of the truck, getting ice, snacks, and finally last but not least important, gassing up and getting enough cervezas. I soon realized that once the camp was set up and the fishing lines were cast, these men spent a good amount of time drinking the tons of beer they had brought. And regarding the role of women, after watching the men after their "hard" day to bring home the fresh fish, I learned early on of the different privileges traditionally allowed Mexican men but not women. The border between gender roles didn't make that much difference at the time. I was so proud and thankful that my father didn't enforce the same rules for my little sister and me. He allowed us a choice between staying and working at home with the women, or joining in on these fishing excursions. Once I decided to stay with the mujeres because there was a cousin who was just too sweet to me. But still, the day was torture. To me all the work the women did was by far, more laborious than what their male counterparts were up to. Not only that, even though I had a language barrier, being that English was my first xiii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and only language at the time (and I was still having problems with that European language, probably still am in certain circles, let alone the romantic Spanish language), from what I could understand, the females basically preoccupied themselves with a different type of chat I wasn't too happy with. They talked about the men, the boys, the children, gossip about other women, children and families - things that just didn't seem too interesting to me. Many many years later in lesbxana San Francisco I heard of and joined a group called MUJERIO. For awhile, one of my sisters and my mother were members as well. I always wondered why a group of radical political Latina lesbianas would use the traditional Spanish masculine gender ending MUJERIO for a group that consisted solely of females. I had heard that in proper patriarchal Spanish if there were a room of a thousand females and one single male, they would be described as ellos as opposed to the majority of ellas. Of course, that dynamic rule of grammar was not applied the opposite way. Basically, in Spanish language, males rule. I tried to change the name of the group for political reasons having to do with the sexism of the language, but the other xiv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. women wouldn't have it. To keep peace within myself I tried to understand it in terms that we were all so strong, and in a traditional patriarchal mindset, our lesbxana dynamics were as powerful as "men." If not, then even more so when considered in relation to a synergetic whole. Nevertheless, I continued to call the group MUJESRIA. Many of the mujeres would laugh it off saying it was the creation/mutation of an English-only speaking Chicana; I was once again only warping the Spanish language. By applying this term mujerxa to the filmmaking praxis of Portillo and Morales, I demonstrate my investment in the ways in which philosophical beliefs and practical implementation by these women and mothers of color, have advanced the idea and struggle for a better tomorrow through the raising of their children, Within their specific works I will attempt to decode, give the 411, size up, check out and rap about the findings. By representing our-selves on film, like Lourdes Portillo and Sylvia Morales, we can begin to heal the damage done through misrepresentation and under-representation. This dissertation explores the ways self-representation in movies can lead to healing via community building and xv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. self-empowerment, and more specifically focus on the importance of Chicana filmmakers Portillo and Morales, as examples of influential mujerista moviemakers. CYBER CAFE COMMUNICATIONS - Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico I am interested to see how historical events have created circumstances whereby Chicana filmmakers can do their work. I am equally interested in the content and poetics of these women's productions as well as their contextual situations. At the same time, interest in these external films and videos are relevant to the films and videos I internally envision. In understanding my own desire to create, I realize my creations have been fed by a familia's legacy of Chicana/o arte productions and activism on my Mother's side of the family. Women in my family have cuentos, contemporary ethnographic testimonios of cannery workers and working in the fields. As an example, and for the sake of testimonios, my own mother as young Chicana artista in the San Joaquin Valley taught arte at several regional migrant camps with youth in the mid 60's. In more recent herstory, during these past few decades various younger women are forgetting important cultural-political events that were "before xvi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. their time." For example, my mother was involved in several cannery strikes in Stockton, California, which were not documented. White feminists such as Robin Morgan, in her classic SISTERHOOD IS POWERFUL anthology, addressed some of the socio-political organizing that was taking place with women during the late 1960's and early 1970's in the U.S., during the second wave of feminism (but not as many women of color were documented).8 I would like to briefly share the multiplicity of levels at work in understanding this evolution of a familia de artistas. My grandfather, abuelo Gabriel Francisco and my grandmother Angela's brother Domingo Rubio helped form a Latino literary organization in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1920's. My grandfather was a poet and it has been said that he wrote a wide range of verse, which unfortunately has mysteriously disappeared over time.9 Abuela Angela was said to have painted at some time in her life and taught painting on a small scale from home. Co-founder of the COT, Dolores Huerta tells me a cuento that she and one of these grandparents' eldest daughter, ml tla Lucy, actually had a social club while in high school in Stocktone, Callfas. For several xvii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. dances, they actually had their young guy friends at the time carry one of the only console radio/record players from my grandparents' home, across the train tracks on foot to the party place. I found that story hilarious. Youth will do nearly anything to party - across all times and places. At the writing of this, I am in Morelia, Mlchoacan where many of the Rubio's have lived for many generations. Domingo Rubio II, Angela's brother was Presidente Municipal, mayor of this capital city in 1939 and was involved in many socio-political affairs. This side of the familia had many politicians, educators and organizers. My father's side came to California as farmworkers from Texas. My dad, like many other Latinos in the U.S. served in the U.S. Armed Forces, as a sergeant in the Korean War. He retired as a postal worker receiving an honor for a perfect driving record for over forty years. He was interviewed and televised as one of Stocktone, Califas' first postmen to drive an electric mail truck. In the 1970's tia Celia took a silk screening course from Malaquias Montoya. The content of the art piece is political and privileges the UFW struggle, icon and colors. This tia Celia also self-published a book of xviii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. "gay woman's prose and poetry. "1 0 But it was mis abuelose youngest daughter, my mother Dolores Angela "Lola," who followed arte for a majority of her life and it is from this familial legacy that I have desired to create in film/video production - which of course is a combination of the creative writing spirit of mi abuelo, mi tia Celia, mi abuela, y mi mama's strength in various visual and literary mediums. All of my siblings, both brothers and both sisters are wonderful artistas in their own right, and I have had the honor to incorporate their creations in our mujerista movies. At a lesbxana encuentro I was invited to speak at in Mexico City, I was asked whether I believed "Aztlan" was real or a myth. I responded that I believe it is both. My experience living in East Los Angeles has reaffirmed this thought time and time again. And there are many others that feel the way I do. "Nation" and "home" are as vital to fight and die for, as it is to sense the illusion of such concepts in relation to a universalist perspective. The violence of patriarchal history perpetually reconfirms the idea that I am indeed invested in the notion of Aztlan, in the collective political xix Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. unconscious of such brothers as Alurista's poetic ode regarding the Aztecs, and their ancient homeland 'to the North.' Nevertheless, at the hand of our own familias we have been oppressed, in the same vein in turn to internalize our own multiple forms of oppressions. As sisters Pat Parker and Audre Lorde endowed future generations with the power of feeding spirits nearly broken, we must continue to question our pains, while singing a song of unconditional love. "How do we break these chains laying strange?" chanted Parker.11 In the early 70's, during the origins of the predominantly white women's studies department at California State University at " Iro n g o , "1 2 I organized a women's cultural week/nite with women musicians Margie Adams and Vickie Randle. I was honored as well that Pat Parker came to read poetry. That evening just before I brought her to campus, she told me to grab some of my poetry that I had previously shared only with her, close friends and famllia.1 3 She said she wouldn't read publicly that evening unless I did also. It was only a few hours before the show was to begin! Therefore, I was forced to perform my first public poetry reading, and realize today what a blessing in disguise her considerate action was. I am so thankful xx Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. in one way or an-other, that Pat Parker "brought me out," in this creative public performance nueva orxda. Now, in retrospect, I realize the importance of encouraging other sisters to share their artwork with others as well. Voices that seldom are heard and experiences that are rarely given space and time to be expressed is what most liberation movements dealt with during the advent of the Civil Rights Era. Today, victims are encouraged to speak out - to assist in the process of healing. In East Los Angeles, I am having the privilege to encounter and encourage many young Chicana/Latina sisters to find access to newer technologies, film, and video, to tell, to yell, to sing, to dance, to cry, to write their own stories - by any means necessary. We must keep face and strength before all elements of oppression - and finally we must learn, through a humane and loving practice, how to transform our contemporary dis-eased socio-political and environmental reality into one of health. Paulo Freire's method to teach literacy was to use elements of the native common language and recognition of common sounds and words.1 4 To teach literacy leads to knowledge, self-determination and empowerment. There are so many rhetorical questions xxi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. to ask in relation to why it is that human beings have remained in states of war, headed via chaos into massive forms of destruction. If nearly a few metaphorical moments before or after a midnite strike somewhere around a newer millennium that we remain stagnant, and even retroactively deaf, dumb and blind to a true democracy, then allow this current treatise to join in solidarity with a long line of radical struggle. WHY is this THESIS IMPORTANT to CULTURA NOW? I was able to hear a talk/discourse by rapper Chuck D when I visited Harvard University for a graduate student of color recruitment event. Introduced by Professor Cornel West, Chuck D spoke about the importance of "HIJACKING THE MEDIA." He explained that behind every corporation there are individuals. These lessons of not to give unnecessary power to entities that we know little of, are also taught in the film THE WIZARD OF OZ (1939). That is, that many of the people in power positions, as we discover of the wizard in the plot of the journey to Oz, are merely human like us, and that it's really no big deal to negotiate at various levels. This fear is Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. demystifying people of color's involvement in otherwise white male centered arenas. As women of color, for example, living in America and dealing with Anglo/Eurocentricism and male dominated corporations, systems and other state apparatuses, we must understand the reason for culture shock. When two oppositional forms of consciousness interact, there is an array of possible outcomes. These dynamics may include appropriation, integration, hybridization as positive, negative, and at times, I believe, even neutral energy forces. These experiences happen at both micro and macro levels of human evolution and re-evolution. With respect to issues of living healthy and striving for global democracy, this dissertation project also includes a self-reflexive archaeology of my-self (mind, body and creative spirit). I do this to keep aware of my own positioning as filmmaker, video artist, and cultural critic. I do this to evaluate simultaneously a her-story of our neo-tribe, reinscribing ancient wisdom with the flow of a pen - or a cyberspace wave. This is a contemporary ethnographic deconstruction of a highly technological mutant virgin puta hybrid culture continually being reborn. In an age of a cosmic xxiii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. race, la raza cosmica reconstructs newer visions of utopia - in an otherwise dystopic late patriarchal postmodern pathological disorder.1 5 This is a simple and yet highly technological song written in freedom and bound to the rhythms of the rainbow. Lastly, this dissertation is a passage of change for a xxxxicana identified woman learning to master the queen's language, and the king's logic.1 6 And as it was in the beginning and as it is at the end of this Fifth Sun,1 1 for example, experiencing what is healing for the U.S. lesbxana de color. I believe studying the works of Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo can help me answer that question more accurately than most Hollywood films I have seen. This pedagogical journey also has both a micro and macro level - as a personal one that I am following and as the basis for an alternative curriculum for transformational transcultural awareness. It is in this interplay between these two levels, my subjects - Morales and Portillo and my readers - that I find the importance and potential healing power of cinema. Almost any alter-Native attempts at positively progressive change are exciting in this day and age. In this space and time, I observe and feel as both xxiv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ethnographic participant and observer in this study. A transcultural human cosmology remains in my political unconscious, and as crystal clear as an ancient lengaa nearly lost. In the words and images of these dynamic powerful image makers, multiple lessons and quests for cinematic sovereignty and healing ring loud and clear. From their works, lower budgets, and at times (I can speak for myself), not only "low income," but "no income" realities, still have the magic of survival at hand. At the forefront of creativity, as important parts of a whole Chicana/o, women's, lesblana de color, Movimientos, the beat goes on. And it's been the rhythm of these drums I continue to follow. To begin this document, my bear senses warn me that I am electronically connected - flying on a cyberspaced symphony of dancing keys. Unfolding the dramatic landscapes of the heart, molding into a story, simultaneous purposeful and aspiring towards a universal void and universal responsibility. From the depth of a multidimensional, multiethnic, multisexual, multigalactic, multimedia expression out come these pouring words to you. In the goal of a dissertation I am constantly evolving into the synthesis of this XXV Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. transcultural space-time, I cannot but help rite these words away, from the least, and from the most - at an honorable purpose towards progressive and maybe more often than not, radical experiential stance and sensibility. For these reasons of survival, I am granted the freedom of this POETIC PULSE - and for all this, and more, and forever in the tune of loving all my relations, con safos, y que.1 8 xxvi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ' See Maya Angelou's powerful and early work I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIND SINGS, (New York: Bantam Books), 1983. 2 Ca.16 is a mix of Spanish/English. Mainly adopted, created, mutated, used by the contemporary Chicana/o. Cal6 is barrio talk, and lessons graffitied on the walls. The importance of having our language, which is related to class, race, sexuality, age, and all of our cultural identities, is even more vital in today1 , s world I believe. In our postmodern world, the media instantly portrays the haves and the have-nots with greater speed. June Jordan's brilliant analysis of the relationships between language, consciousness and identity says it all very clearly. Jordan writes: "YOU WILL NEVER TEACH A CHILD A NEW LANGUAGE BY SCORNING AND RIDICULING A m FORCIBLY ERASING HIS FIRST LANGUAGE. We can and we ought to join together to protect our Black children, our Black language, our terms of our reality, and our defining of the future we dream and desire....In our daily, business phone calls, in our "formal" correspondence with whites, in what we publish let us dedicate ourselves to the revelation of our true selves, on our given terms, and demand respect for us, as we are. Let us study and use our Black language, more and more: it is not A Mistake, or A Verbal Deficiency.... Our Black language is a political fact suffering from political persecution and political malice. Let us xxvii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. understand this and meet the man, politically; let us meet the man talking' the way we talk; let us not fail to seize this means to our survival, despite white English and its power. Let us condemn. white English for what it i s - , a threat to mental health, integrity of person, and persistence as a people of our own choosing. ... in the struggle to reach each other, there can be no right or wrong words for our longing and our needs; there can only be the name® that we trust and we try." (p. 67) (emphasis mine) These powerful words of recently passed poet Professor June Jordan ring so true. We must condemn "white English for what it is: a threat to mental health...," It will take so long, if at all possible to undo standardized repressive rules and regulations that in turn silence our students of color's stories and ideas. Throughout this dissertation, identity politics are used through the form of language known as cald. All naming a newer identity and issues to fight and struggle for your nation, your people. Yet, a name or language can be as allusive as a metaphor in a poem. See June Jordan's CIVIL WARS (Boston: Beacon Press), 1981. 3 Aztlan is many things to many people. Fundamentally, it is the U.S. occupied Southwest. Some believe it is the "mythical" homeland, "the land to the North" for the Aztecs. See Culture Clash' es LISE, DEATH AND REVOLUTIONARY COMEDY (New York: Theatre Communications Group), 1998. p. xxi. xxviii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. See Edward Said's questioning methodology and his discussion on the personal/political role of being a contemporary cultural critic. In his Introduction to ORIENTALISM, Said says he writes at three different levels, at times making the practicing academic/scholar feel as if he is being too repetitive. What I like is that Said also attempts to reinterpret, or break down the languages and levels of discourse to yet another level for the budding academic or scholar. Therefore, his writings and treatises can be made available to undergraduates. I find this level to be crucial politically for any progressive attempt at bridging the gap between the highly literate and those not as literate in regards to the proper high theory jargon. I think also of the young Chicana/o students I worked with at UC Santa Barbara. It was very important for them to have access to thinkers of color, such as Edward Said to be able to develop strategies for understanding contemporary cultural criticism, and for use in the process of writing about their analysis. See Edward Said's ORIENTALISM (New York: Vintage), 1979. 5 See Dick Hebdige's SUBCULTURE: The Meaning of Style (London and New York: Methuen), 1979. b Inspired by Ntozake Shange's choreopoem fox coloxed girls who considered suicide when the rainbow is ezmf (New York: MacMillan), 1975. This masterpiece is a radical rupture from traditional American English literature. This text has proven instrumental in xxix Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. building self-esteem with young women of color I've taught. Especially those "tested" (sic) and considered "illiterate." Early forms of written ebonies in action to rupture/alter/transform the structure of rigid English language courses, as well as the ultra radical advance of promoting the idea of the 'god self' found within women of color. 7 What is so cool about chicana/Xicana/xxicana/xxxxicana caliuxa, is that there is freedom to define your-self, and hopefully respect for our own particular cultural definitions. These identities and positionings are changeable in and amongst themselves. For example, I take poetic license to manipulate, mutate, deviate, and situate, my-self within an eternal movement — away from static definitions and mind-sets. Into the head, heart and spirit of la iraeva chicana, la nuava mujer. 8 See Robin Morgan, ed. SISTERHOOD IS POWERFUL (New York: Vintage Books), 1970. 9 In the Introduction to an early Chicano literary classic, my maternal grandfather Gabriel Francisco Dela Riva {from Aguas Calientes, Zacatecas), and great uncle, Domingo Rubio (Presidente Municipal, or Mayor of Morelia, Michoacan in the late 1930's) are documented as "Chicano" writers and organizers. Herminio Rios states: Gabriel Dela Riva is another writer whose works must also form XXX Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. a part of the Mexican American literary tradition (see page xiii) . Dela Riva was one of the founders of the UNION QBRERA HISPANOAMER.XGABA that organized a chapter in Berkeley, California in 1922. He was active in VELADAS LXTEEARAS all' around the San Francisco Bay area. His poetic works reflect a wide knowledge of Greek mythology and reveal a deep understanding and a sympathetic attitude towards the Mexican American struggles of his day. (xv) Quoted from He mini o Rios' s Introduction in Tomas Rivera's . . . Y NO SE LO TRAGO LA TIERRA/...AND THE EARTH DID NOT PART (Berkeley; Editorial Justa Publications, Inc., 1977 and Berkeley; QUINTO SOL Publications), August 1971. 10 See Celia de la Riva Rubio's LAj GRIMAS Y OWENAS/CHAXNS AND TEARS: Poesla. y Prose Feminists y del Axdsiente/Gay Feminist Prose and Poetry (Morelia, Michoacan, Mexico: Colectivo Artistico Morelia, A. C.), 1994. 11 See Pat Parker's PIT STOP (San Francisco: Diana Press), 1973. 12 See Maylei Blackwell's UC Santa Cruz dissertation chapter on 1970's Eastside Longo. GEOGRAPHIES OF DIFFERENCE: Mapping Multiple Feminist Insurgencies and Transnational Public Cultures In the Americas (UC Santa Cruz: History of Consciousness Board of Studies), 2000. xxxi Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. My alter-Native familia - my dad who recently passed, my brothers and straight haxmanita have been very loving and tolerant of our several membered lesJbi ana-identified dyke dominated majaxiata familia/ neo-tribe, 14 See Freire, Paulo. PEDAGOGY OF THE OPPRESSED? (New York: Continuum Book), 1970. 15 La Raza Co arnica originated with the positivist Mexican philosopher Jose Vasconcelos. Although some are critical of his strong Christian emphasis, and also fear that this ideology could lead to racist overtones, the concept has been incorporated by many la eolfcura chicana. In discussing the idea that there are four basic orginal races of black, red, yellow and white, within time, a fifth race would inevitably, evolve in part from a mixture of the aforementioned races. This newer "cosmic race" would have the ability, if employed, to be evolved from the greatest and worst of all of the root civilizations and races. See Jose Vasconcelos, LA RAZA COSMICA: Mision da la Rama Ibaxo-Amexicaxa (Mexico: Aguilar S.A. de Ediciones, 1961). 16 The ”X" may connote a fluid variable, the trickster, or maybe even the X chromosome. In the poetic imaginary, we might see the doubling of that chromosome X, coincidentally, which allows for the biological composition (XX) of the human FEMALE. Doubling of the xxxii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. female {XX) equals {xxxx), symbolizes two females, and/or for me, 1 7 El QOINTO SOL, literally "the fifth sun" is an important term to the Chicano people. It is based on the pre-columbian thought and culture that we are currently living under the fifth sun and there have been four previous suns, which were destroyed by various causes. In the end of each epoch, peoplekind have had the opportunity, and power to change the circumstances by their good deeds. In fact, it is believed that the idea of "Aztec sacrifice" of cutting out their hearts, was to offer them to the sun to keep it alive. There is still debate as to the validity of the actual sacrifice of tearing out hearts. Some believe they may have only had blood spilling ceremonies rather than the actual cutting out of hearts. The Hopi people believe we are in the fourth world, or sun, and the descrepancy with the 0lmec/Mayan/Toltec/Zopotec/Aztec/Chicana-tech calendario, or counting system is that we people, our consciousness is currently counted as a here-and now sun, thereby making it our fifth reality or world. This current fifth sun OLIN is to be destroyed by earthquakes and hunger somewhere around the Gregorian calendar years of 2011 to 2020 AD. 18 In CEICSMO ART: Resistance and Affirmation, 1965-1985, ed. by Richard Griswold del Castillo, Teresa McKenna, and Yvonne Yarbro- Bejarano, (Los Angeles: Regents of the University of California) xxxiii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 1991. P. 361-365 defines "eon safes" in their "Chicano Glossary of Terms" as: C/S: Usually seen in the C/S form, the initials stand for the motto "Con Safes." It is typically added at the bottom of a graffiti placa (as well as on murals) to serve as a charm against defacement. In the case of defacement, the C/S motto also warns that the same will happen to the offending party's placa. In the 1970's at Kresge College, UC Santa Cruz, as a part of the annual Chicano Art Show, I was invited to do a poetry reading. I came out publicly to my Chicana/o brothers and sisters, explaining that from my leabiaxia point of view (being that there were no definite origins for the word of "safes"), that it meant "with sappho," in my mind she was probably Africans and definitely an extra strong mo.jar. This would make sense, to use Sappho as a form of protection. For my first Master of Arts Degree orals examination I focused on the works of Gabriela Mistral, Lillian Heilman, and Sappho. There are several theories that Sappho was actually not native to Greece, but possibly from another location. She was described as rather short in stature and very dark skinned. I made the assumption she may have been an African woman but had her schools of art and preparing young maidens for marriage on the island of Lesbos, Greece, (Which is now ironically mainly referred to as the island of Mytilene, the actual capital city of Lesbos) probably due xxxiv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. to the negative connotations of "Lesbian citizens" from an island named Lesbos. Nevertheless, it is broadly agreed to that many ancient mummies were found to have the famous poet Sappho's poems on their tombs, which in part was a sign of honor. XXXV Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. these three arte-facts marked a giant step forward for indxgnena/Latina/Chicana womankind. Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo have continued to forge a Chicana mujerista aesthetic on film and video, which has influenced other Chicana/women of color moviemakers. MERA MERA MOVXE-MIENTO MEDIA MAKERS Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo are two of the most influential Chicana filmmakers of the 21st century. They stand as vital examples of how women of color, through self-representation in film, gain political empowerment and experience personal healing. They continue to be inspirations and mentors to many Chicana filmmakers. They helped others heal from the misrepresentations and under representations of the past not only in the mass media, but also from Chicano, white feminist, gay and lesbian communities, which have all marginalized or left out women of color, and lesbian women of color. At this point, "identity politics" become limiting. These labels don't always work for me. We're not fixed in the ways the labels suggest, but for now I am going to use these terms. Chicana lesbiana feminists familia filmmaking, or mujerista moviemaking. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER (ME INTRODUCTION - MERA MERA MEDIA MAKERS: Agents of Creative Change in the Age of Movimiento "A regenerating force An oracle and a bringer of joy, the storyteller is the living memory of her time, her people." Trinh T. Minh-ha1 A. THESIS and FOCUS of STUDY In 1978, one of the greatest ancient Native American artifacts of specifically female thought and culture was unearthed in COYOLXAUHQUI (moon goddess). Coincidentally, this was precisely the moment when both Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo were discovering their own creative potential and producing their first major independent films that were both released the following year (1979) - - Lourdes Portillo's AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE/DESPUES DEL TERREMOTO and Sylvia Morales's CHICANA. The emergence of 1 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo gracefully move between identity politics and movement politics. Where many theorists argue that these two entities are distinctly different and separated from each other, I would argue that they are "a continuum"... as long as we are still alive. Other theorists believe that "movement politics" are dead or now non-existent.2 Some who focus on defining their own identity and lobbying on the behalf of those who share it do not see a broader need for a political movement that relies on strategic coalitions to bring about political and social change. Whereas other U.S. women of color and I would argue that the two are connected and alive and maybe not always as "well" but nevertheless, alive and growing, and changing. This flux is what allows rebirth and transformational consciousness and identity, which is a philosophy that is cyclical in nature. Static notions are what causes stagnation, apathy, and death, and is linear thinking. Sylvia Morales's and Lourdes Portillo's lives and cinematic works help me see and validate these issues. For example, within their works Morales's and Portillo's filmmaking forms and contents are forever changing. They build upon defined notions of identity politics toward an open, day-to-day working in mujerista 3 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. movies that uses questions, as much as answers, to delve into subjects as varied as genres (remapping documentary and fiction boundaries) and points-of-view (envisioning movies on the individual, global and cosmic levels) . In arguing for the significance of these two filmmakers, Morales and Portillo, this study examines how their works have been foundational in four ways. First, they are politically engaged Latina filmmakers whose work negotiates between the politics of movements and identity politics (especially el movimiento chicano, the Women's Movement, Third World feminism)„3 Second, they are influential filmmakers whose works move between independent and mainstream practice, between documentary and fiction, and across various media (film, television, video, and "new" digital media). Third, they are filmmakers who see themselves working in competition and in cooperation with Latino male rivals/counterparts like Jesus Trevino, Luis Valdez, Gregory Nava, and Moctesuma Esparza. Fourth and last, but not least, they are '"MUJERISTA" filmmakers and nurturing 'lesbiana' mothers who address issues of gender, sexuality, race, class and family in their cinematic works, even though they don't explicitly deal with lesbian issues or choose to make Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. their lesbian sexuality explicit. Most often politics speak to the "rational" and the arts speak to the "emotional." Mujerista storytelling combines both modes of expression. Whereas the POETIC PREFACE concerned itself with my own personal stake in completing this dissertation, this INTRODUCTION lays out the project's thesis, focus of the study, and definition of relevant terms. Then it offers a brief discussion on how this study breaks new ground, and gives an overview of the chapters to follow. B. DEFINITION of TERMS and ISSUES RELATED to MUJERISTA MOVING IMUGE CULTURE Mujerista moviemaking. Making movies at all costs. Movies made with meanings. Meaning making mujeres in a better light. Listening to her-stories seldom heard. Bringing the entire familia with her to freedom. Freedom in accepting unconditional love and love of multicolored children. Promoting a peaceful world, sharing love, showing love to the world and all living energy. Healing with love through mujerista moviemaking. When I speak in terms of "mujerista healing" for the purpose of this section, I will define and use this term Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. metaphorically and qualitatively, rather than quantitatively or literally. More specifically, these definitions aim towards and derive from neospiritual womanist/mujerista visions of ancient matrilineal non western ways of thinking and being.4 The term mujerista is inspired by and, in part, an organic derivative from Alice Walker's popular definition of womanist. Walker playfully and seriously re-writes in both form and content, an-other definition of who we are as women and people of color. Her powerful definition of "womanist" explains that we are all colors. That at various times, especially in relationship to mental, physical and spiritual health, sometimes we women of color are separatists. Sometimes we love men and or women sexually...and very important, beyond and mixed with color and gender is a common legacy of our roots with his-story of slavery. It wouldn't be the first time we desire, realize, and escape to a place or time of freedom. In this liberatory way, as a Chicana lesbiana spectator I can experience, have and do experience the "movies" of Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo as "healing" to me and my kind. Through their mujerista movies, I feel a Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. continuation and connexion with the radical U.S. woman of color's struggle towards freedom. For the purposes of this project I define "movies" as all arts using moving images (film, video, 35mm, 16mm, 7 0mm, 8mm, slide shows, digital, television, etc). At MIT, Henry Jenkins and others have begun a new program in "Comparative Media Studies." I found it interesting in their publicity brochure that they defined "media" as everything from 'Advertisements, to Cyberspace, to Drum beats, to Smoke Signals.'5 Yet I would like to extend this definition of "media" even further to include storyboarding, lowrider cars, comic books, murals, tattoos, barrio graffiti, and body piercing. The "movies" for this project will include cinema, video, television, slide shows, digital and new media, pyramid murals, pectorals, and even large sand designs. If we are all on the Planet Earth and the planet is constantly rotating, then in actuality all images are constantly moving. The ancient pre-Columbian ancestors described this QUINTO SOL (Fifth Sun "OLXN") , the contemporary world in which we exist, "The Age of Movement." These concepts and beliefs are fundamental to the origins of the Chicana/o Movement's philosophy and 7 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. cosmology. Eventually all borders collapse and the "movies" for the purpose of this project can become " p a n - arte." And we should all be living pan-arte 24-7. Inspired by Alice Walker's womanist definition as aforementioned, the theory of mujerista moviemaking is comprised of seven elements, which are listed below but not necessarily in any hierarchical order. 1) A Mujerista Filmmaker loves her-self unconditionally and most often, radically. [RADICAL REALITY] She is a woman-identified-woman who has experienced/experiences emotional and actual physical love with another woman. [EROTIC/SEXUAL] As in Alice Walker's womanist definition #2 "A women who loves other women, sexually and/or non- sexually." 2) Mujerista Moviemaking is GETTING the job done [WILLFUL]. It is non-conventional in relationship to the traditional Hollywood studio system; it is successful in completion of productions and aimed toward the liberation of SELF and OTHERS; it is focused on making/finding ACCESS to technology ("by any means necessary"); its ideology informs its praxis; its praxis/methodology is 8 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. This is always in flux/changing/transforming, as with the sign of the times, the Age of Movement. 3) Mujerista Movies are E DU CATIONAL, but not in the traditional sense of indoctrinating/relegating/subordinating all people into a WASP patriarchal mindset, hegemony and work order. Rather, they offer a transformational experience about people, events, issues, and P.O.V. usually not dealt with/underrepresented and misrepresented in mainstream media. 4) Mujerista Filmmakers are activist in nature in that they redefine key words, reclaim and retell his-story from her-our-story of women of color and children of color, and women's P.O.V. [AUTHORITY] They also place women and people of color as central characters, and most often as protagonists [COURAGEOUS] 5) Mujerista Movies are interested in the familia and not xenophobic or homophobic, but are INCLUSIVE of various types of people, colors, genders, and sexualities. 6) Mujerista Moviemaking is concerned in a REAL way with progeny or teaching with others; familia, women, 9 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. people of color, feminist men, in the creative and production process as crewmembers. 7) Mujerista Moviemakers are important influences with the content of their works in regards to helping change society for the better, even if/especially not so concerned with rigid "politically correct" stances. [BEING "OUTLAWS"] Freedom to change and transform as necessary, as Alice Walker says, for " h e a l t h . " MUJERISTA MODES of PRODUCTIONS To heal is to "make whole or sound." In attempting to bring ourselves collectively and individually to a place of a more healthy existence and consciousness, we must create progressive and radical changes within existing established white patriarchal mono-cultural, one-dimensional cinematic stereotypes and industry, of the under- and mis-representation of people of color. In the majority of both Portillo's and Morales's cinematic works, Chicana/Latina/indigena women are definitely, blatantly the protagonists. This difference in representation from the start is a radical shift in cultural paradigms, contrasting both with mainstream 10 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Hollywood, and with the cinematic cnentos of Chicano barrio boys. Also, we mujeres de color fare better in our own representations by Morales and Portillo than in those of white, middle class feminists, and predominantly Anglo gay and lesbian film festivals at "home" in the U.S. The ultimate importance these two filmmakers know and show, is that filmmaking can be healing. Art in itself can be therapeutic. For me as a filmmaker, they as mentors have shown me that Chicanas can make films from beginning to end: do titles, add music, tell some important stories, and convey important content. For example, Lourdes Portillo told us audience members at the San Diego Latino Film Festival, that she decided to shoot CORPUS: A Home Movie for Selena (1999), on video because she didn't want to take that much time securing funding for film. Here, the urgency of mega superstar Selena Quintanilla's story needed to be told from Portillo's P.O.V. as director/writer/producer. Portillo chose the video format as a compromise. Of course, she says she prefers celluloid to video. This is the essential idea, that story is even more important than form or the production value. Production value is most often 11 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. dependent on resources and access to technology, the funding that one has available. This is why the mujerista moviemaking content is so special — it exists and transforms limited and/or no resources. An essential mujerista moviemaking element is that women of color find access to these technologies. You have to do it first; you have to complete the production first. This is on the level of personal healing. They take up the camera, the mechanical tool to tell the story, to make characters and address issues that really have never been done this way or even ever at all. Much of this movement/action goes against current political grain because we have been so marginal. We are most poor on the planet and have less access to education and political representation. These issues of gender, sexuality, immigration, UFW struggles, women and children of color, and mothers are what Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo cover in their films. I want to emphasize that Portillo and Morales are alter-native mothers as well. When women of color do have a camera and are able to use film as an art to represent their-selves, in that process often they gain political power and personal healing. This political empowerment is most specifically 12 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. expressed in local community politics, with both blood and extended familia and friends. Both Morales and Portillo are inspirational veteranas politicas and Chicana pioneers in this process. Another facet that must be appreciated is the international connection amongst themselves as r a z a women/indigenas/Latinas connected with other women in the world in Mexico, Latin American, and in the U.S. The issues in their films tend to be counterhegemonic, looking at miseducation, immigration, issues pertaining to children, women speaking out against static Latino traditions, and gender politics within the Catholic Church. They use themselves as Chicana feministas, and lesbiana familia, their films being examples of new Chicana aesthetics and activism, a counterforce of the growing global fear. In mujerista mindsets, there is the emphasis on the self-raising and raising-self- consciousness as well as that of la familia. Although they might not apply these labels to themselves, they are also lesbianas de color. Sylvia has a problem with the word "lesbian," and so do I, since it often connotes white women. In gay and lesbian international film festivals, and film studies 13 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. conferences, there is still an anglo hegemony that prevails; programming and funding even within these alternative venues are biased in relation to race, class and ethnicity. Nevertheless, lesblanas de color have begun to have more visibility in these spaces. Mujerista moviemaking encompasses all the limitations of the vocabularies used both to liberate and oppress marginalized people. What I am calling Chicana lesbiana is a combined or hybrid term that definitely focuses on lesbiana and Chicana feministast their ethnicity, race, class, age, and color. For the same reason, I don't completely like "feminist" as a term or identity label. There are, of course, lesbians who are not feminist, for example. For me and others within my immediate community, Chicana/mestiza/indigena terms can all come together and mix into one nice blend, and it's all good. FURTHER DEFINITIONS of KEY CALO CONCEPTS Pertinent to understanding Sylvia Morales's and Lourdes Portillo's works, are the two culturally specific concepts of mestizaje and rasquache. These terms are important to the understanding of the philosophical basis of la cultura chicana, the Chicana/o People, and the 14 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. language of cald.6 For example, respectively both Portillo's and Morales's films give a specific "Chicana" inflection to the aesthetic praxis of "rasquache" and "mestlzaje” in their cultural productions. The process of adopting these concepts into their films at times performs a mujerista healing function at both individual and collective levels of being. Whereas I will present basic definitions for the terms "mestlzaje” and "rasquache, ” here, later chapters will give cinematic examples from Morales's and Portillo's works where the mujerista healing function takes place via mestlzaje and/or rasquachismo praxis. "Mestlzaje” can be defined broadly as a group of mixed racial beings; this definition can also be associated with the postmodern use of mestiza/mextiza, but it is usually applied more specifically to mexicano, latina/o, and Chlcana/o people.7 A mujerista interpretation of mestlzaje can begin with the rape of Malinche by Hernan Cortez during the conquest of ancient Mexico evident in the earliest works of Chicana feminists artistas, writers and philosphers. Mexican national identity is signified by the mixing of Spanish/European 15 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and Indigenous/Native American peoples. These ideas of mixing were later taken up by Chicano nationalists in examining Mexican American identity in the U.S. and therefore the creation of the Aztlan Nation. Following this idea of mestlzaje in human mind, body, and spirit, at least in mind and spirit, this mix would include several histories accompanying the different races. For the chican@/latin@ this concept can be used as a sign of empowerment, away from the idea of the pure white aryan race. The origins of el quin to sol, the current sun under which we now exist, was the god olin that ultimately acknowledged the duality in all living things. And as Alice Walker writes, all things are living. There are many good elaborations and uses of the concept mestlzaje. For examples, Chicana postmodernist cultural critic Norma Alarcon explains: The contemporary assumption of mestlzaje (hybridism) in the Mexican nation-making process was intended to racially colligate a heterogeneous population that was not European. On the American side of the hyphen, mestizas are non-white, thus further reducing 16 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the cultural and historical experience of Chicanas. However, the mestiza concept is always already bursting its boundaries. While some have "forgotten" the mestiza genealogy, others claim an indigenous, black or Asian one as well. In short, the body, certainly for the past 500 years in the Americas, has been always already racial!zed.8 This explains how Chicanas specifically have been "on the bottom of a historically hierachical economic and political structure." This also explains the dire need to voice our concerns and oppressions, for instance via the insights, experiences and cultural productions of mujerista moviemakers Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo. Gloria Anzaldua presents an excellent treatise describing mestlzaje consciousness through the "new mestiza subject."9 Offering a powerful analysis of Anzaldua's use of the term mestlzaje, Chela Sandoval shows how it can be mobilized as a viable strategy in dealing with multiple forms of oppression, as in the case of the U.S. feminists of color.1 0 And finally, there is also a very good definition of mestlzaje as presented via 17 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. "radical" multiculturalism by Ella Shohat and Robert Stam in their book UNTHINKING EUROCENTRISM.11 Mestlzaje might be [mis] understood or [mis] [re] presented via analogous concepts such as "multicultural, " "melting pot," or "hybridity" and so on. The dangers of accepting "multicultural" as one example might be that you could have a leveling of all cultures like xenophobic practice of the 1950-60's "melting pot" theory. This practice is a lose-lose situation because no one is adequately represented for the oppression and fear of cultural difference. These suppressions do not allow for a true depiction of all the possible human blends. Each distinct culture loses its own tastes, aesthetics, traditions, y sabores. Alice Walker's use of "unlversalist" in her womanist definition works in both a micro and macro communal essence, for this study 'multicultural' as a mere concept in general can get lost in the parameters of the various cultures found amongst the dominance of one race. The continent of Europe can be said to consist of French, German, Dutch, Italian, etc. 'cultures,? yet this example of multicultural practice falls generally under one umbrella race, the white race.12 Thus, people seldom 18 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. think of the Turkish, Afro-Germans, Black British, etc., of Europe. Yet this is no longer so simple, for "whiteness" is also a cultural and political construct. Maybe something closer to the concept of " p a n " cultural is more of the type of cultural experience/practice and mindset originally desired in this hybrid-eyes'd dissertation.1 3 Rasquache can be understood as pure empowerment through the creative use of spirit and imagination. The capacity for both a "transformation of utilitarian articles into sacred or aesthetic objects," along with being "resourceful" and "highly metaphorical" is what Tomas Ybarra-Frausto defines as the theory and praxis of rasquachismo.14 As he explains, "To be rasquache is to posit a bawdy, spunky consciousness, to seek to subvert and turn ruling paradigms upside down.1,15 Rasquache means spontaneous resolution, having little or often times inadequate economic, political, and material resources available. People of color have been individually on a daily level, and collectively on a socio-political level building at all and at no expense. At times, it becomes a rasquache healing experience when the attitude is 'in your face.' To echo Dolores Huertaf s chant of socio- 19 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. economic, political and cultural affirmation, "SI se puede," it can be and it will be done. How are we as a community going to help our selves and our planet to survive in continuing the cycle of life? Alicia Gaspar de Alba defines the idea and praxis of rasquachismo most clearly and directly. In her PhD dissertation MT CASA [NO] ES SU CASA: The Cultural Politics of the CHICANO ART: RESISTANCE AND AFFIRMATION, 1965-1985 EXHIBITION, which was the basis of her book CHICANO ART INSIDE/OUTSIDE THE MASTER'S HOUSE: Cultural Politics and the CARA Exhibition, Gaspar de Alba explains Perhaps the best example of popular pleasure in Chicano/a culture is what Tomas Ybarra-Frausto calls rasquachismo, a uniquely working-class aesthetic of Mexican origin — resourceful, excessive, ironic, and, in its transformation of utilitarian articles into sacred or aesthetic objects, highly metaphoric.16 She is particularly effective in describing its distinct aesthetics and their political impact. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Bright colors {chillantes) are preferred to somber, high intensity to low, the shimmering and sparkling over the muted and subdued. The rasquache inclination piles pattern on pattern, filling all available space with bold display. Ornamentation and elaboration prevail and are joined with a delight in texture and sensuous surfaces.17 ...In the context of Minimalism and Modern art rasquachismo is more than an oppositional form; it is a militant praxis of resistance to hegemonic standards in the art world. Therein resides its popular pleasure, for in subverting dominant ideologies, in [turning] ruling paradigms upside down....[this] witty, irreverent and impertinent posture that recodes and moves outside established boundaries, both evades power and empowers itself.18 21 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. These concepts of rasquachismo and mestlzaje and their relationships through our cultural productions, can also be understood as analogues to western concepts like hricolage, spectacle, transculturalism, and even in a sense, utopia. Such comparisons might help sharpen our understanding of what is culturally specific about our own use of such concepts in the context of Chicano/Xicana Studies. To begin with, the idea and practice of rasquache might invoke the concept of "bricolage/brlcoleur” particularly as presented in THE SAVAGE MIND, by Claude Levi-Strauss.19 Levi-Strauss opens his structuralist essay "The Science of the Concrete" promoting a levelling effect between traditionally "high cultures and civilizations" and that of so-called "primitive people,” via the use of language. This current post-structuralist argument also challenges the racist and elitist "monopoly on civilized language,” and lays out the "richness of abstract words" used by what Western society and sciences demeaningly have referred to as the "primitive people."2 0 Furthermore, Levi-Strauss focuses on the role of the bricoleur, who is able to create virtually an endless array of things in the most creative fashion, in similar 22 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. yet distinctly different ways that a Western engineer performs his/her science. This magician of sorts is able to construct from the deconstructed, making use of whatever is at hand. In this way, the bricoleur, in the mujerista sense is also an agent of creative change. I find it interesting also that the origins of the verb bricoler was "always used with reference to some extraneous movement.... ”21 This falls into the pre-Columbian idea of El QUINTO SOL/the Fifth Sun, and that this current time and space in which we exist is known as the Age of Movement, as forementioned in CHAPTER ONE. In SELF AND CINEMA, Beverle Houston and Marsha Kinder bring Levi-Strauss's concept of bricolage into film studies, applying this idea both to the experimental editing techniques used by Nicolas Roeg in his film WALKABOUT and also to the survival strategies of the ■ 2 2 Australian aboriginal character at its center. "The "bricoleur” is adept at performing a large number of diverse tasks; but, unlike the engineer, he does not subordinate each of them to the availability of raw material and tools conceived and procured for the purpose of the 23 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. project. His universe of instruments is closed and the rules of his game are always to make do with "whatever is at hand," that is to say with the set of tools and materials which is always finite and is also heterogeneous because what it contains bears no relation to the current project, or indeed to any particular project, but is the contingent result of all the occasions there have been to renew or enrich the stock or to maintain it with the remains of previous constructions or destructions. " 2 3 After citing this passage from Levi-Strauss and showing how bricolage is linked not only with a magical mode of thought but also with an astute process of perception and problem solving, Houston and Kinder observe: In focusing on event rather than structure, in using and transforming the available rather than waiting for or creating the specialized, the Aborigine reveals the transforming mode of his perception. He creates a dwelling out of Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the outback, makes a drinking tool out of a reed, paints on stone with natural materials, designs a dancing costume out of bird feathers and other natural substances, transforms a balloon into a gift for the white girl. The Walkabout ritual forces him to be a bricoleur - to live off the land.24 Just as Houston and Kinder also use the concept of bricolage in SELF AND CINEMA to justify their own technique of selecting a different theoretical framework to address the texts and issues in each new chapter (a method in the early 1980's that was definitely reading against the grain), Rosa Linda Fregoso combines bricolage with the hybrid concept of mestlzaje in her Introduction to THE BRONZE SCREEN: Chicana and Chicano Film Culture, not only to describe the "rebel spirits of U.S. Third World feminists" but also to justify her own cultural studies approach to the topic. 2 5 I am following in this tradition by using a mestizaje-inflected mode of bricolage to harvest whatever aspects of mujerista moviemaking that can contribute to a process of cultural healing. 25 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. When a people are systematically repressed, the will or spirit that is being hurt, in many situations becomes stronger and more aware, as in this example, maybe more creative. The praxis of rasquache, which is similar to bricolage, has been experienced and developed for centuries. Under colonialism, apartheid at home or abroad, and slavery in various forms as it continues invisibly, at times, makes people more conscious and set their priorities in order. This should be a priority not only for women of color, but also for all people concerned with the future of our cosmos. Here African American critic bell hooks sheds some light on worthy intentions and healthy political perspective around the watching, speaking, writing about and making of moving pictures: In this age of mixing and hybridity, popular culture, particularly the world of movies, constitutes a new frontier providing a sense of movement, of pulling away from the familiar and j ourneying into and beyond the world of the other.26 26 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. This positioning and experience of rasquache and mestlzaje are represented in the cinematic and video productions of Lourdes Portillo and Sylvia Morales. This is why I believe that the contributions of such women cultural workers as Morales and Portillo are even more valuable than meaningless grand productions on huge budgets. This is mujerista moviemaking, to get the job done, to complete the production with the best you have. In CHAPTERS FOUR and FIVE, I present a few cinematic examples to show how the elements of mestlzaje and rasquache become a means towards raza survival and healing. Alter-Native forms of healing through daily creative living in a world of dystopic destruction and postmodern pathologies: socio-economic, political, and pedagogical dysfunction, man-made eco-system imbalances, and a seemingly spiritual bankruptcy.27 This is an on-going attempt at "nation building," or mestlzaje raza survival techniques, individually and collectively working towards a more creative and healing world view and reality. In the too mean-time, we are faced with a growing dystopic planetary situation. 27 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. C . HOW this STUDY BREAKS MEW GROUND This section explicitly situates this study within the existing critical discourse on Lourdes Portillo and Sylvia Morales in particular, and broader issues of Latina/o filmmaking, queer theory, and identity politics in general. It summarizes the main lines of the cultural debates that the study is entering and shows how it differs from previous works on the topic. The two most important critics writing on Chican0 filmmaking are Chon Noriega and Rosa Linda Fregoso. Both their single author books and the anthologies they have edited have helped to construct the field of Chican@ film studies and to get it accepted within the larger areas of media studies and cultural studies. Two framing terms that they have employed and developed within these disciplines are "neo-indigenous" and "counteraesthetic." Both Fregoso and Noriega acknowledge the historical roots of these concepts within the contemporary movement politics of both New Latin American and Chicano cinemas.2 8 Yet neither Noriega nor Fregoso is a filmmaker and neither is writing from a lesbians perspective that generates queer readings of mujerista texts. As Lourdes Portillo says in her interview (see 28 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. APPENDIX B) , she privileges the "experiential” levels of life, and her experience is more currently identified as "Chicana, mother, lesbian." Although there have been previous valuable studies of Morales, Portillo, and other Chicana/o filmmakers, they have not addressed these particular issues of mujerista sexuality: female-to-female/woman-identified- woman. The issue of queer readings and lesbian identity are not addressed much in the earlier texts of Chicana/o film critics Rosa Linda Fregoso and Chon Noriega. Only a few sections discuss gender and sexuality in general, particularly in relationship to Lourdes Portillo's portrayal of Mexican crossdressers in LA OFRENDA: The Days of the Dead.29 1992, the year of the Quincentennial, Lourdes Portillo produces and directs her experimental video COLUMBUS ON TRIAL. Co-written by and starring the famous Chicano comedic team Culture Clash, these artists were able to make bold statements through this hilarious short movie. In addition, in 1992, Sylvia Morales produces an important half-hour documentary for KCET-28, Los Angeles, which looks at the issue of pediatric AIDS/SIDA. That year many progressives, groups on the Left and Native 29 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Americans, were preparing to create their own forms of resistance against the huge Anglo American 500 year celebration of Columbus's "discovery" of America (sic). In 1992, Chon Noriega edits and publishes CHICANOS AND FILM: Representation and Resistance.3 0 This was the. first critical anthology of Chicano film edited by a Chicano film critic. In CHICANOS AND FILM, as in a majority of his books, Noreiga shares the press/pages/stage with both prolific and upcoming Chicano/Latino film scholars. Although they cover a wide range of issues, these anthologies used a "counteraesthetic" resistance as a common thread to interweave the essays gathered in this collection. Although women writers and gender issues are represented throughout Noriega's works, according to this Chicana lesbiana writer and filmmaker, this representation is still insufficient. Yet, this is no fault of Noriega's. There were not enough Chicana film critics at that time, and there are still not enough today. Chon Noriega has been a great promoter of Chicana films. In fact, I will gratefully acknowledge that it was Chon Noriega who promoted our company's first film/video works, networking/passing along our work to various national 30 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. venues, making connections for us to screen internationally, and addressing our work critically {CARA - New York MCMA) in several of his books. This acknowledgement encouraged our cinematic development in both theory and practice. Noriega thoroughly and cleverly shows how Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo emerged with their own particular strengths and contributions to a larger socio political movement. Noriega writes of the historical backdrop that actually encourages the syncretism of Chicano culture and arte by understanding what Chicano filmmakers faced upon their emergence. Noriega writes: In a self-conscious move, Chicano filmmakers worked between a weapon and a formula: between the political weapon of New Latin American Cinema and the economic formula of Hollywood. "3 1 Noriega also historicizes how Chicano (and Chicana) filmmakers worked between these two dynamics, as well as becoming yet an-Oth&r flavor/sabor of filmmaking, as an extension, or syncretism of these two opposing forces. 31 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Noriega gives space to five women critics and sixteen male critics, in CHICANOS AND FILM, including essay contributions by Sylvia Morales and Rosa Linda Fregoso, who also mentions our company's film MUJERIA: The Olmeca Rap.3 2 In one of Noriega's essays in the book, he mentions Lourdes Portillo, Sylvia Morales and our production on the same page.33 He thanks Lourdes Portillo for her spiritual direction in his acknowledgements.3 4 Also in 1992, Noriega was guest editor of a special topics issue of THE SPECTATORf titled BORDER CROSSINGS: Mexican and Chicano Cinema.3 5 Published by the Critical Studies Division of the University of Southern California'' s School of Cinema-Television, this critical journal decided to publish a special issue that would document a film series and conference called "Border Crossings," which was organized by Cristina Venegas and Marsha Kinder. This groundbreaking event brought Mexican and Chicano filmmakers and film critics together (including Noriega, Fregoso, Trevino and Morales) for a series of provocative discussions. On a larger scale, Chon Noreiga's texts have brought the world of Chicano film into film studies, Chicano 32 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Studies, American Studies and Cultural Studies departments and courses in general. Noriega's research has made us aware of the discrepancies of race and class within the Hollywood industry in relationship to Chicano film practice and participation. Early on, he acknowledged the importance of access to film technology, and lack thereof, and made us aware of how this is directly related to the politics of our socio-political realities and their effects on Chicano filmmaking. While Noriega has framed and documented Chicano film history, there is one instance where a mujerista analysis is helpful for clarification. In a promotional hand-out on the history of Chicano filmmaking (for the West Coast CARA film exhibit), Noriega said that MUJERIA: The Olmeca Rap ( 1991) , a music video that I had recently produced, was "rasquachen in comparison to a Kid Frost "glossy" music video production. By far, it is. But Noriega also stated that MUJERIA: The Olmeca Rap "appropriated" predecessor Chicano nationalist iconography by using the "Aztec" calendar and other representations of pre columbian cultura in the video. But our video purposely used this calendar and other iconography, which are commonly attributed to the patriarchal Aztecs but were 33 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. actually created by las Olmecas, because we wanted to restore their links to this matrilineal society. While this point may seem rhetorical, it reinstills my commitment to becoming a Chicana/mujerista movie her- storian who ensures that gender assumptions are questioned just as fervently as those of racism and classism.3 6 I would say that the Chicano nationalists were appropriating the natural strengths of the strong brown women around them. While the mujeres were the core of the familias and nationalist movements' via their secretarial, clerical, child bearing and child rearing work, they remain systematically ignored and rejected as foundational. As Sylvia Morales points out early in her film CHICANA, we have indeed been "raising the next labor force." Therefore, the Chicanos may have, in fact, appropriated the natural strengths of the role models they've seen around their immediate environments, including those nine months of incubation inside the primary human relationship with their natural mothers, and their subsequent close relations with abuelas, tias, madres y hezmanas —■ mujeres thought and culture. 34 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Therefore, on this one point, I differ with Noriega in that I don't believe Chicanas necessarily appropriated Chicano male thought and culture, but rather the women recuperated them after the men had already appropriated them from females. That is why filmmaker Sylvia Morales's and writer Ana Nieto-Gomez's focus on the "Mother Goddess" and "Mother Culture" within the narrative of CHICANA is so radical. As Angela Y. Davis has said, "Radical simply means grasping things at the roots. "3 1 Rosa Linda Fregoso’s influential essay "Chicana Film Practices: Confronting the "Many-Headed Demon of Oppression, " "follows" Noriega’s essay. Fregoso's subtitle uses Moraga and Anzaldua's term and idea of "the many-headed demon of oppression (1983: 195; quoted in Alarcon 1990: 356) . Focusing on three films "made by Chicanas during the height of the Chicano movement cinema, the pre-Hollywood era 1969-1980," (p. 171) this powerful feminists critique of Chicana filmmaking was written during Fregoso's tenure as a Ford Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA.38 Addressing the many ways that Chicana filmmakers specifically, have been marginalized, she also criticizes the CARA film series that initially "included 35 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. only three Chicana filmmakers in the program's initial draft whereas roughly thirty Chicano male-produced films were to be shown."39 Fregoso shows us how Chicana filmmakers are also agents of socio-political change. Furthermore, Fregoso shows how Chicana filmmakers experience both national and international marginalization by exclusion, for example: ...from events such as the Chicanos 90 ceremony hosted in Mexico by Mexican President Salinas de Gortari, their marginalization in film criticism like the Gary Keller anthology on Chicano cinema (1985), and their continual marginalization in festivals such as the recent film series in Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation...4 0 Here we have this huge international/national show featuring Chicano art but excluding Chicana filmmakes, which results in another distortion of history. At another level, Fregoso significantly points out that "Chicana production is exclusively concentrated in short films..." (p. 169) . The primary reason for this fact is that most women of color filmmakers lack the economic 36 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. resources to make a feature. Women of color often produce within the confines of their available resources. Fregoso brings up additional concerns that veteranas Morales and Portillo have dealt with throughout their film career experiences: In a phallocentric society, power is measured by big-ness (as in feature-length films) and penetration (as into the Hollywood industry). These are the crucial markers or signs of success, of "making it," of coming . . . into fruition, that is. In this respect, there is little evidence among Chicana filmmakers of big-ness, penetration, or of coming into the mainstream, on dominant culture's terms.4 1 Fregoso lists several other pertinent reasons for Chicana filmmakers' exclusion, including the established Chicano "canon" of filmmakers (the 'good *ol boys'), and also the personal self-conscious need to retain the status of "independents” (sovereign/autonomous) — mujerista movi emaking. 37 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The next year, 1993, Rosa Linda Fregoso actually publishes and releases her own book THE BRONZE SCREEN: Chicana and Chicano Film Culture. In the title, we can already see that it is implied that "Chicana” (who fortunately is mentioned first) and "Chicano” Film Culture can be seen as two distinctly different entities, and that it involves reception as much as production. Fregoso’s aim in her book: . . . i s to interrupt and interrogate the terms of the critical discourse on Chicano cinema. Toward this objective, Nancy [de los Santos] and Patricia's [Gonzales] suggestion for a book title is as good a starting point as any: "The Bronze Screen: Looking at Us Looking." ...Stated in different terms, my project concerns the emergence of a film culture by, about, and for Chicanas and Chicanos.4 2 Fregoso achieves her goal in the clearest and most powerful way. In THE BRONZE SCKE32N: Chicana and Chicano Film Culture, Fregoso discusses the works of Sylvia Morales 38 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and Lourdes Portillo, but her primary emphasis is on the works of mainly male Chicanos, including both independents (like I AM JOAQUIN (1969), YO SOY CHICANO (1972)) and more mainstream movies (like LA BAMBA (1987), BONN in EAST LA (1987), ZOOT SUIT (1981), BALLAD of GREGORIO CORTEZ (1982) ) . Rosa Linda Fregoso signs off from her Introduction to THE BRONZE SCREEN, "Oakland, California, September 1992," which in this particular space-time is so near the Columbus time of Quincentennial madness. This is just one month before the outrageous re-enactment of the landing of the ships Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria on the shores of North America's East Coast "New England." What a great production on her part, THE BRONZE SCREEN, to counter the 500 years of misrepresentation and underrepresentation of Latina/Raza women in U.S. media by making the issue of gender central. Fregoso acknowledges the first two comprehensive anthologies on the Chicano film movement, Gary Keller's CHICANO CINEMA (1985) , and Chon Noriega's CHICANOS AND FILM (1992). Yet, she criticizes Keller for marginalizing Chicana filmmakers. All of these critics agree that Chicana filmmakers created an oppositional 39 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. cinema aligned with the Chicano civil/human rights movements, the Chicano nation, and revolutionary cultural politics. "In embracing a cultural studies framework, I first re-claim a nationalist intellectual legacy that has a long history in the U.S. Southwest. "4 3 Like cultural critic of color Edward Said, Fregoso ends her Introduction by acknowledging and addressing the younger generation of cultural critics, urging them "to question, unsettle, redefine the terms I have staked out throughout this exploration." Instead of taking the stance that she has all the definite answers, she encourages change, growth, and contradiction. Similar to Noriega's CHICANOS AND FILM, Fregoso incorporates important photographs of Morales's and Portillo's film content and practices. For example, Fregoso uses a great photo of Portillo directing DESPUES DEL TEPPEMOTO while pregnant. Fregoso also has a wonderful shot of Sylvia Morales and Cyn D. Honesto, who died young of cancer, adjusting or working with the technical aspects of shooting celluloid. They are using a 16mm camera and film stock. In her essay in Noriega's CHICANOS AND FIIM, Morales says that it was actually Cyn 40 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. D. Honesto who got the five primary Chicana artistas together to make CHICANA*. Photographer Cyn D. Honesto's study of Chicana talent brought together this cast of artists to create total Chicana experience in the film production BREAD AND ROSES [CHICANA] .4 4 Fregoso early on makes it clear that her interest in writing this book is to focus on "US." Fregoso explains: The concept of "looking at Us looking" points to the historical location of Us (Chicanas and Chicanos) behind the camera, as directors, writers, cinematographers, editors; Us as images on the screen, as subject matter, actors, actresses; and, finally, Us as spectators, as viewers seated between "the look of the camera" and "the images on the screen. "4 5 Here Fregoso uses a capital "U" in "us" to emphasize the focus of her project. This alternation of "correct" and "proper" Queen's English is readily accepted in this 41 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. dissertation, as mentioned earlier. Many times, we must change common words and terminology that have come to lose their meaning. This infusion of an-Other point of view is synonymous with another consciousness and language as well. This is what makes the Chican® cinematic criticism of Fregoso and Noriega so vital. They continue to challenge and change stagnant old school cultural paradigms and points-of-view. They offer and construct newer critical ideologies to work with and understand new technologies, moving images and cultural productions, such as these of Morales and Portillo. Rosa Linda Fregoso acknowledges a fundamental difference between her own analysis and that of Keller and Noriega, in that the men preferred "to advance a definition of Chicano cinema against images of Chicanos in Hollywood mainstream and Mexican commercial cinemas.1 , 4 6 In contrast, Fregoso situates nearly all of her text "by, for, about” Chicano experience from a Chicana feminists point of view, that is, her analysis makes the politics of gender and sexuality central. Fregoso states: 42 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Thoughts finally gelled for me by way of the writings of U.S. Third World feminists and the studies on race-gender-sexuality undertaken by the cultural studies group in Birmingham. Today, I re view Chicano film texts with fresh eyes.4 7 Formally, more "male-centered nationalist" perspectives dominated, both in filmmaking, production process, and Chicano film criticism. In a self-reflective stance, Rosa Linda Fregoso acknowledges her influences and contemporary methodology and point-of-view: I embrace the rebel spirits of U.S. Third World feminists who reside "between and among" subject positions and critical cultural discourses. And so it is with these hybridized eyes that I re-view and re-read Chicano films. For as these cultural forms are hybrid productions, so too is my cultural studies approach a mestizaje, a bricolage.4 8 There is a marked shift in Fregoso’s latest anthology LOURDES PORTILLO: THE DEVIL SEVER SLEEPS and 43 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Other Films, where nearly every essay and interview address more openly the issue of lesbian sexuality and gay representation.49 In particular, there is a wonderful queer reading of Portillo's film by Chicana lesbians film critic Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano in her essay, "Ironic Framings: A Queer Reading of the Family (Melo)drama in Lourdes Portillo's THE DEVIL NEVER SLEEPS/E1 diablo nunca daerme," an essay that I will elaborate on in CHAPTER SIX. There I will discuss not only the way this and other Portillo films specifically address homosexuality, but even how it is possible to perform a queer reading of heterosexual relationships in her works. It is so great to have the stronger Chicana feminista POV (point-of-view), and Fregoso doesn't go into woman-identified-woman's sexuality (nor does she need to) .5 0 Like Chon Noriega, she does allow and encourage spaces for Latina lesbiana critiques. Another source (besides Noreiga and Fregoso) that acknowledges Chicana film practices is CHICANA (W)RITES: On Word and Film (1995), a collection co-edited by Maria Herrera-Sobek and Helena Maria Viramontes.51 CHICANA (W)RITES puts film in the broader context of visual and 44 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. literary arts, though the focus is on works by women. Its cover arte, "Portrait of the Artist as the Virgin de Guadalupe" by Yolanda M. Lopez, reminds us of the creative contributions of women in all aspects of Latin0 culture. In the Introduction Maria Herrera-Sobek says of Chicano cinema: The strength, vigor, and beauty of Chicana creative writings and now filmmaking (in its infancy) can be seen in the works included in this anthology. We believe Chicana productivity will continue to delight us and intellectually stimulate us. It will also continue to challenge existing canons by redefining and amplifying the conceptualization of what "literature" is or ought to b e . . . 5 2 Unfortunately, these words make us realize that Chicana film is still in its "infancy," though Morales and Portillo have been producing for over 25 years. Fortunately, this important anthology gives space to an essay by Lourdes Portillo. 45 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. In Portillo's "On Chicanas and Filmmaking: A Commentary," 5 3 she coincidentally uses the same word choice that Sylvia Morales does "In Chicano films women don' t fare any better." (emphasis mine) - from Keller's anthology CHICANO CINEMA.5 4 Although they were published over ten years apart, the essays of Morales and Portillo both focus on how well (or not) Chicanas and women "fare." Interestingly, Portillo ends her essay in CHICANA (W)RITES with the idea that the 1990's video production is a better place for Chicana directors to develop. THE ETHNIC EYE: Latino Media Arts was co-edited by Chon A. Noriega and Ana M. Lopez, and published by the University of Minnesota Press, 1996. The idea of the book came from conferences, as co-editor Noriega mentions in his previous book, that we have to originate much of where, what, how, why Latino media is made and disseminated. In "Imagined Borders" there are many important historical facts in seeing the "articulation and development of a "Chicano cinema" as an expression of the Chicano civil rights movement." In rewriting this history one can see that the exclusion of women and gender (feminista) issues seemed missing in the origins 46 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. of Chicano cinema and the Chicano civil rights movement. Noriega addresses this issue by saying that this was a central part of the EL PLAN ESPIRITUAL DE AZTLAN, keeping issues of gender, generation, and sexuality within the traditional patriarchal and hierarchical structure of "familia." This is one point where I differ with Noriega through both theoretical and practical modes. Noriega sees familia as a restrictive traditional structure, whereas I’ve experienced it as a possible site for a more radical structure and for radical intervention. This expanded version of familla could generate a very different reading of works by Chicanas like Morales and Portillo, different from both Fregoso’s and Noriega's readings. Lesbiana identity is so crucial to my lifestyle and POV, as fcias, madre, hermana, primas, and self/jo soy are lesbiana identified. ISSUES of IDENTITY: And Of Coming Out Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo are two central and strong examples of politically engaged Chicana filmmakers who have made a difference by being involved in very local and immediate familial, as well as with 47 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. national and international issues and concerns. It is ironic that these two powerful women have made such progressive waves of change via their media productions, and yet have remained virtual rivals in life. It would be a rare and welcome event, should these two come together in peace and harmony for a discussion or panel. But this is my desire, not theirs. Sylvia and Lourdes remain in my pantheon of heras. Once I was elated that both Morales and Portillo agreed individually in 2000 to speak at UC Davis for our Chicano Studies Department "Mujerista Moviemaking" course, but I didn't get it all together, financially and time-wise. Since she had known of them and their works for quite a while, I once asked Rosa Linda Fregoso, as we sat next to each other at the San Francisco CINE ACCION Film Festival Gay and Lesbian Venue, where our company's video ZONE-4: The Prison Poem5 5 was also being screened, why did she think these two veterana Chicana filmmakers saw each other as rivals? Rosa Linda replied that it probably was partly due to the fact that since their emergence as Chicana filmmakers in the 1970's, everyone always put them together. That's over twenty plus years of being seen as the only two major Chicana filmmakers. Then I 48 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. momentarily felt bad that I, too, chose to focus on these two in this dissertation, but without positioning them as rivals. There are a few other times in this study where I experienced internal conflict regarding its focus on these two filmmakers. First, I questioned how I should deal v/ith their sexuality with respect to other women without imposing my own commitment to a lesbiana identity onto them, or without having it distort how I read sexuality within their films. By the time I got around to the first interviews with them, Lourdes Portillo said outright that she didn't mind to be identified as a "lesbian," but preferred her "Mexican/Chicana" identity beforehand, and also that her being a "mother" was as important to put in her identity. For Sylvia Morales, she quickly said that the word "lesbian" really didn't work for her and that it reminded her more of the white women's movement/label. She said that maybe "dyke" was a better word for her because it was more threatening. I hear what she's saying. In many ways, it is more radical as a word/label/concept. Now in retrospect, I realize it may not have been such a big deal that I was originally afraid to "out" them, given that both women have been out of the closet in different 49 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. realms. For example, Sylvia Morales was listed in "Notable Latina/o Lesbians and Gays,1 , 5 6 and Lourdes Portillo was clearly identified as lesbian in Rosa Linda Fregoso's new text LOURDES PORTILLO: THE DEVIL NEVER SLEEPS and Other Films.5 1 Finally, I was encouraged by various friends to take different tactics in dealing with this issue that has been so fundamental in my interest in them as Chicana filmmakers. A long time ago, Cherrie Moraga encouraged me boldly to out them if I wished to, but I ended up not even needing to. When she came to speak at USC in 1999, Angela Davis suggested that I do queer readings of their works, which I ended up doing in part. And my dissertation chairperson Marsha Kinder suggested that I ask them about this issue of identity through actual interviews, and I'm so glad I did, because I was pleasantly surprised to discover what I did regarding their sexual self-identities. On an entirely different level, there is the issue of how sexuality plays out within their works via their characters, actors, and crewmembers, as well as in the critiques of works by other writers. There are several instances where the lesbian and gay identities are 50 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. addressed. In "Drama Queens: Latino Gay and Lesbian Independent Film/Video," a very strong essay describing issues of sexuality, family and gender relations within the context of a larger U.S. Latino cinema, Frances Negron-Muntaner writes: First, a number of gay and lesbian Latinos (mostly Chicanos and Puerto Ricans) were formed during and participated in the civil rights-inspired cultural and political movements of the 1970''s. Despite the fact that many of these makers were/are not "out," they have participated in the creation of Latino and independent film/video infrastructures, and in critical debates around Latino cultural production. "5 B Ironically, Negron-Muntaner mentions Susana Munoz as lesbiana, but not openly Lourdes Portillo. Munoz directed SUSANA (1980) , an openly lesbiana story, and collaborated with Lourdes Portillo on two films — LAS MADRES: The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, and LA QFEENDA; The Days of the Dead. 51 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. My intention is to demonstrate that Morales and Portillo are foundational for Chicana filmmaking praxis and the critical discourses around it. I discuss how and why lesbiana consciousness and praxis are what motivate me and how/why they bring in mujerista moviemaking. Although for many generations, and centuries, women artistas have professed or portrayed their erotic relationships with other women on all levels of consciousness (sub, meta, supra), they have been masked in a variety of ways, for example, in BLUES LEGACIES AND BLACK FEMINSM: Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday*9 Angela Y. Davis' s analysis of how class, race, gender and sexuality inform the musical works of U.S. women of color blues singers sheds light on this phenomenon. Davis elaborates on the ways in which the art form itself allowed for an "aesthetic evidence — of freedom."6 0 As role models to many, through the words of their songs, these U.S. women of color artistas: ...delivered messages that defied the male dominance encouraged by mainstream culture. The blues women openly challenged the gender politics implicit in 52 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. traditional cultural representations of marriage and heterosexual love relationships. Refusing, in the blues tradition of raw realism, to romanticize romantic relationships, they instead exposed the stereotypes and explored the contradictions of those relationships. By so doing, they redefined women's "place." They forged and memorialized images of tough, resilient, and independent women who were afraid neither of their own vulnerability nor of defending their right to be respected as autonomous human beings.8 1 Angela Davis's moving account of the lives of these three early Black feminista/lesbiana blues singers shows the similar difficulties that strong, popular, "wild women" artistas have had to contend with across the ages when dealing with their sexual attractions to and love for other women. Then and now, often lesbianas artistas de color create and use codes to minimize the threat aroused by their sexuality. I also find these exciting facts and situations apply to the womanist, mujerista moviemakers Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo. 53 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. D. BRIEF OVERVIEW of the REST of the STUDY CHAPTER TWO - DISCOVERY of XICANA FILM GODDESSES: WOMYW CENTRIC MOTHERS and FAMIIIAS — Brief Bios and Career Herstories, consists of comparative biographical sketches and the respective arcs of Sylvia Morales's and Lourdes Portillo's careers - - born, raised, school, influences. Starting with an epigraph on how living one's life can be theory, CHAPTER TWO gives a basic comparative overview of their respective lives and careers as mujerista artistas; how they emerged as artists and film/video makers, their familia contexts, the importance of alternative familias in their lives, the different career paths that were available to pursue and also that they were restricted to, and their struggles against the existing racial and gender restrictions. This chapter mentions all of their respective works though it does not yet analyze them in detail. CHAPTER TWO also explains why it is valuable to examine their work together: e.g., its historical emergence at a particular crucial cultural and political moment, and location and the ability to compare and use various strategies in dealing with the same obstacles. 54 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER THREE — The DEBUT MUJERISTA MOVIES of SYLVIA MORALES and LOURDES PORTILLO: The Movement Between Fiction and Documentary, is a comparative analysis of Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo's respective "debut films, " CHICANA (1979) and AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE/DESPUES DEL TEMKEMOTO (1979), and the way these films specifically address: the movement between fiction and documentary, the focus on women's issues, the familial context, and the political issues of the time. CHAPTER FOUR — The CINEMATIC BODY of SYLVIA MORALES (TRANS) FORMED: The Evolution of Sylvan Productions, focuses exclusively on Sylvia Morales, particularly on themes in her work relevant to mujerista moviemaking. This chapter deals with the rest of Sylvia Morales's films - her style, her themes, her attempts to break into mainstream television, the arc of her career, and her changing political engagement. CHAPTER FOUR emphasizes major points and illustrates them by referring to all of the various works — including first/early works, production, reception, and criticism. CHAPTER FIVE — The CINEMATIC BODY of LOURDES PORTILLO (TRANS)FORMED: The Evolution of Xochitl Productions, focuses exclusively on Lourdes Portillo, 55 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. stressing themes in her work relevant to mujerista moviemaking. This chapter deals with the rest of Lourdes Portillo's works - her style, her themes, her use of different genres and tones, and her changing political engagement. It emphasizes major points and illustrates them by referring to her various works. This comparative dimension comes out - at least in CHAPTER FIVE, through examples from their respective works. CHAPTER FIVE also brings in the views of previous critics such as Rosa Linda Fregoso, Chon Noreiga, and Kathleen Newman. CHAPTER SIX - - MUJERISTA RE-READINGS: The Ideology and Image of Love — FURTHER TALES of LA VIDA LOCA P/V, presents queer/mujerista readings of Morales's LA LIMPIA (1996), and Portillo's CORPUS: A Home Movie for Selena (1998). While these films may have been included or briefly mentioned in CHAPTERS FOUR and FIVE, here they are discussed in depth. Here is where the queer reading begun in CHAPTER THREE is fully developed. The study references Yvonne Yarbro-Bej arano 's important queer reading of THE DEVIL NEVER SLEEPS: El Diablo Nunca Duerme (1995) , from Rosa Linda Fregoso’ s latest anthology.6 2 An APPENDIX containing several interviews with Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo I did in Northern and 56 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Southern California follows the six chapters. These two filmmakers are very exciting to me as a Chicana lesbiana filmmaker/video artista. Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo are two ”veteranan Chicana filmmakers who have early on been role models to me. Although I try not to think consciously that role models are important as such, or that they can have such effect - I must admit that Morales's and Portillo’s film works have rocked my world in many ways. Their works have taught me always to be courageous in content, and always to see a production through to its completion. Also, they have done what it takes to get their films/videos into some sort of distribution system so that they can reach a broad audience, including the many students I have worked with. I am glad these works have reached my hands, eyes and heart. 57 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. See: Trinh, T. Minh-ha. WCMRN, NATIVE, OTHER: Writing Postaoloni&lity and Feminism. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press), 1989. 2 For example, in desribing the generational differences between Latino media since the mid-1980's, Chon Noriega writes in the Introduction to THE ETHNIC EYE: Indeed, most of the contributors to this collection were graduate students at the time they wrote their essays; or, to put it another way, many were born as these movements came to an end, (p.ix) (emphasis mine). See THE ETHNIC EYE: Latino Media Axis Chon A, Noriega and Ana M. Lopez, editors, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press) 1996. 3 The debate on identity politics still rages on in cultural studies. For good definitions from the third world feminist point of view see Audre Lorde, Angela Davis, June Jordan, Cherrie Moraga, Chela Sandoval and Norma Alarcon to name a few. 4 When Alice Walker's womanist definition came out, I was in graduate school at U.C. Santa Cruz, a supposed "feminist utopia." (See MS magazine, 1984). It amazed me how much resistance there was at the time by white feminist professors and students against this definition. I entered into many debates in defence of the fourth Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. definition of womanist that seemed to offend an abundance of white feminists: "Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender." I love it! Never could've said it better. Walker's words hit home at such a perfect time and space for me. Walker powerfully writes: wommsT 1. From womanish. (Opp. Of "girlish," i.e., frivolous, irresponsible, not serious.) A black feminist or feminist of color. From the black folk expression of mothers to female children, "You acting womanish," i.e., like a woman. Usually referring to outrageous, audacious, courageous or willful behavior. Wanting to know more and in greater depth than is considered "good" for one. Interested in grown-up doings. Acting grown up. Being grown up. Interchangeable with another black folk expression: "You trying to be grown." Responsible. In charge. Serious. 2. Also: A woman who loves other women, sexually and/or nonsexually. Appreciates and prefers women's culture, women's emotional flexibility (values tears as natural counter-balance of laughter), and women's stength. Sometimes loves individual men, sexually and/or nonsexually. Committed to survival and wholeness of entire people, male and female. Not a separatist, except periodically, for health. Traditionally universalist, as in: "Mama, why are we brown, pink, and yellow, and our cousins are white, beige, and black?" Ans.: "Well, you 59 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. know the colored race is just like a flower garden, with every color flower represented." Traditionally capable, as in: "Mama, I'm walking to Canada and I'm taking you and a bunch of other slaves with me." Reply: "It wouldn't be the first time." 3. Loves music. Loves dance. Loves the moon. Loves the Spirit. Loves love and food and roundness. Loves struggle. Loves the folk. Loves herself. Regardless. 4. Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender. See Alice Walker's IN SEARCH OF OOR MOTHERS’ GARDENS. (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishers), 1983. 5 The Massachusetts Institute of Technology publicity brochure for their definition of "media" read: Advertisements. Audiotapes. Ballads. Bardic epics. Billboards. Broadsides. Chants. Cinema. Codex books. Comic strips. Computer games. Cyberspace. Dictaphones. Drum beats. Hieroglyphic carvings. Illuminated manuscripts. Ink drawings. Lithographs. Magazines. Minted coins. Newspapers. Neon signs. Phonograph records. Photographs. Postage stamps. Posters. Radio. Scrolls. Sculpture. Smoke Signals. Stained glass windows. Stone tablets. Super-8 movies. Tabloids. Tapestries. Television. Telephone. Telegraph. Theatrical performances. Tickertape machines. 60 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Typewriters. Video cassette recorders. Video installations. Vaudeville. Woodcuts.5 (p. 132) 6 Ca.16 terms get into the importance of each letters' significance and applies conscious spelling mutations and alterations. Again, these terms are always changing in this contemporary "age of movement" — words in-flight that lead to a different philosophy and cosmology of this universe and the times that we live in, known as the end of the QUINTO SOL. 1 Traditional anthropological and academic definitions of mestizaje came from an identification system by nations and individuals, measuring the mix of blood counts supposedly naming different races from each other. Particularly, this was used in the Americas during the time when capitalism and imperialism found the need to distinguish between a pure African or Native American slave, a mix of mestizo, creole, or a member of the white race. 8 See Norma Alarcon' s "Chicane Feminism: In the Tracks of ’ ’ The" Native Woman" in LIVING CHICANA THEORY, Carla Trujillo ed. (Berkeley: Third Woman Press), 1998. p 371-382 9 See Gloria Anzaldua's BORDERLANDS/LA FRONTERA; The New Meatiza (San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books), 1987. 10 See Chela Sandoval1 s "Mestizaje as Method.: Femxnista-of-Color Challenge the Canon" in LIVING CHICANA THEORY, Carla Trujillo ed. 61 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. (Berkeley: Third Woman Press), 1998. p 352-370 See Shohat, Ella, and Robert Stam, eds. UNTHINKING SOROCEMTRXSM: Multiaulturalism and the Media, (London: Routledge) , 1994 . 12 For an excellent discussion of survival of the races, see Russell Means article "For Indiana to Live Europe Moat Die; Fighting Words On The Future of the Earth," from MOTHER JOBES, Dec. 1980. 1 3 I prefer the root "pan" meaning "all" as opposed to "multi" or "poly" connoting "many," nor "across," "trans" infering movement amongst, between, within, or around. 14' From Alicia Gaspar de Alva's, MI CASA [NO] ES SO CASA; Tbs Cultural Politics of the CHICANO ART; RESISTANCE M m AFFIRMATION, 1965- 1985 EXHIBITION, PhD dissertation published (UCLA) 1996, p. 39-40. 15' From Tomas Ybarra-Frausto, "Basquadhiamo; A Chicano Sensibility," CHICANO AESTHETICS: Raaqoachismo, catalogue (Phoenix: MARS [Movimiento Artistico del Rio Salado], Inc., 1989). 16' From Alicia Gaspar de Alva's, MX CASA [NO] ES SU CASA; Hie Cultural Politics of the CHXCWO APT; RESISTANCE AND ASFXmMTim, 1965- 1985 EXHIBITION, PhD dissertation (UCLA) 1996, p. 39-40. See also Alicia Gaspar de Alba's CHICANO ART INSIDE/OUTSIDE THE M&SJSZR'S BOOSE: 62 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Cultural Politics and the CM.RA Exhibition (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998} . 17• See Tomas Ybarra-Frausto, "The Chicano Movamemt/The Movement of Chicano Art," EXHIBITING CULTURES: The Poetics and Politics of Museum Display (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991), 133- 134. 18' See Tomas Ybarra-Frausto, "Rasquachismo: A Chicano Sensibility, " CHICANO AESTHETICS: Rasquachismo, catalogue (Phoenix: MARS [Movimiento Artistico del Rio Salado], Inc., 1989), p. 5. 19' See: Claude Levi-Strauss, THE SAVAGE MIND, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), 1962. 20 I love that one of my younger sisters Elizabeth Marie Hidalgo- de la Riva, self-published a collection of her Chicana lesbiana poetry entitled PRIMITIVE AND PROUD. (Long Beach, CA: Mextiza Familia Press) 1976. She was barely seventeen years old at the time. I am also honored that she allowed our video company Royal Eagle Bear Productions c/s, use of that title in our second production MUJERIA II: Primitive and Proud (1992), currently in distribution with Women Make Movies, Inc., New York. 21 Claude Levi-Strauss, THE SAVAGE MIND, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), 1962. p 16. 63 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. See Beverle Houston and Marsha Kinder, "Cultural and Ci.ztesua.tic Codes in THE MUt WHO FELL TO EARTH and WAXXRBOUT: Insiders and Outsiders in the Films of Nicolas Roeg" in SELF AND CINEMA: A Transformalist Perspective, (Pleasantville, NY: Redgrave), 1980. 23 See Claude Levi-Strauss. THE SAVAGE MIND. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), 1962. p. 17, See also Levi-Strauss's TOTBHSM, trans. Needham (Boston: Beacon Press) 1963. 24' Houston and Kinder SELF AND CINEMA: A Transformslist Perspective. (Pleasantville, NY: Redgrave), 1980, p. 455-56. 25 See Rosa Linda Fregoso's Introduction in THE BRONZE SCREEN: Chicana, and Chicano Film Culture, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press) 1993, p. xxii. 2e' See bell hooks' REEL TO SEAL: Race, Sex, and Class at the Movies, (New York: Routledge), 1996, p. 2. 27' Man-made forms of destruction and greed, force the perspective and memory of the ancient women powers to be evoked at a greater magnitude today. Jane Caputi comments on this desire written within the narrative of one of our video productions: In "Osa” Hidalgo-de la Riva's beautiful and inspiring short film, MUJERIA II: Primitive and Proud, the testing of the 64 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. atomic bomb is understood as an event that has "irreversibly- deflected the future of the cosmos." The test, in part, occasions the arrival into 1950's California of a woman from the gynocentric Olmeca culture, which flourished some three thousand years ago in what is now Mexico. This woman, Eagle Bear, is followed by the ancient Olmeca warrior goddess. Hidalgo-de la Riva is not alone in her vision of the return of female Powers to our time. See Jane Caputi^s GOSSIPS, GORGONS AND CRONES: The Fates of the Earth (Santa Fe: Bear and Co.), 1993, 270, 2 8 For example, Chon Noriega states that I AM JOAQUIN is not the fist Chicano movie made as previously believed, but was the "first" neo-indigenous film; the first two Chicano films were countercultural in nature. They were MY TRIP IN A 52 FORD (1966, Ernie Palamino, Dir. ) and MQZO: AN INTRODUCTION INTO TfflS DUALITY OF ORBITAL INDECISION (1968, Severo Perez, Dir.). This relocation of the beginning of Chicano cinema allows for a pluralistic and open inclusion that encourages me as a Chicana lesbiana mnjerista moviemaker. See Noriega, Chon A., ed. CHICANOS AND FIIM: Essays on Chicano Representation and Resistance. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota), 1992. Fregoso uses a theory of counteraesthetics/countercinema that hybridizes cultural, feminist and poststructuralist intellectual and political traditions. Fregoso1s hybrid analysis parallels my own mix of theory and criticsm. See also Rosa Linda Fregoso TBS BRONZE 65 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. SCREEN: Chicana and Chicano Film Culture, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press) 1993, p. xxii 29 See Rosa Linda Fregoso's "Nepantla in Gendered. Subjectivity*' in THE BRONZE SCREEN: Chicana. and Chicano Film Culture, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press) 1993. p. 93-121 30 See Noriega, Chon A., ed, CB1CANOS AMD FIIM: Essay® on Chicano Representation and Resistance. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota), 1992. 31 32 33 34 35 Ibid. p. 164 p. 179. p. 148. p. rx See Noriega, Chon. ed. SPECTATOR: The University of Southern California Journal of Film and. Television Criticism (USC School of Cinema-Television) Vol. 13 No. 1 Fall 1992. 36 Noriega implied that a Chicana feminista/lesbiana appropriated predecessor Chicano nationalists. Instead, I would say that the video used creative agency in the reclaiming, reimaging and redefining our ancient native roots (as "neo indigena") who is to 66 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. lay claim on who was first? In this case did the Chicano nationalists identify with their patrilineal militaristic Aztec predecessors, or do we look to the "pre-literate" (joke) matrilinear Olmeca roots. I would like to ask, who's zooming who? 3 7 See Angela Y. Davis, LET VS ALL RISE TOGETHER (on the internet). 38 See Rosa Linda Fregoso ’ s "Chicana. Film Practices" statement before her endnotes in Chon Noriega's CH1CABOS AND FILM (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press). p. 181 39 40 41 42 Ibid. p. 169 p. 169 p. 170 See Fregoso, Rosa Linda THE BRONZE SCREEN: Chicana and Chicano Film Culture. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press). p. xiv 43 Ibid., p. xxi 44 See Noriega, Chon A., ed. CHICANOS AND FIIM: Essays on Representation and Resistance. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota), 1992. p. 308 67 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. See Fregoso, Rosa Linda THE BRONZE SCREEN: Chicana and Chicano Film Culture. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press) p. xiv 46 See Noriega, Chon A., ed. CHICANOS AND FIIM: Essays on Chicano Representation and Resistance. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota), 1992. p. xvi 47 See Fregoso, Rosa Linda THE BRONZE SCREEN: Chicana and, Chicano Film Culture. (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press) p. xxi 48 Ibid. p. xxii 49 See Rosa Linda Fregoso, ed. LOURDES PORTILLO: THE DEVIL NEVER SLEEPS and Other Films. (Austin: University of Texas Press), 2001. 50 I love the color of both of Fregoso's book covers; a turquoise blue with gold/bronze print on the BRONZE SCREEN: Chicana and Chicano Film Culture, and a deep violet with near to lavender text for LOURDES PORTILLO: The Devil Never Sleeps and Other Films. 51 See CHICANA (W) RITES: On Word and Film ed. by Maria Herrera- Sobek and Helena Maria Viraxnontes (Berkely: Third Woman Press), 1995. Ibid., p. 15. 68 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Ibid., p. 281 Keller, Gary D., ed. CHICANO CINEMA: f ieaearcsh, Jteviws, and Resources, {Binghamton, NY: Bilingual Review/Press, 1985) . p. 89 55 ZONE-4: The Prison Poem (1998) , four-minute experimental video poem by Royal Eagle Bear Productions c/s. 56 See Are son, Paul. "Notable Latino/a. Lesbians and Gays. " Internet list compiled for ONE Institute, Los Angeles, Summer 1997. 57 See Rosa Linda Fregoso, ed. LOURDES PORTILLO: THE DEVIL NEVER SLEEPS and. Other Films. (Austin: University of Texas Press), 2001. 58 Frances Negron-Muntaner "Drama Queens: Latino Gay and Lesbian Independent Film/Video" in THE ETHNIC EYE; Latino Media Arts Chon A. Noriega and Ana M. Lopez, editors, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press) 1996. p 60 59 See Angela Yvonne Davis ' s, BLUES LEGACIES AMD BLACK FEMINISM: Gertrude ”Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday. (New York: Random House), 1998. Ibid. p 45 61 Ibid. p 41 69 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. See Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano's essay "Ironic Framings: A Queer Reading' of the Family (Melo) drama. in Lourdes Portillo's THE DEVIL SEVER SLEEPS/El dlahlo nunca dnerme," in Rosa Linda Fregoso, ed. LOtJRDES PORTILLO: THE DEVIL SEVER SLEEPS and Other Films. (Austin University of Texas Press), 2001. Chicana. lesbiana critic Yarbro- Bejarano, who teaches at Stanford University, also wrote a good synopsis of a major herstorical lesbiana encaenfcro in Cuernavaca, Mexico (1987) that I was fortunate to attend as well. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER TWO DISCOVERY of XICANA FILM GODDESSES: wmm cmmic mothers and famxlias "The Fifth Sun is quickly vanishing... Our Olmeca third eye begins to glisten in the slowly rising light." Cherrie Moraga1 As we can see by comparing the biographies of these two veterana Chicana filmmakers, Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo are less than one and a half years apart in age. One was born in Aztlan, and one was born in Mexico. Both women have addressed these border issues in very serious ways in several of their films. Both went to California public high schools and attended California universities, focusing on art and the creative world.2 Both Morales and Portillo had visual artistic training - 71 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Portillo at Otis Art Institute, and Morales at University of California at Los Angeles film school. At this point it's useful to move beyond commonalities and delve into some of the filmmakers5 contrasts, with a special focus on how their birthplaces and geographic locations of their early development transformed their ideas into radical experimental (or mujerista) moviemaking. Morales is a U.S. born Chicana, whose point of view has consistently focused on the local Los Angeles context. Her film career is in many ways characterized by an oppositional response to growing up between the oppressive geographic polar empires of Hollywood and Disneyland. She was able to access the growing Chicano community that actively promoted culfcura and creativity. It was in this context that her film career developed in tandem with male Chicano filmmakers in Los Angeles during the same period. Portillo, on the other hand, was an emigre from Mexico (who later came to identify as Chicana). Her works crossed borders, addressing many cultures and artistic forms. Perhaps because she was able to act independently of the Southern California Chicano movement 72 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. (and its inherent dogmas and sexism), Portillo's work explored broader issues. These included exploring avant- garde production methods to make cultural products that could be distributed on a local and global level. These divergences account for some of Portillo's and Morales's thematic and stylistic differences. Though Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo are constantly being compared to each other, there is such an incredible difference amongst the two Chicanas. They emerge at the same time on the one hand, and yet there are such huge differences in their backgrounds. One is Chicana raised by a single mother struggling in Aztlan, and the other was a lower middle class Mexicans imigre who moved to Califas at thirteen years old. While conducting interviews with Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo, I found that the recording tools and attendant interpretations of the transcription do not always adequately convey the nuances, exchanges and contradictions experienced during the "live" interviews. For example, the interviews were recorded with a video camera, a micro cassette recorder, and handwritten notes. These technologies, their transcriptions, and then their interpretations are many steps away from the "liveness" 73 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. as it passed. Here are some of the issues discovered in the interview/rap sessions with Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo. These issues are extremely relevant to contemporary concerns regarding concerns of cultural studies and the progress and development of our interactions as better human beings amongst ourselves. This is especially true today, in regards to media production, and a highly technological warfare going on in the backdrop of our postmodern reality. SYLVIA MORALES - BRIEF BIO and CAREER HERSTORY Chicana filmmaker Sylvia Morales was born in Phoenix, Arizona, July 1943. She was raised by her single mother in Southern California and attended Culver City Elementary, Junior High and graduated from Culver City High School. Her high schooling was briefly interrupted when her mother moved her to Tucson, Arizona. Moving from highly urbanized Los Angeles, to a more rural Tucson, let alone giving up high school friends, would be hard for most teenagers. As Sylvia said: ...most of my life I went to Culver City schools...It was when my mom and stepfather divorced that we 74 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. moved away to Tucson, Arizona, for a semester. Then we came back because I wanted to graduate from my high school with my friends because it was going to be my senior year. Because my mother didn’t have a husband, she was looking for jobs here and there. So we couldn't get back to Culver City because it was too expensive. So this was LA and that meant that I went to the closest school there, which was Alexander Graham High School.3 By Sylvia's strong insistence, she convinced her mother to move back to the West Side of Los Angeles, so that she could graduate from a high school nearer to her friends. While growing up, Sylvia Morales was allowed and encouraged to be an artist, influenced by artistic freedoms in her family. Her mother, her siblings and she did teatro, singing and dancing to entertain themselves while growing up. Often times she would be the lead singer in the shows. As Sylvia reminisces fondly of her grandmother: My grandmother kept telling me, and I don’t know why, everyone’s favorite movie star at that time was Maria Felix — so they all wanted me to grow up and 75 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. be Maria Felix. So they would encourage me to act, my grandmother in particular. So I would sing, or dance, and they would love it and they’d clap for me. So I think if anything, it was always there.4 That "it" which "was always there" was the creativity that continued to grow. Morales received her Bachelor of Arts (Cum Laude) in the Motion Picture Department at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). Sylvia Morales was a graduate student in the film school at UCLA. As one of California's strongest schools of cinema, UCLA took the lead in responding to the previous decade of civil rights struggles and opening its doors to prospective Chican0 filmmakers. She went on to complete her Master of Fine Arts in the Motion Picture Department at UCLA as well. These academic accomplishments in and of themselves are important in advancing race, class and gender representations for Chicanas. Besides making films and videos, Morales has published several essays, and has taught film and video production courses extensively throughout Southern California, including at Orange Coast College, University of Southern California, California 76 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. State University of Los Angeles, Loyola Marymount University and Chapman College.5 In 1972, Morales held a position as Staff Director and Producer at OXFORD FILMSr an educational production film company in Los Angeles. The same year she served as a Teaching Assistant in film production at UCLA. In the early 1970'’s, Sylvia Morales showed an art piece of hers along with those of a half dozen other Chicana women artists at PLAZA de la RAZA, a Chicano Cultural Arts Centro in Lincoln Park, in Los Angeles. The other Chicana artistas included Judy Baca, Judith Hernandez and Patssi Valdez to name a few.6 Morales was also a photographer for a layperson's health book, A NEW VIEW OF A WOMAN'S BODY (1981) .7 Morales first emerged on the political filmmaking scene in 1979 with CHICANA. This film is currently in distribution with the oldest established feminist film/video distribution company in the U.S., WOMEN MAKE MOVIESf Inc., in New York City, which also distributes its collection internationally. Sylvia Morales has been involved with the creation of numerous public interest documentaries and cultural series for television and the Public Broadcasting Service. (See APPENDIX B for entire 77 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. chronological film/videography listing of Sylvia Morales) Following this vital documentary work, Morales then was the executive producer, writer, director and editor for a dramatic award winning video called ESPERAMZA (1985), which was made while she was in residency in the prestigious American Film Institute's Directing Workshop for Women. Given the continuing lack of representation of Chicana/os on both sides of the television screen, the television work of independent Chicana film and videomaker Sylvia Morales becomes all the more significant. Not only does her career span over three decades, moving from the margins to mainstream media, but she has also continued to be a major influence on new generations of Chicana/o film and videomakers as well. Morales currently lives in Los Angeles, and was awarded legal custody of her young niece and nephew whom she is raising as a single parent. It is no small feat that mujerista moviemaker Sylvia Morales would win legal custody of her young niece and nephew. In a personal dialogue, Sylvia told me that the judge addressed the issue that Sylvia Morales was gay. Nevertheless, the 78 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. court awarded legal custody of two children she had already been co-raising for many years. LOURDES PORTILLO - BIO and CAREER HERSTORY Lourdes Portillo was born on November 11, 1944, in Chihuahua, Mexico.8 In 1957, at the age of 13 years old, Lourdes Portillo emigrated to the U.S. with her family. At that age she was able to comprehend more deeply as a young brown woman, the cultural and racial differences between her birthplace Mexico, and her new home, a transition in language and traditions. She lived briefly in the Los Angeles area and then moved to San Francisco where she currently resides. Lourdes Portillo is the mother of three sons, all grown now. Lourdes Portillo's origins grew out of an initial interest in art, which she first encountered in Catholic schools. I always had a tendency to relate to everything visual more than anything intellectual. I think I became aware of art when I was in high school, and then it just became a bigger interest.9 79 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. This interest fed into Portillo1s formative political experiences as a Mexican woman living in California during the 1960's. [T]he center for Chicano filmmaking has been Los Angeles. And I’ve always been outside of that center, because most of the independent Chicano filmmakers were coming out of UCLA, for example. They have a program there that Sylvia Morales came out of, Jesus Trevifio, Moctezuma Esparza, etc. And I lived in San Francisco where there were no Chicano filmmakers. At one point there was an attempt to gather every Chicano filmmaker in the late 1970's, through the effort of the Galeria de la Raza...1 0 Around this time Portillo joined a collective that later became Cine Accion, becoming fluent in rasquache movimiento moviemaking. At this point she felt a need to explore and develop her mainstream genre technical skills. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. I decided that I didn't know very much about film and that I wanted to know a lot. A lot of things that I had learned in Cine Manifest [Cine Accion's pre-cursor], I already knew, but there was a whole other field that I knew nothing about. And that was art film. So I went to the San Francisco Art Institute to get my master’s.1 1 Lourdes followed this by studying at the private Otis Art Institute working with artists, and teamed up with Argentinean born Susana Munoz to work on her first films. Lourdes was getting training as a visual artist, and her collaboration helped her to transform herself into a filmmaker. Portillo moved to the Bay Area where she thought her brand of filmmaking would be supported. Coming from San Francisco and having children made me realize that I couldn’t move to Los Angeles and try to make it in Hollywood. It was the 1970’s and if I went into the offices of the funders, or to whomever was in charge, I’d probably look like their maid and they 81 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. wouldn't trust me with a million dollars. So I decided I would make independent film in San Francisco where there was a lot of opportunity for me to grow and to make films. I think that’s the real reason. The other reason I realized later as I made more films: I didn’t want to compromise as much as one needs to compromise [in Hollywood]. It was a very big luxury to remain independent.1 2 In the cultural mix of the Mission District of San Francisco, Lourdes found willing and able transcultural production crew members to work on her ever strong political films. Her contemporary Baza filmmakers from Callfas Norte were primarily Luis Valdez and his brother Daniel Valdez at that time.1 3 During Portillo’s 1998 interview, when I originally asked her if it was okay with her that I do a queer reading of her first major film AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE/DESPUES DEL TERKEMOTO, she proclaimed proudly of one of her sons that was working at XOCHZTL PRODUCTIONS, her film company's office: 82 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. L: Yeah. But I wasn't a lesbian then. You know I was pregnant with the boy that you just saw. Yeah, that cute boy that went out. That's my Antonio. 0: Wow Lourdes, I didn't know that - he's beautiful, and he's totally grown! I may have met him once when he was real small. L: Yeah that's my son. He's a great great guy. It is wonderful that Rosa Linda Fregoso has incorporated several photos of Portillo pregnant with her son Antonio, while shooting her production AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE/DESPUES DEL TERREMOTO.1 4 Here again, traditional stereotypes are shattered regarding Latinas during pregnancy and can indeed perform non-traditional women1s work, such as filmmaking. For me, again this attests to an amazon nature that can handle creating mujerista form and content movies, while carrying another developing life within her own body. I went on to ask Lourdes more questions regarding her self-identity and how that can play out in her films. As the narrator of THE DEVIL NEVER STEEPS: El diahlo nunca duerme (1995), Portillo says that it was in Mexico that she watched her first films and came to appreciate 83 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. them (although, of course, many focused on the men of history — Benito Juarez, Pancho Villa, Emiliano Zapata, etc.). Filmmaker Portillo has a wonderful close-up of herself in front of her childhood theater in Chihuahua, Mexico. To me, she appears as a Chicana lesbiana. Her hair is short, she seems not to have on make-up, she's wearing cool mirrored shades — and this shot is abstractly angled on the screen. Extra cool I think. I asked Portillo about sexual identity and its representation in THE DEVIL NEVER SLEEPS, and I was gladly surprised at her response. Lourdes comments: L: I see myself as a Chicana filmmaker. That's how I see myself. I see myself as a mother of three sons, and I see myself as a lesbian. 0: Cool. L: You know. 0: So on the visuals, do you think that people can think that you are lesbian from the visual representation? L: I don't think in that film you could. I don't know if you could say if I was a lesbian. You could, if you're a lesbian, you could tell that I 84 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. was a lesbian. O: And it wouldn't be offensive. L: No! O: There could be some pride in that? L; Right! I mean, I'm not trying to look like a lesbian, but I am a lesbian. Nevertheless, Portillo reminded me that the dramatic element in the film should go beyond her identity. It does. Doing Portillo's interview in San Francisco was very revealing. I learned many many valuable things, in particular a mindset, or point of view that is behind the mujerista movies and creative productions. Since we are a product of our society, of our communities, I believe simultaneously, we influence and affect our communities and immediate environments. At different times and locations, these views of herstory are in flux and forever changing. For example, Lourdes Portillo says in her interview repeatedly that she was upset, and somewhat focused at that time on what she felt was a bad breakup of a long term relationship with her then ex-lover. That was a half decade ago. When I ask her about her next project, 85 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and whether the breakup will affect her emotional perspective. She replies: L: Yeah, I think I'm going to want to do something artistically that would portray the things that I'm going through personally, you know, and get my vengeance that way. (she laughs) 0: That's why I'm bringing this up. I know how this happens. In that larger picture, in world dynamics that usually you can see these things are going on behind the scenes. There's all these "novelas” kind of, going on that don't get spoken about. I'm wondering is this something we keep quiet about? L: Yeah, I don't keep quiet about it. It feeds my heart. Yeah, I mean I'm doing a documentary, a lone documentary. The next documentary is going to be about the disposability of Mexican women. And I think in the larger sense it's a metaphor for the disposability of myself in my relationship. The ways I was treated — like something that could be disposed of. That could be mined, used, and you know, disposed of. So that's heavy. And I think that that's a prevalent view of how Mexican women 86 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. are looked at even from other lesbians who claim to be really kind of feminist, and what have you. But they' re in fact as exploitative as any guy is.1 5 This part of the interview was very important in validating my thoughts as a filmmaker, that our personal lives completely affect the style, form and content of our creative projects. Therefore, to me this again echoes the old school feminist slogan that "the personal is political." In her interview, Portillo shared some then turbulent real stories of hers and also some of the background impetus for her next prize-winning documentary on the missing women from Juarez, Mexico, SENORITA EXTRAVZADA - MISSING YOUNG WOMAN (2001). During the interview, I felt it somewhat humorous that Portillo continued returning to the fact, and directing our conversation towards the seriousness of her then recent breakup with a well-known film critic, B. Ruby Rich. Generalizing I would say, although there are exceptions, it is somewhat difficult to have long lasting lesbian and gay relationships, although I have known many, due to homophobic patriarchal structures working against these relationships.1 6 Unfortunately, these 87 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. external homophobic stereotypes and attitudes often become internalized. I was very happy that Lourdes Portillo was being so open with me concerning her personal life at that time. Both Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo, through their mujerista moviemaking have developed an analysis of the differences and similarities of race, gender, class and sexuality in their own experience. They have not only explored historical representations of Chicana subjectivity and consciousness, but have also produced mujerista constructions of strong and healthier Chicana/Latina/indigena protagonists, making both filmmakers important community leaders. Both Morales and Portillo looked to the 1970’s, the time when they were in graduate school making their first films, as a very idealistic period infused with politics. They both seemed to feel that the socio-political ambience gave them impetus to say openly what they needed to say. Their statements have continued to be shared through film screenings of their respective debut fi^Lms CHICANA and AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE/DESPUES DEL TERREMOTO at community centers, conferences and college campuses, Both filmmakers thought that the idea and practice of 88 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. "nationalism" did not work for them, instead preferring a concept and practice of "community." In this context Portillo and Morales believe that nationalism's elements of patriotism and empire-building perpetuate rigid definitions and hierarchies that suppress the development of "emerging" views {i.e. mujerista analysis of people of color organizing, and the need for people of color alliance building with other disenfranchized communities). Community, on the otherhand, connotes collaboration amongst diverse members to maintain and promote a circle of people who share affinities while simultaneously maintaining unique characteristics. The LARGER PICTURE: The Struggle Against the Existing Racial and Gender Restrictions Let's take a short retro-spective look at the contextual situation of the mass media in relationship to Latinas/os at the time of Morales's and Portillo's early development. For instance, in 1961 there were few Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. representations of Latinas, people of color, gays, and women's images in mainstream cinema and television. During the I960's, Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo were still coming of age, although both claim they were not directly involved in the Chicano Art Movement during this period, as young teenage Chicanitas en Aztlan, they were nevertheless aware of and influenced by the surrounding Chicano Liberation/Civil Rights/and arte movimientos that were being covered on live television across the United States and being celebrated in murals and other forms of barrio arte throughout their local communities.1 7 In 1961, Rita Moreno became the first Latina actor to win an Oscar for her supporting role in WEST SIDE STORY (1961). Even this popular musical adaptation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet to a supposedly realistic barrio street setting gives an Anglo, Natalie Wood the lead role of a Latina Juliet. Unfortunately, Rita Moreno's supporting role in the contemporary film focusing on the racial tensions between urban brown and white gangs actually reinforced the stereotypes. Rita Moreno's self/community empowerment through her historical Academy Award winning had an upsetting history 90 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. afterwards. Dealing with the same racist and sexist attitudes and stereotyping, cultural worker Moreno discussed her realization and frustration at how traditional institutionalized oppression worked then (and now). In George Hadley-Garcia's photobook, HISPANIC HOLLYWOOD: The Latins in Motion Pictures,1 8 Rita Moreno discussed (what I would call) her mujerista strategies for avoiding Hollywood during the decade after receiving her historic Academy Award: It wasn't easy. I was terrified at first. I knew I had to get out of town because there was too much temptation here. I could have taken any of those spitfire roles and made a bunch. Luckily, I was so demeaned — it’s really demeaning after you've won the Oscar to be offered the same role over and over again. They only wanted me to drag out my accent-and-dance show over and over again. And boy, I was offered them all — gypsy fortune tellers, Mexican spitfires, Spanish spitfires, Puerto Ricans — all those 'Yonkee peeg, you steal me people' s money' parts. ...The only thing I could do was turn my back on it.1 9 91 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. In some ways Moreno's hurtful experience and personal healing techniques can be seen as cinematic advances. Many Latina actress/actors desire positive changes in narrative content of scripts which have been too slow in coming from Hollywood. This stunted growth of perspective can be seen as regressions, when compared to an earlier film such as SALT OF THE EARTH (1954) .2 0 This classic film showed how predominantly Chicana mothers against all odds were able to win a local miner’s strike in New Mexico, which took place during the McCarthy Era. In addition, in the private domestic space of the home, and more specifically, the bedroom, the Latina protagonist addressed radical body politics making strong feminist statements over fifty years ago.2 1 Although it was blacklisted (sic - should be 'whitelisted’), SALT OF THE EARTH was in many ways more progressive for Chicana working class and poor women and children of color than most films since then. At the end of the I960's, the Best Picture for the Academy Awards dealt with the issue of U.S. racism as the central theme of IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (1967). Towards the end of the decade also, white gay male 92 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. homosexuality was central in MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969) . Nevertheless, there was still a lot to be desired. With the development of newer technologies, the influence of television increased as the new "home movie."2 2 The development of television does not, however, correspond to any new understanding on Latinos and the impact of racism on a show's success. Take I LOVE LUCY as an example. The widely acclaimed TV comedy is acknowledged as an innovative program that won several Emmy Awards for Lucille Ball. Still, the Cuban-born producer and co-star of the show, Desi Arnaz, was never nominated for any awards. To put it bluntly, something is wrong with this picture. Again, this is another reason why Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo’s mujerista movies are ever so important.2 3 Still today, the necessity for the refrain remains: " Some thing' s Wrong with This Picture. " 24 This short and powerful article discusses the current lack of fair representation by the Hollywood film industry in relationship to race, including content and participation within the professional film guilds. We need to demand that powerful institutions and multinational broadcast corporations act with more responsibility in healing 93 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. their hate crimes. All forms of western patriarchal traditional mass media have perpetuated racist and sexist stereotypes and false assumptions about Chicana identity. In the meantime, performing artistas and critics of color are producing their own cultural representations, making their own movies, curating their own film festivals, and giving out their own awards (i.e. the Chicano/Latino Alma Awards) . CHICANO CINEMA BEGAN RAW and PROUD Chicano cinema began raw and proud, and functioned as direct aesthetic and political actions in response to specific socio and historical local, national and international events. The lack of access to media technologies and resources is another reason that has led to a history of under representation. In a sense, we U.S. women of color/mnjeristas/lesbianas de color have been written out of history. This is rude and creates its own forms of poisons. As a response, guerrilla forms of creative expression flourished as a most dynamic and powerful cultural renaissance. Chicanos found the need to tell their own histories and identify their own mythologies as 94 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. seriously as they were reclaiming their heritage and roots. In a postmodern U.S. society, Chicanos began to experience and acknowledge living under late capitalism, and their condition as a poor and discriminated class. A council of Chicano leaders, artists and critics later referred to the Chicano Arte Movimiento's surge beginning in the I960's as representative of cultural and political RESISTANCE and AFFIRMATION. According to the Founding Statement of the Chicano Art: Resistance and Affirmation, 1965-1985 Exhibition (CARA), Chicano art is the modern, ongoing expression of the long-term cultural, economic, and political struggle of the Mexicano people within the United States. It is an affirmation of the complex identity and vitality of the Chicano People. Chicano art arises from and is shaped by our experiences in the Americas.2 5 The Founding Statement reads like a treatise, or declaration of who the Chicano People are. Notice the connection between Chicano and Mexicano people. This 95 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. link is critical in that it brings both realities scarred by man-made borders together again recognizing the familial and cultural connections. That is, the link speaks to Third World peoples from a Third World country and a Third World people within a first world country. With Chicano aesthetics we were able to momentarily heal (or manage social-political-economic ills/dis-eases) through a more just re-writing of history, a reclaiming and renaming of our world view, cosmology, and philosophy. As Teresa McKenna, Editorial Board Chair and Executive Committee Member at the UCLA exhibit opening remarks: El Mapa de una vida — la cara, the face, a map of life. The struggle to live etches itself on the face in lines and character, giving to the public countenance a profound, terrible, and awesome beauty. Today we celebrate CARA — the face of Chicano art. Its features have been molded by the political struggles of the Chicano Movement and its beauty emanates from the human drama of this history.2 6 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Through various media, a radical surge in this new perspective added to the demographic retelling of the second largest racial minority (and soon to be the largest) in the US. Through both alter-native methodologies and practices, along with a demand to participate within existing mainstream media, the Chicano Arte Movimiento was and remains a twin to the Chicano Civil Rights Movement. In the beginning stages of the United Farm Workers Union, organizing strategies used rallies and forms of pedagogical entertainment, for example, El Teatro Campesino. El Teatro Campesino was the fundamental vehicle to mobilize unionization of the Farmworkers. This theater troupe was born out of a long oral tradition and indigenous performance traditions (indigenous history, calendario symbology, azteca and xnayan traditions, danzantes, to name a few) that Luis Valdez was in touch with. He and his brother Daniel Valdez, along with a crew of others, encouraged audience participation with campesinos in talking and teaching about the strengths of unionizing and the importance of coming together in the common face of oppression. The use of humor was well received after long days, hours, 97 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. years and generations of working under inhumane conditions. Humor, in a sense, came to contrast the violence of harsh labor. This was supposed to be the modern world and people were suffering under the evil use of the short handle hoe. Similar to conditions found in slavery, not only were the working conditions unfair, but the living conditions the farm workers’ children had to endure were unbelievable for one of the country's largest industries — the multi-billion dollar agri-business. In 1965, for example, the average farm workers in California were making a little over $3,000 annually. These were the realities and issues being addressed, and strategically being fought to change. The responses to cultural and social injustices experienced by la cultura Chicana in the 1960ss include artistic expressions that are oppositionally framed in rasquachismo (vs. mainstream genres). This is one of the major thrusts of the CARA exhibit; CARA celebrates many items (as quality art) that were previously unrecognized in the mainstream art world because of prevailing racist attitudes, as well as the art world’s insistence on high production values in mainstream genres. CARA helped counter these hegemonic values by documenting the initial 98 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. value of rasqaache art (in socio-political terms) and demonstrating how this artwork evolved over time, both technically (from ink to digitalizations, video to film, flyers to artshows) and politically (as in coalition building with environmental, feminist and other labor movements). The original value of rasquachismo and the evolution of Chicano art aesthetics highlight the dhangln' sign ro the times, creating art in a beautiful yet painful mix of la Chicana culture and politics.27 Messages written and still uncoded within the ancient architectural structures of the pyramids are central to our thought and culture. For example, throughout the Chicano Art Movement, depictions of a new world order, according to ancient native Mesoamerican thought and culture dominated Chicano poetry, murals, photographs, films and other artwork. It's facinating how the nature of "Resistance and Affirmation" in the larger Chicano Movement (politics) plays out, and how these concepts and dynamics inform the images, symbols, sounds and messages within the Chicano Art Movement (culture) , from the I960's to the present. The CARA exhibition validated and promoted Chicano Art at numerous 99 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. venues throughout the United States and internationally.2 3 It was not until they were adults that the two Chicana artistas Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo began to make their own films. In the 1970' s, the Civil and Human Rights Movements were barely beginning to put into practice the legal struggles that were in part sparked by the historical Supreme Court case, Brown vs. the U.S. Board of Education back in 1954. In the 1970''s, Affirmative Action programs were beginning to be more numerous, before Reagonomics and the AIDS/SIDA epidemic/pandemic. There was a sexual revolution in full swing. There was a national chicano cultura renacimiento/renaissance going on. A lot of history was taking shape. Angela Y. Davis was freed by popular demand. Inez Talamantes and Joanne Little were two women of color persecuted by the judicial and patriarchal political systems, put into place based on racial superiority and privilege. Their causes mobilized many women and feminist women and men who helped free these women also. By the late 1970's, when Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo came out with their first popular debut films, 100 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. we somewhat had our own Chicano centros, schools, galleries and museums (MECHA, etc) across Aztlan. Women were active in various Chicano organizations. Veterano Chicano artista Malaquias Montoya recognized that it was the "men with bigotes (moustaches) and serapes who would dominate at conferences and encuentros.Women in the early stages of el movimiento were primarily doing day care and helping organize the conferences and encuentros — i.e. xeroxing, typing, mailing."3 0 At the same time, the political strategies of predominantly white middle class feminists shedding bras and clothes (which became a media event), were not as valid a reality either for women of color who were still struggling for adequate clothing, food and shelter, These basic undeniable gender and sexual rights had not yet reached the shores of Aztlan for many mujeres. Our manifestos spoke yet an other flavor, rhythm, and need and we were still dancing to a different drummer. By the late 1970's, Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo were making their first popular celluloid pieces with strong messages based on ideologies seldom heard by U.S. women of color, let alone via the technologies of film and television. That's radical. 101 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. For many decades, the Chicano classic YO SOY JOAQUIN (1969) was believed to be the "first" Chicano film. Cultural critic Edward Said's postcolonialist concerns are relevant to a rereading of YO SOY JOAQUIN (1969), the film and book text by Corky Gonzalez, with a voice-over narration by Luis Valdez. Edward Said discusses several social symptoms that occur due to the tendencies of secular criticism — for example, the widening of the gap between so-called "high" and "low" cultures.31 Said insists on the importance for us to observe how Canons and Authority are constructed, as well as how they are used. For it is in this entire theoretical world, among a "class of intellectuals," that the ordering, creating and understanding of the "real world" is presented.32 Throughout the Chicano epic poem, YO SOY JOAQUIN, all male heroes are "properly" named to validate and retell history, replacing illegitimacy with the identity of nobility and cultural affirmation.33 When females are mentioned, they are Joaquin Murrieta's "wife", who was raped and killed (p. 44), otherwise there are representations primarily of mothers. One image of woman is bearing "the pain of sons long buried or dying..." (p. 77). Finally though, the narrator and spectator may be 102 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. able to momentarily identify with the female, the feminine principle and nature, when the ultimate cultural transformation and unconditional identity can be reenacted. The male narrator and dominant point of view changes in that " . . . I am her/and she is me." (p 79) This is when we cross over to our "mirror-self" or other self.3 4 We are able to identify with our oppressor as a part of ourselves. Here the focus is on economic injustices and enduring "the fierce heat of racial hatred." (p. 86) Chon Noriega highlights Affirmative Action and Chicano Civil Rights organizing efforts in "A Political Generation Goes to Film School." 35 The essay reveals the socio-political and economic differences amongst students of color entering California film schools as a result of Affirmative Action. Primarily as first-generation college students, early Chicano filmmakers felt a socio political responsibility to their communities and their people to document harsh and unfair socio-political and economic situations, instead of taking/having the luxury to make "personal narrative" film works, as predominant Anglo students did in California film schools at the time. Between 1969 and 1973, UCLA, USC, and Stanford Universities enrolled a large number of students of color 103 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. into their film programs for the first time. Noriega noticed the fact that even amongst the students of color there were political differences. In many ways, cultural shock was a common experience for the young radical activists of color who entered these traditionally Anglo middle- and upper-middle class educational institutions. In Sylvia Morales's case, at the beginning of her formal cinema training at UCLA film school, her Chicano film contemporaries in Los Angeles and her surrounding raza filmmakers were Gregory Nava, Moctesuma Esparza, and Jesus Trevino (not many to begin with). In Sylvia’s own words: At that time, we weren't thinking about principles, we were just thinking we were gonna change the world, by any means necessary. So, we were gonna do it with a camera. That was our way, by presenting to the public.3 6 Noriega's writing, and Morales's reflection have profound meanings as their interview took place shortly after my own experience as a graduate student of color in the San Francisco State University film school. Not much 104 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. had changed, relatively speaking, as many film students of color at San Francisco State University still had a distinguishably different socio-political and economic reality and background than the predominantly white student body population in our film program. Like Morales more than two decades back, we students of color still found the need to organize around our cultural differences and similarities as students of color to promote our own works. We also had to work collectively to get access to technologies that would get our first films made, and, equally important, screened to audiences we privileged.3 7 So while Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo were merely beginning to "busta move" with their cameras, crews and progressive films, an entire new generation of us Chicana filmmakers were encouraged to produce and direct, voice our concerns, image our own protagonists through film/video/movies as well.3 8 DISCOVERY of XICANA FILM GODDESSES: Identity and Movement Politics In comparing and contrasting the importance of Sylvia and Lourdes's mujerista moviemaking, I find that 105 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. there are many reasons to focus on the works of these two outstanding women, mothers, and Chicana film and video makers. There are multiple ways in which identities on several different registers -- for example sexuality and gender, nationality and race, class, age, color - intermix in their particular processes of production and in their actual works for the past several decades. This intermix is important in that it connects with concepts and practice of hyhzidity/mestlzaje/transculturalism. The question of access to full and fair representation with technology, funding, and mass media is a vital political concern regarding the cultural development for these Chicana filmmakers on several levels. In relationship to the commonly known demographics of California and in other states in the U.S. Southwest where people of color collectively are the majority of the population, women and children of color in particular are the largest population globally. In demography discourse, this dynamic reminds me of the same older apartheid South Africa, where you have a majority of people of color oppressed, disenfranchised at all segments of society (in that space and time) by a ruling population of a white minority. Considering Morales and Portillo*' s race as an issue, both directors had—to a 106 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. certain extent—overcome this barrier of disenfranchisement, and their approaches, as an emigre and as an indigenous Chicana, dictated where their cameras led them. As Chicana filmmakers part of the Chicana diaspora Portillo and Morales continue to struggle against existing racial and economic oppressions. How have Chicana veterana filmmakers Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo been marginalized and how have they taken a camera to tell their own stories in their own voice? What is their respective new/ancient voice/meaning/self? How do they image their protagonists? And how do they co-exist as humans in this world of production? The cultural context from which Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo emerged was an exciting sign o' the times. They emerged as strong Latina lesbian filmmakers whose sensibilities help amplify the voices of women, dykes, and Latinas through their artwork.3 9 Also, the works of Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo mark the birth of a counterhegemonic cinematic praxis, away from a history dominated by the tensions in negotiating the need for ethnic solidarity and gender differentiation of a Chicano male centric nationalism more 107 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. specifically.40 With much concern on issues of gender, more progressive sexual politics, and in, a struggle to gain access to newer technologies, both have remained prolific cultural documentarians, screenwriters, producers, and directors. Chicana alter-native approaches to popular cultural productions are attempts to develop healthier types of representations of people of color than those of many mainstream products. As good examples, the bodies of works of Chicana veterana independent filmmakers Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo offer "counteraesthetics" from their new perspective and response to dominant oppressive forms and contents found within hegemonic representations and mediums.41 Chicana/o film critics Rosa Linda Fregoso and Chon Noriega attest to the importance of their film/video productions. In addition to being purposely in the world of the "counteraesthetic," they are "counter-acting" even to another layering, responding against racist and classist oppressions. Their work responds to gender and sexual exploitation and repression from within the Chicano nationalistic, neopatriarchal traditional third world androcentrism as well. This is a heteroglossia of histories and traditions to challenge and work for positive change. 108 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Through their work, both Morales and Portillo tell their own individual stories in the trajectory of issues covered in their works. Both filmmakers began and continue to be concerned with local and global politics, shifting between issues of national and international concerns. For example, filmmaker Lourdes Portillo addresses transnational, third world politics, as in her and Susana Munoz's Academy Award nominated documentary, LAS MADRES: The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (1986) . A powerful sequence in the film depicts how the U.S. military trained many of the Latin American military officers. On another level, Portillo and Morales must be situated within a context that understands the value of (sub) cultural aesthetics. Today, Sylvia Morales is located in the largest mecca of the U.S. film industry, Los Angeles. Yet Hollywood still seems as far as a foreign country to Chicana filmmakers. Sylvia collaborated with a primarily Califas Sur Chicana film production crew in the making of her first film, CHICANA. As women, and as Chicanas/Latinas both of these women have been marginal- eyes'd. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. What were other Chicana artistas doing in Calif as, Aztlan during the early 1970's and 1980's? Portillo'' s comments on calling herself "Chicana" - allowed her to integrate her Indlgena self. She says that it was a negative connotation to be called Indlgena during her early upbringing in Mexico. Portillo comments, "I was very Mexican identified. You know, more traditional Mexican identified, because I was already thirteen when I came here, so I was formed. I was Mexican. I didn't have any other identity. "4 2 Portillo's acculturation into the U.S., similar to the experience of protagonist Irene in AFTER THE EARTHQUAEE/DESPUES BEL TERREMQTO, allowed her cultural identity changes. Portillo explains, Well, I guess everybody comes to that point, that moment, right? Because it's not something that we were brought up with. So, I regained that watching my brothers and sisters go through it. (la consciencia chicanisma) You remember my brother Tony, so they turned me on to it, and I felt really like closer. I felt like I had another identity 110 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. that was more valid than being Mexican, because I no longer lived in Mexico.4 3 In Lourdes Portillo’s example, class, race and color are all-important aspects of her identity, and each allows a particular POV. Lourdes Portillo's brother, Tony, was a professional artist and painted signs professionally. He hired my younger brother, Louis to work with him for awhile in the 1970's in Long Beach, CA. Both mujerista moviemakers Morales and Portillo had problems with particular labels of identity. Being "Chicana/o," "feminist," and/or "lesbian," are labels that have contradictions within themselves. Portillo and Morales agree to have been effected by the Chicana/o Art and Human Rights Movements, and yet in the origins of the movements, these women feel they weren’t directly involved. This somewhat is the role and experience many U.S. women of color artistas felt in the earlier stages of these movements. The marginalization for many was responded to in a variety of ways. In terms of identity politics, once again the power that these two women exuded came in part through their resistance to simply claim "feminist" or "lesbian" or even Chicano nationalist 111 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. as their banner or '"identity. " They both privilege the experiential as their guideposts. During the interview I tried bringing it to the present, 0: How about now, do you think that there's a different kind of feminism, or something that you would claim, like Chicanismo - or does that come in the sense of being a "Chicana," with an "a" ending? You know, today, how do you see all of this? L: I see everything as being experiential. You know that that was an experiential thing. That according to my experience I have formed these opinions. You know, I don't have one big theory, or one big philosophy that I adhere to, I just kind of feel my way around.4 4 Both mujeres had been interested and involved in various art forms previous to their filmmaking experiences, and more specifically, utilizing these art forms as a means of self-identity. Morales and Portillo had always done visual artwork as well. Here's a flavor of what type of "cultural sensitivity" they were greeted with by a LOS ANGELES TIMES reviewer of the early Chicana 112 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. art show where Sylvia Morales showed an art piece, along with several other well known Chicana artistas of today.4 5 Obviously an anglo male, the writer smashes the majority of the show, the mujeres, and their "need for identity." In a 1975 review titled "Chicana Artists Still Seeking Identification, " LOS ANGELES TIMES art critic William Wilson continually cuts the creations of some of our most important and popular Chicana artistas to date. Based on his article, it is clear that William Wilson has a very particular notion of what art is. Wilson judges Chicana artists on traditional "professional" WASP standards, for example: The artists are still performing at a level common to talented high school students or junior college art majors (my emphasis). That is not as upsetting a circumstance as it once was since we have seen other groups sort themselves out and improve by putting their work on the line before it was, by professional standards ready.46 (my emphasis) 113 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Wilson seems uninterested in the idea of art as pure, uncensored expression or as a medium used to represent one-self or one's community. Wilson devalues U.S. women of color experiences as well as those of other marginalized communities.4 7 He does not see the fundamental connection between Chicana artistas — urban culture, his/herstory and their spiritualities. These attempts aim to perpetuate hate, indifference, invisibility, or a "namelessness" that Norma Alarcon speaks of in her analysis between the end of modernism with that of the need, drive and desire in part of U.S. women of color' s movement.4 8 Alarcon masterfully weaves the current critical debates between identity politics and socio-political and cultural movements. Alarcon discusses the shift between modernity and postmodernity, looking at Hannah Arendt's death to tradition through "namelessness" which becomes the dismal situation of no story, no vision, and no will. Alarcon quickly reconnects to the center of people of color's struggles. As she reminds us: As an aside, conquest, displacement, migration, and colonization have had similar effects for non- Europeans . Thus, it may be argued that global war 114 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. had the effect of putting in question both in the "center" and the "periphery" the value of modernity, reason, and enlightenment; that is, highlighting their dark sides .4 9 Alarcon calls in women of color to name a different world. As the editors in MAPPING MULTICULTUBALISM write, Alarcon is, "Naming the impulse for a different world" by calling in women of color. This different world is privileged by creating its own story, will, naming, and their vision of utopia. It is vitally necessary as spoken, written, and imaged in the works of Portillo and Morales, that we U.S. women of color struggle and die for bread — while our spirits need roses as well. Here, the heart remains the central driving force as vital as physical necessary human rights. And this, in today's agenda is most vital as in the material projects completed by Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo. Their completions of progressive and political movies do, have, and will continue to make a difference. As Alice Walker says in her definition #3 of womanist, she "Loves herself. Regardless." We must continue to love ourselves - and not use to start with, semantics to 115 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. separate the idea and practice of making a difference in the real post-modernist world. Also important are the audiences that they speak to and from, the array of responses their works receive from various venues. Because they are both independent filmmakers, their particular blend of productions has been of interest to me as a Chicana lesbiana spectator. Both women have found strategies of synthesizing some of the most "controversial" subject matter. With mass media LOS ANGELES TIMES' type of reception in 1975, and Hollywood's dire need for more true and positive Latina representation, both in front of and behind the cameras — it's a wonder that Chicana arte lives on! Que viva! As in Missy Elliott's contemporary rap lyrics, it's because "they hate us,” that it "only made us more creative!"5 0 U.S. women of color are in a renaissance of growth and creative change. This agency is taking place in newer literary canons, fresh agendas for feminist and post-feminist directions, and in progressive and radical strategies for visualizing these stories of fact and fiction. This agency is presented via these mujerista moviemakers' political/cultural lives and cultural/political arfceworks. 116 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. What the critics and theorists have to say are but yet different stories. When I asked Lourdes Portillo did she think of critics when she creates her productions, she replied: I think critics are bottom feeders. They're like catfish and pigs, you know? They eat the leftovers. They kind of cannibalize anything that’s made, so I’m not very kind to them, I don’t like them that much.51 Portillo' s words speak loud and clear.5 2 Traditionally, criticism from the mainstream media and the academic canon have, at worst, served to repress and undermine what might be considered progressive/subversive efforts against the hegemony, and, at best, ignore emerging views on post-colonialism, feminism and queer theory. Portillo*'s response is understandable and, perhaps, acceptable upon first glance. Upon further exploration, however, it seems that an update on Portillo*' s view of criticism is appropriate at this time. The advent of post-modernist, queer and people of colors' theories have given rise to more complex and constructive readings than previously offered by mainstream film critics and film academics. My hope is that these critics frame their 117 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. criticism with respect, instead of merely demolishing what our hermanas y reterana artistas have started— leading to a more healthy cycle of production, criticism and evolved (re)generation. I believe "criticism" both formal and informal should not be as cut-throat and cannibalistic. I have insisted that students in the creative process comment on each other's work with respect. Starting with something positive, (or not be allowed to voice anything), students were encouraged to encourage the creative process of others by identifying with the vulnerability in creating cultura. In all my years of teaching, it has been a challenge undoing years of institutionalized racism, sexism, classism and homophobia in students long silenced.5 3 Again, toxins instilled by cannibalistic, harsh, or uncaring teachers. My task has been to liberate emotions and sensitivities. I have found methods whereby endangered pupils can create in otherwise non-creative and non-conducive to creative thinking environments, and produce the depths of thought and feelings long buried. The repressed poems and prose of students have been the most powerful of literary thought that I have come 118 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. across, including polished published pieces. And the most basic/primary tactic to pulling/encouraging these deep thoughts, feelings and experiences, is to begin with some positive feedback when the communication, in whatever form, emerges. Again, as Ntozake warned, "let her be borne and handled warmly/gently." Raza women were not encouraged to enter into this career dominated by Anglo males in the U.S. film industry. It is a tremendous feat when the "firsts" raza/chicana/mujeres entered into the first film classes at the more prominent U.S. art and film schools. The anglo male (and to a lesser degree, the anglo female), repressed the first fruits of a long line of socio political struggle, Chicana filmmakers. Raza women and people of color were rarely considered to even enter, let alone participate "more fully" in such specialized and highly technical fields in film schools. Nevertheless, they/we are still creating, promoting and in a process of discovery. Through Portillo and Morales's Chicana countercinema, as critics Noriega and Fregoso call it, these nujeres remain connected to the political present identity and being, while simultaneously re-connecting 119 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. within the movement of collective memory and imagination for and with the past, as in their use of pre-columbian imagery. Both Morales and Portillo have been recognized by their' continual challenge to raise their self consciousness, as well as promote loving familias. I believe this fundamental point of view and life experience promotes a healthier global village, and this worldview is offered via their mujerista moviemaking. 120 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. See Cherrie Moraga' s TEE LAST GENERATION: Prose sad Poetry, (Boston: South End Press), p 191-92 2 See both interviews in APPENDIX. 3 See interview #2, July 14th, 1999, with Sylvia Morales in APPENDIX. 4 See Sylvia Morales's interview #2 in APPENDIX. 5 See Sylvia Morales's "Chicano-Prodnced Celluloid Mujeres” in Keller, Gary D., ed. CBLICENO CINEMA: Research, Reviews, and Resources. (Binghamton, NY: Bilingual Review/Press), 1985. p. 89 6 These artists were "breaking out” locally during the time of the Lincoln Park art exhibit, and initially appreciated by the local Chicano community of Aztlan. Since then, they have also been recognized internationally as innovative and challenging axtist&s. For example, Judy Baca produced the "internationally known GREAT WALL OF LOS ANGELES mural in the Tujunga Wash Flood Control Channel, Baca designed a work which incorporated 40 ethnic scholars, 450 multi-cultural neighborhood youth, 40 assisting artists and over 100 support staff to paint a half mile long mural on the ethnic history of California." This is from Sparc’s organizational website, http: //www- sparcmurals . org/ jb/ jb. html. Another example of another 121 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. internationally recognized artist is Patssi Valdez, an original member of MSCO, along with Harry Gamboa and Gronk. It's not a surprise she was lead singer in a woman's band where they practiced in neighborhood garages in the 1970's. While OLIVIA RECORDS mainly contracted white feminist musicians, not as many Black and Brown women musicians were originally promoted. Morales's efforts at "women's music" should be applauded given the racial politics at the time in the women's music movement. 8 Lourdes Portillo's astrological sun sign is Scorpio. Sylvia Morales is a Moonchild, Cancer. I find it interesting that both Sylvia and Lourdes are water signs. 9 See Lourdes Portillo's interview in APPENDIX. 10 Fregoso, Rosa Linda, ed. LOUDDES PORTILLO: THE DEVIL NEVER SLEEPS and Other Films (Austin: University of Texas Press), 2001. p. 49 11 Ibid. p. 49 12 See Gordon, Avery and Christopher Newfield, eds. MAPPING MOLTICULTORALI3M (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press), 1996. p. 188 13 The Valdez brothers were the central force to create and 122 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. sustain the internationally famous El Teatxo Caxqpesino, advocating for the political and human rights of farmworkers near the beginnings of the 'UFW movement. Chicana feoiu.ni.sta Yolanda Broyles- Gonzalez is critical of Luis Valdez by not getting full and unquestioned credit for the popularity and creations of El Tmatxo Caxopmai.no, acknowledging many of the xmjmxes' contributions within the history of the troupe. In addition, she discusses the ways in which Chicano art© can be co-opted and serve the purposes of the white mainstream media. See Broyles-Gonzalez' s EL TEATRO GAMPESINO: Theater in the Chiaaxto Movement (Austin: University of Texas Press) 1994. Nevertheless, I would like to acknowledge the importance on several levels that in dealing with 'the white man's' systems, such as the traditional U.S. film industry, I would prefer to see Valdez in terms of being a constructive Chicano artist pioneer. In the same sense this is what rapper Chuck D spoke about at Harvard University in addressing the importance of people of color 'hijacking the media' (in relationship to the traditional U.S. music industry), which I mentioned in the POETIC PREFACE. 14 See Rosa Linda Fregoso's THE BROHZE SCREEN: Chicano and Chicana Film Culture, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota), 1993. p 97. See also Rosa Linda Fregoso, ed. LOURDES PORTILLO: THE DEVIL NEVER SLEEPS and Other Films (Austin: University of Texas Press), 2001. p 54-57 123 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. See interview with Lourdes Portillo in APPENDIX. 16 Patriarchal cumpulsory heterosexuality, the five major patriarchal world religions, domestic discrimination still in housing, employment, and so on, are all a major part of very real gay and lesbian oppression. Same sex couples not being able to receive benefits afforded to straight couples all lead to an-Other story cloaked in homophobia. Fortunately, the recent Canadian law to recognize and accept gay and lesbian marriages, and the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn sodomy laws offers some promise of positive social, political and personal change for gays living in the United States. 17 In a brief overview of the I960's of what was happening in the U.S. world of mainstream media, film, and television in relationship to Chicano/Latino representation, we recognize that Hollywood, as a racist Ideological State Apparatus, had for several generations emitted a long trail of cultural toxins. Today, nearly three decades after Louis Althussuer's writing of the essay '•'Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes towards an Investigation) we can understand how [electronic/digital] mass media has become the dominant Ideological State Apparatus (ISA). Althussuer's analysis discusses the paradigm shifts in Repressive State Apparatus and Ideological State Apparatus over time including the shift from the emphasis of Church to Schools, to Media now. The dominant hegemonic ideologies [in cinema, schools, etc] were and continue to be oppressive and physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually 124 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. unhealthy for disenfranchised communities. See Louis Althussuer LENIN AND PHILOSOPHY AND OTHER ESSAYS (New York: Monthly Review Press) 1971. p 127-186 18 See George Hadley-Garcia HISPANIC HOLLYWOOD: Tbs Latins in Motion Pictwcaa (New York: Citadel Press) p 174 19 Ibid. 174 20 This independently produced "nearly docudrama" piece (I say this because in an interview I was honored to have with the late Producer Paul Jerrico, he did not categorize the B/W classic as a docu-drama, nor as a "Chicano" or "feminist" film. Both of these communities have claimed this important film as belonging/representing their struggle. Paul Jerrico insisted on prioritizing the "class struggle" as the primary struggle depicted within the diegesis. The economic in Marxist theory is fundamental to all other divisions of race, gender, sexuality, age and so on. In relationship to Chicano culture, specifically, we have the first cinematic feature produced with a Chicana protagonist in SALT OF THE EARTH (1954). This important cinematic text demonstrates the will to overcome an abundance of negative forces against the mere production and distribution of this great film. Mexican actress Rosaura Revueltas portrayal of a Chicana protagonist in SALT OF THE EARTH, was a huge threat to the Hollywood moguls at the time. Lots of political pressure was put on them by billionaire Howard Hughes to impede the production process as well as block and suppress its 125 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. premiere and future screenings. Today it1s a cult classic. All of this was just because of the "red scare" (sic), and that it was, and nearly remains the only feature film portraying a Ghlaana/Maxicanaf'tndxgena. as the central protagonist. Rosaura Revueltas, the star, only more recently passed into the next world. I love the fact that for many years Rosaura Revueltas was a yoga teacher in Mexico. She remains in my pantheon of mnjexista hezas. 21 Body politics remains central jumping/floating arbitrarily across history from the US imperialist JUAREZ (1938), the year my mother was born - to dealing with race, ethnicity, gender, and class representations of mastiza protagonist - played by Mexicans Rosuara Revueltas in SALT OF THE EARTH (1954), the year I was born. 22 See Lynn Spiegel' s MAKE ROOM. FOR TV: Television and the Family Ideal in Postwar America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), 1992. 23 Academy and Emmy Awards as a national/international institutional reward system traditionally privilege racist, classist, sexist and homophobic attitudes, stereotypes, and cultural hegemony. Not only have Chicanos/Latinos been mis-represented, but these dangerous values and norms are broadcast for domestic populations and the entire planet. This circuit of misrepresentations perpetuates white heterosexist male authority; ultimately, the same old story and myth of white male centrality and superiority (sic) grows. 126 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. See the insightful article "Something's Wrcmg with This Picture: Exclusion of Minorities has Became a Way of Life in Bollywood" in PEOPLE, March 18, 1996. 25 See Richard Griswold del Castillo, Teresa McKenna, and Yvonne Yarbro-Bej arano, eds. CHICANO ART: Resistance and Affirmation, 1965-1985 (Los Angeles: UCLA/Wright Art Gallery), 1991. p 81 26 Ibid. p 81 07 For very powerful and thorough visual history of the Chicano People see Elizabeth Martinez'es 500 TEARS OF CHICANO HISTORY IN PICTURES (Albuquerque: Southwest Organizing Project) 1991. Abbreviated list of "pains" - I have time to explore only a few in this essay. - of dominant hegemony - of media studies, Eurocentric Canons - festivals (resistance for alter-Native venues and festivals) - "subjugated/subaltern" (Spivak) - exclusion from academy awards - racist, classist, sexist, homophobic stereotyping and attitudes 28 See Alicia Gaspar de Alba's CHICANO ART INSIDE/OUTSIDE THE MASTER'S BOOSE: Cultural Politics and the CASA Exhibition (Austin; University of Texas Press), 1998. 127 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Malaquias Montoya, one of the "founding fathers" of the Chicano Arte Movimiento says Northern Califas Bay Area Chicana artistas Patricia Rodriguez, Irene Perez, Ester Hernandez would come to some of Maxican American Liberation Art Front (MALA-F) workshops; Lea Vara, who was into teatto, also came to several MALA-F meetings in the earliest stages of the Chicano Art® Movem3.ento. 30 I'd like to bring attention to two chicana/o axtista families, the Montoyas and the de la Riva's. The former can be considered a commercially successful Chicano popular culture patrilineal £amilia, and the latter familia more matrilineal in nature and "rasquache" and "underground," as Chon Noriega referred to our video production company in a CARA essay. See Chon Noriega's "Movement in Motion: The Chicano Media Arts, 1969-1991" in the brochure A CELEBRATION OF CHICANO ART: Film and Video Series, co-sponsored by the San Francisco Mosema of Modem Art, the Mission Cultural Center and Cine Accion, August 1991. 31 See: Said, Edward. ORIENTALISM (New York: Vintage), 1979. 32 See: Said, Edward, ''Secular Criticism, ” in THE WORLD, THE TEXT, AND THE CRITIC (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press), 1983. 3 3 TO SOT JOAQUIN/I AM JOAQVIN by Rodulfo "Corky" Gonzalez (Denver: Crusade for Justice), 1967. 128 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. J Chicano philosophy is based on pre-Columbian thought and culture that is more holistic and cyclic in nature. The yin/yang-, nac/can duality in essence is ONE. As in the bicameral mind being one brain and one human. 35 Originally, this essay was written for the San Diego Latino Film Festival publicity literature, and later published in his book SHOT IN AMERICA: Television, the State, and the Rise of Chicano Cinema {1990). See Chon Noriega's SHOT IN AMERICA: Television, the State, and the Rise of Chicano Cinema (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press), 2000. 36 See Sylvia Morales 1s interview in APPENDIX. 37 Several decades after the "political generation" going to film school that Chon Noriega writes about - our FOCUS Media Collective (Fihamakena of Colon, US) successfully raised funds to secure a screening of each of our 3-minute short films produced as graduate students of color at San Francisco State University at the Kabuki Theater in San Francisco. This filmmakers of color collective (FOCUS), was in many ways, as important an educational experience as was our coursework. We were fortunate to share such great temporary and permanent faculty at that time as Trinh T. Minh-ha, Bill Nichols, Steve Kovaks, Larry Clark, and Kitlak Tahimik. Students who are now teaching and/or have curated film festivals on their own include Gustavo Vasquez, Portia Cobbs, Cauleen Smith, Nidhi Singh, Bryon Spicer, Grace Poon, and me. 129 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 38 I like the connection that all of our first productions, Sylvia's CHICANA, Lourdes'es AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE/EE SPUES DEL TEKKEMDTO, and our company's MUJERIA: The Olmeca Rap (1990), are all currently in distribution with WOMEN MAKE MOVIES, Inc., in New York City. 39 Morales and Portillo emerged as strong vanguards of their own respective revolutions, belonging to a familia de aoeva muj eras creating across Aztlan. They came out as Latina/Chicana wcanan- identified—woman/lesbiana/dyke, as mothers, as filmmakers — for themselves, their lasbiana families, and their production crew members, y mas I 40 See Rosa Linda Fregoso's THE BRONZE SCREEN: Chicana and. Chicano Eilm Culture (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press) 1993. 41 Ibid. p. 132 42 43 See interview with Lourdes Portillo in APPENDIX. See personal interview in APPENDIX with Lourdes Portillo. Ibid. p. 216. 130 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. See William Wilson's ' ’ Chicana Artists Still Seeking Identification," LOS ANGELES TIMES Art Review, Monday, June 23, 1975 - Part IV, p. 5, 46 Ibid. p. 6 47 Nearly thirty years later, hate crimes are abundant and growing in the U.S., and I would put part responsibility on hurtful reporters such as Wilson. How dare Wilson enter in to a world he obviously knows nothing of, and pronounce his utter negativity on our zonjeres ’ cultural creations? What a ridiculous guy, LOS ANGELES TIMES Staff Writer William Wilson is (or was - I want to give him the benefit of the doubt, maybe). I should be thankful to have had the privilege to come across such an early article addressing the beginnings of Chicana arte by such a reputable mass media (tool) vehicle. But no - this art review was such a downer I had to shelf it for a few years, retry facing it, and even challenging it, at a later date. How to even begin to deal with such cultural insensitivity, that I would add it to the realm/world/spectrum of "hate crimes" - and it nearly moves me to reaction, in wanting to hate back. But this analytical task should put me objectively apart from such foolishness. It's hard. And even gets harder, as I realize that this mindset and highly employed POV is probably still alive and well (sic). And I can't even imagine how many readers over the years have taken William Wilson's words and sentiments seriously. 131 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. As with late African American gay filmmaker, Marlon Riggs, his essence and his work were attacked harshly by the conservative right wing politician Jesse Helms. Another hate crime experienced within this instance of censorship. Silencing equals death. These politicians use both ideological and repressive state apparatus, given the chance. See Marlon Rigg's powerful essay ’ ’Tongues Re-Tied," in Renov, Michael and Suderburg, Erika, eds. RESOLUTIONS: Contemporary Video Practice® (Minneapolis: Regents of University of Minnesota Press), 1996. 48 See Norma Alarcon's "Conjugating Subjects in the Age of Malticulturaliam," in Avery F. Gordon and Newfield, Christopher, eds. HARPING MULTI CULTURALISti (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press), 1996. p 128 49 Ibid. p. 127 50 Missy Elliot's lyrics courtesy of Elektra/Asylum Records. 51 See APPENDIX, personal interview with Lourdes Portillo by Osa. 32 Humorously, reading between the lines of this quote, it's important to note that Portillo was angry from her break-up with feminist film critic B. Ruby Rich, and as a Scorpion this is part of her sting. Originally, I had questioned why B. Ruby Rich only dedicated a few comments regarding Portillo's important works in her 132 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. book, CHXGK FLICKS: Theories and Memories of tbs Feminist Film Movement (Durham and London: Duke University), 1998. 53 How are we inscribed as future consumers of azasrica? The teen mortis of color I have worked with reinvested and reproduced with each other, themselves and through/with their children. To take it to another step further, we imagine and begin to be practitioners, active spectators, and conscious producers of that culture. How many positive images of single mothers of color, and darker skinned female protagonists do we get to see in the media? Television shows such as BUELA and JULIA, and the articles such as the myth of the Black Matriarch — are inadequate representations because women of color were not writing or having control over these actual mainstream media images and interpretations. Mhjexiata movies are those produced by Chicana filmmakers that consciously foreground mxjexea/Chicana/Latina with the purpose of self-representation. Within this context of filmmaking, seizing the camera is tantamount to "hijacking the media," again, as in rapper Chuck D's words, as already discussed in the POETIC PREFACE. Women seize the instruments of production by taking the camera for self representation, they focus on a desired subject and tell a particular story, along particular Chicana/mnjerista POV/politics perspectives, and worldviews. In examining their narrative strategies, a range of issues emerges showing similar and different stylistics, audience and spectator agency, and last but not least, representations of sexuality, gender, and spirituality. Whom these filmmakers portray 133 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. as protagonist is most fascinating. In the discussions and discourses around storytelling, the differences between "document," "fiction" and "truth claims" regarding the power of editing is very crucial. As Saul Landau said in a production course once, we filmmakers actually leave an entirely different story on the cutting room floor. And all of this is very political as well, as expressed in the critical works of Trinh T. Minh-ha, Michael Renov, Marlon Riggs, and Saul Landau. 134 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER THREE The DEBUT MUJERISTA MOVIES of SYLVIA MORALES and LOURDES PORTILLO: The Movement between Fiction and Docvmen tary "The erotic is a resource within each of us that lies in a deeply female and spiritual plane, firmly rooted in the power of our expressed or unrecognized feeling." Audre Lorde1 MUJERISTA AESTHETICS and ACTIVISM in LA CHICANA Whereas CHICANA seems to be a documentary and AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE/DESPUES DEL TERREMDTO a fiction film, both have aspects and conventions of the other and are therefore a hybrid, the very concept of mestizaje. In Michael Renov’s essay "Towards a Poetics of Documentary, " in his anthology THEORIZING DOCUMENTARY, he writes that there are "four fundamental tendencies of documentary: to record, reveal or preserve; to persuade or promote; to analyze or interrogate; and to express."2 In this investigation of truth claims, Renov discusses how these 135 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. may be "tendencies" of documentary as well, and are changing and have various effects on different filmmakers. Renov seems to privilege the "poesis," and "active making” in the documenting process of film and video practices.3 He rightfully questions if fiction also holds its own respective truth claims as well, believing that the documentary is not a genre in and of itself. CHICANA (1979) is a 23-minute documentary that traces the history of the Mexican indigenous woman from pre columbian time to the present and that established Morales as one of the first Chicana filmmakers in the nation. Produced, directed, and edited by Morales and written by Ana Nieto-Gomez, CHICANA opens with a jazz guitar instrumental by Carmen Moreno and a powerful quote from James Oppenheim: "Hearts Starve as Well as Bodies — Give Us Bread but Give Us Roses." CHICANA is a tribute to all the courageous and freedom loving women in the history of the Mexican- Chicano people. Chicano is defined by hybridity. "Chicano" incorporates ideas of polarity/duality such as Native American/European, literate/illiterate, and high art/folk art. As a result, "Chicana/o" thought and culture continues to be creatively expressed through an 136 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. evolution of various art forms.4 "Chicana/o" forms of consciousness and identity are constructed in part as aesthetic and political modes of resistance against U.S. Anglo-centric domination. The term ”Chicana/on may have ancient origins; some believe the name evolved more recently. "Chicano" identity thus may seem confusing because it is a mix of different and at times seemingly contradictory identities.5 Morales states that her career and interest to make feature films were "sidetracked into documentaries." She explained that "non-color students...set aside our desire to make personal films in order to make ones which reflected our communities."6 This is an important mujerista concern where the realms of the political and the artistic (aesthetic) negotiates between the "individual" (personal) self, and the "community" (collective) identity. CHICANA was, in both content and form, hybridization. In form, it was a mestizaje mix that blended Ana Nieto-Gomez's foundational slide presentation of Chicano history from a feminist perspective.7 In 137 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. content it was a hybridization of Sylvia Morales1s reshooting of the slides with actual reenactments. The tribute in CHICANA was a first in cinema in that it was addressed exclusively to raza women, whom sexist, nationalist male-dominated Chicano media artistas y politicos tended to ignore. There is still much to be desired in the way of political advancement in dealing with sexist and homophobic fears and stereotyping within many Chicano circles today. "Chicano people" are in the dedication. This link attests to the importance of keeping together two realities divided by man-made borders, and yet one people. In the CHICANA film dedication, we notice once again the use of the hyphenated "Mexican-American": those who protect and serve (the "American”), with those who are hunted, incarcerated, and even killed within the politics of man- made borders (the "Mexican"/indigena) . Right up front, with an in-your-face reminder that the Mexicana/o diaspora struggles to be unified via familial and cultural connections and by Chicana historical films such as CHICANA. All this is what U.S. women of color struggle and survive against. And when we do survive, en masse and/or 138 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. for a moment, its reason in both theory and practice, to celebrate! Of course this chant was popularized by a (darker skinned) Chicana, Dolores Huerta, whose words are sung several times over, "Que Viva!" "Cue Viva !" "Cue Viva!" Various Chicanas who were instrumental in the development of raza women's rights are represented in primarily talking-head style. Below are samples of a few central quotes by Chicana heras struggling for social, political and economic justice. These narratives are near the end of CHICANA, leaving the resonance of their messages as concluding statements. Dolores Huerta: "We have to make up our minds, number one 'I'm going to make a commitment to justice. I'm going to make a commitment to help people - with my life. And that's a really important thought because our lives are really all we have." A woman is humming the tune DE COLORES as background music, which reminds us all of the theme song of the United Farm Workers Movement. Carmen Zapata in her narrating V.0. introduced a fundamental Chicana freedom fighter. She says, "In 1968, Alicia Escalante organizes the first Chicana Welfare 139 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Rights Organization, (The jazzy music comes in that is at the beginning and the end of CHICANA) for the access of social services for those of low income, the unemployed and the welfare recipient." There is a visual of the well known African American welfare rights organizer Johnnie Tilman, as well. Alicia Escalante acknowledges the importance of remembering and practicing solidarity, "We are forgetting that in order to regain our rights of freedom, of opportunities, we have to stay united." Narrator Zapata then introduces a foundational Chicana centra de Aztlan, "The employment, training, educational and social needs of women in the Los Angeles area are served by the CHICANA SERVICE ACTION CENTER," a grassroots organization founded by Francisca Flores. Francisca Flores emphasizes the role that education plays in the survival of la chicana, "Today it is necessary for her to struggle to achieve an education, to achieve skills that will enable her to participate in the total community." The closing statement attests to the ailing contemporary struggles of la chicana, and the importance of addressing such issues — as enunciated in the figures listed by the film’s narrator Carmen Zapata: "High school 140 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. drop outs (two homegirls sitting on a car smoking), welfare mothers, women laid off from work, abandoned wives, women over forty, even college graduates are in search of employment.8 Today, eleven percent of all working women are in the factories. Twenty eight percent of them are Chicanas. They earn about $3, 200 a year. However, the struggle continues as we arm ourselves with progressive ideas and actions to combat exploitation. Like workers all over the world we fight for better wages, decent living conditions, and education. We fight for bread and roses." End credits give thanks for the [big boy] Mexican muralistas y artistas - Rivera, Siqueiros, Orozco, Gorman, and Posada. The film received some funding from the Film Fund. In the WCMEN MAKE MOVIES, Inc., catalogue, Linda Gross of the LA TIMES is quoted for a blurb about CHICANA, "A well-researched and spirited documentary made with much love." Nearly thirty years later, this LA TIMES writer reviews a Chicana production with a more positive understanding and flavor.9 While Morales's CHICANA, like many early Chicano films, uses traditional pre-columbian and revolutionary Mexican iconography, it is unique in its focus on las 141 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. mujeres. Additionally, CHICANA adds an element of humor that is missing from most early identity-politics centered movies made by Chicano men — (e.g., YO SOY JOAQUIN, YO SOY CHICANO). Oppressed peoples have used, and continue to use this tool to see past our hardships. Two fundamental films constructed from within the term and identity of Chicana/o, YO SOY JOAQUIN (1969) and CHICANA, both constructed under collective visions, briefly question the ways in which the beginnings of Chicana/o ideology helped to construct another view of "pre-columbianism." In contrast to the "established" contemporary West (U.S.), this particular perspective spoke from within a shared historical experience, and at the same time, a shared emotional situation. Part of the question involved in analysis of the social and political positioning in the cultural presentations and representations is what "pre-columbian" existence consists of. The constructions presented by the Chicana/o artistas have a different geneaological inflection than the non-native’s social construction of "pre-columbianism." These early Chicano artists looked to the Mexican revolutionary painters, Rivera, Siquieros, 142 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Orozco, believing that art as a language can speak about daily history and emotions. In the cultural constructions of our origins, Chicano artists, scholars and historians have tended to portray the Aztec as the ultimate source of Chicano roots. Perhaps, for the force of nationalism, it may have been necessary to look to the military victories (both materially and politically), achieved by the Aztecs. This is similar to choosing Che Guevarra as an icon of strength for Chicanos. I question the limitations to date presented by predominately male and/or non-feminist (sexist) writing and interpretation of who, what, why and how it is that "pre-columbianism" is directly related to the contemporary and futuristic situation of Chicana/o thought and culture. Actor, producer, filmmaker Luis Valdez says: We are image-oriented, man. And because we're image-oriented, we*re also symbol-oriented. We are a very symbolic people. The roots of our culture have this complex system of symbols in motion. (Emphasis mine) So that makes us potentially good 143 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. filmmakers. So I hope we get a chance to utilize film to the depths of our expression.1 0 YO SOY JOAQUIN, SEGUINr CHICANO, THE BALLAD OF GREGORIO CORTEZ were all produced by Chicanos, but were heavily referencing our history via a neo-Third World patriarchal POV. In a short article "Celluloid Chicanas" published in CHICANO CINEMA, an anthology edited by Gary Keller that was one of the first books on Chicano film, Sylvia Morales pointed out that in these earlier Chicano films, women did not "fare" too well. Basically, as Morales observes, women were always relegated to the male's decision making, even if it led to a tragic ending! In CHICANA, all elements had to be spelled out clearly in terms of political position. No middle of the road positioning was allowed. Class struggle was a vital and central motivation in the messages of this documentary. After presenting Chicana ancient herstorical roots and mujerista positioning, a faster paced series of reenactments shows that although women raise and "train" the future work force, (Morales shows a mujer wiping a baby boy's butt, obviously being potty "trained"), mujeres still get disapproval for attempting 144 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. to step out of these traditions. A brief montage of close-ups of raza negating the independent Chicana breaking from traditional women's roles in the house follows. There appears to be an aJbueia making tortillas, a younger "straight" Latina, and finally a Chicano male with a big bigote. His stereotypical large Mexican moustache and the succession of characters, showing their disapproval of the "liberated woman," added with a sound effect of a musical tone dropping cause laughter for most audiences. As filmmaker Morales puts the raza familiars faces next to each other, we get the picture that traditionally it is the entire culture that does not like la mujer to step out of her role of mother, or housekeeper. CHICANA was Morales's Masters Thesis project at UCLA, The narrative was originally in the form of a slide presentation written by Ana Nieto-Gomez.1 1 Around this time, the role and position of Chicanas was still in the dark ages, not only by the hands of a dominant Western patriarchal society, but by their own Chicano male counterparts and familia members.12 Also unfortunately, Chicanas were experiencing academic elitism from many white feminists in the feminist 145 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. movement. This made it apparent to many Chicana activists, students, educators, and cultural workers that Chicana feministas y lesbianas would have to take matters into their own hands in more ways than one. The debut film of Sylvia Morales set the stage for future culturally relevant productions, such as the documentary CHICANA. In her essay "Chicano-Produced Celluloid Mujeres, " Chicana filmmaker Sylvia Morales examines the role of la mujer in four Chicano films. She looks at the roles of women in Jesus Trevino's RAICES DE SANGRE (1911); in Luis Valdez's ZOOT SUIT (1981) ; and Robert Young's SEGUIN (1982), produced by Moctesuma Esparza, and written by Young and Victor Villasenor; and Young's THE BALLAD OF GREGORIO CORTEZ 1983) .1 3 In her comparison of these four contemporary films, Morales concludes that: ...it is clear that Mexican women fare better in dramatic works by most Chicanos than they do in works by Anglos, as do Mexican men. But they do so, excepting perhaps in The BALLAD OF GREGORIO CORTEZ, within a traditionally defined cultural context. 146 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Within this context, women follow the lead of men. Men are shown heeding their own dictates, regardless of whether their decisions end tragically or not. Women, on the other hand, are shown to have little or no influence over decisions affecting their lives.1 4 And so it has been in the writing and representation of our history and ideology. As Morales purports, these men (both fictitious and real) continue to heed "their own dictates, regardless of whether their decisions end tragically or not." That's not a real representation of the long suffering, survival and strength of women of color and more specifically Chicana feministas/lesbianas. The basic issue of identity and self-representation of la nueva mujer is at the core of the CHICANA production. Individual SELF-IDENTITY can shift, and OTHER (community/familia) collective IDENTITY can shift as well. In closing, Sylvia Morales reminds us that: In changing the maligned image of Mexicans, women, just like men, must be depicted as human 147 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. beings who participate actively in the events of their lives, influencing, creating, risking, failing, and triumphing for better or for worse. It is the reality of the human condition. And as storytellers of the condition, Chicano filmmakers strive, as all great storytellers do, to be true to it.1 5 This understanding of a cultural need for her-story as opposed to his-story, made Morales's classic CHICANA, a shift in identity and form that was 'groundbreaking'at that time. In another article by Sylvia Morales, "Filming a Chicana Documentary (1979)" written and published in 1979 and reprinted in Noriega's 1992 anthology, based on an interview by SCMOS MAGAZINE, Morales writes that Ana Nieto-Gomez stated ’that people have a difficult time believing Mexican women made history because Chicana issues are usually approached in an emotional way.’16 Along with filmmaker Sylvia Morales, several other key Chicana artistas y activistas (i.e. all "mujeristas" by my definition) worked on the production of this classic film. This was a great fundamental way that film can 148 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. work as an activista community building tool, both in front of and behind the cameras. Sylvia Morales quotes Ana Nieto-Gomez regarding a pedagogical experience that provoked such an important mujerlsta movie: When students first begin seriously studying the ideas and issues of the Chicana, they find the new information difficult to accept. They have never heard of women who are poets, politicians, freedom fighters, theoreticians, or labor organizers.1 7 Here again, Nieto-Gomez's testimonio speaks to the basic lack of information, a fair and true representation of "her-story" of l a mujer. Even standard teaching and learning materials and curriculum have all been responsible for the extreme exclusion of Chicanas in educational media. Here again, the core of mujerista moviemaking parallels these earlier survival strategies employed by patriarchal andro-anglo-ethnocentrism of national think tanks, b y radical revolutionary mujeres such as Ana Nieto-Gomez. Ana Nieto-Gomez shares a very relevant teaching experience from which her educational slide presentation 149 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. was the actual catalyst and basis for the script of CHICANA. Nieto-Gomez tells the story: I remember when a student read Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz’s timeless masterpiece, ’Redondillas' [a poem criticizing the society* s double standard against women], the student could only understand that a nun was 'down on men because she was sexually frustrated.' He decided that all Sor Juana needed was a good man and could not understand why she was an important person in history... An incomplete history victimizes people to believe that Chicanas exist only to love their men and to have their babies. When I realized that Chicana history was so alien to my students, I developed a visual medium to make 'her story* a concrete experience.1 8 I love these two quotes from Sylvia Morales * s essay, in Chon Noriega * s anthology which is very different in tone and style than the 1979 published essay by Morales in the earlier anthology on CHICANO CINEMA by Gary Keller. I found it interesting that in her essay, Morales uses the term "m a m m a ry ."1 9 In relationship to "mammary, * * 150 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. some things never change. Not five centuries, a quarter of a century, or now, has the plight of la chicana been fairly represented. Therefore, the mujerista moviemaking of Sylvia and Lourdes is ever more important. Morales's statement extends into the gift, task and burden that often falls on mujeres literally and figuratively of nurturing and feeding with life. In offices, departments, movimientos, in the barrio and in the hood, mujeres are always giving chi chi in one form or another.2 0 Morales uses tropes of the female body like "mammary,” to explain how women’s essential contributions are exploited and then forgotten. Or as my mother Lola puts it,"sometimes people just want to suck and suck off you." Morales writes: The general portrayal of the Hispanic people in the media has been unfavorable. And the portrayal of the Hispanic woman is usually reduced to a mammary- baby-sex machine who is usually indulging in masochism and paranoia. Carmen Zapata agrees that "We are usually seen from a demeaning point of view as uneducated and unintelligent. We need to change this image. There are mental giants and artistic 151 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. geniuses in our Hispanic community, and with more exposure, the Hispanic filmmaker can bring these treasures to the public and change our image."21 To counteract Chicano nationalist, male centric cinematic representations, Sylvia Morales published her essay about surrounding contemporary geopolitical realities in Noriega’s anthology. From both theory and practice Morales is able to enter an arena of cultural debate previously dominated by Chicano male filmmakers and critics. Noriega discusses l a nueva Chicana in all of her manifestations at home and in the social movement. He understands and charts this unwinding of history. Noreiga says that CHICANA does not "overlook" or "transcend" sexism within the Chicano nationalist male- centric part of e l movimiento. Chon Noriega writes about Sylvia Morales and CHICANA: CHICANA appears to imitate I AM JOAQUIN in its skillful use of still photographs and in its worker- based ideology, while it also presents the Chicana history that the "seminal" Chicano film overlooks. 152 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. In a visual pun on the still photographs that both films use, Sylvia Morales inserts brief live action shots of women at work in the home, bringing movement — the Movement — into the domestic sphere. In effect, these mark it as an arena for the affirmation and resistance of the other social protests. In documenting the female presence within the nationalist paradigm, CHICANA is an initial step in the representation of a Chicano identity that affirms rather than "transcends" the gender, class, and political divisions within the community.2 2 What’s at stake in Noriega's distinction between affirmation and transcendence is an acknowledgement of the healing that has started to take place in the Chicano community. The wounds of internalized sexism, classism, and racism run deep on a micro level; while political divisions manifest themselves as a disease defecting the development of el moviMiiento/comunidad on a macro level. CHICANA uses traditional documentary format as its predecessors YO SOY CHICANO, and YO SOY JOAQUIN to suture the spectator into its version of history, but cleverly diverts from cultural celebration to cultural criticism. 153 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. For example, while the opening section visually and narratively parallels the style of YO SOY JOAQUIN and YO SOY CHICANO, Morales uses humor to introduce a Chicana feminist critique of sexism found in the Chicano family. It's important to note that Morales is not parodying these earlier films— she was trying to represent new and simultaneously ancient ideas of familia. While some may consider CHICANA didactic, it is important to note that at the time of its release, the movie was groundbreaking in that it helped create Chicana feminist identity and consciousness. Noriega brings up an important point on how mujer filmmakers privileged a "quotidian"/dailiness. That is, since so much of women's work has been within the domestic sphere and the daily responsibility of rearing the children is performed primarily in the home. Fundamentally, Morales found it necessary to address the sexism with Chicano culture also. The domestic sphere is clearly an important part of the beginning and ending of CHICANA. Rosa Linda Fregoso calls Sylvia Morales's CHICANA the "first historical film on Chicanas"(p. 172). She also points out that Morales's previous experience in television assisted in the making of CHICANA, from 154 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Morales’s more developed sense of reportage and moving image production. Fregoso acknowledges how Morales "brings to the film a keen sense of irony and satire, as is evident in the opening sequence, which subverts commonsense assumptions about Chicana passivity and subservience." (p. 173). Rosa Linda Fregoso places Morales as also the "first" Chicana filmmaker to "confront...on such a grand scale." (p. 173) . QUAKING/SHAKING MOTHER EARTH: Terremoto and Other Natural Un-Rest Lourdes Portillo produced, co-directed and co-wrote with Nina Serrano, AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE/DESPUES DEL TERREMOTO (1979), a 20-minute b/w fictional narrative film. The story addresses a Latina immigrant living in the U.S. and acquiring technology, which raises objections from her community and family. Early in the film, protagonist Irene purchases a television set and the plot begins and ends with negative repercussions around her getting access to this technology and having a more direct link to popular culture.2 3 These movldas are mujerista moves towards attaining autonomy, becoming full humans and global citizens on the moving screen. These 155 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. representations and performances of disidentifications are who we are and are not, in the move to become complete raza women and agents of creative change in the age of movimxento .Z i Gradually, the female protagonist challenges all the modes of sexist resistance, ending by her breaking off her engagement to her fiancee.2 5 This film is hybridization in content, in that it is based on a fictional narrative structure, the movie portrays elements of a Latin American dictatorship. The movie actually originated as a documentary on the Sandinista movement, but as the production progressed it was clear to Portillo that unless she released the film from the constraints of the documentary format, the Sandinista men would control the narrative under the guise of dictating history.26 Portillo then changed the format of the movie and it became a fictional narrative that provided a feminist critique of the Sandinista movement, utilizing the freedom of fictional narrative to move beyond strict interpretations of history, and delve into difficult questions of the role of contemporary Latina feminism. AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE/DESPUES DEL TERREMOTO opens with titles "And So It Begins...San Francisco, 197 6" with 156 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the protagonist Irene, probably in her early twenties; she has a uniform of a house cleaner and dresses somewhat conservatively. Her postures are less free than those of her best friend Maria Amanda with whom she spends much of the time in the film. This powerful yet sensitive narrative speaks to the immigrant experience of displacement, and the culture clash of values and traditions from what is understood as home and a new territory of customs and lifestyles. Portillo cleverly presents her protagonist from the beginning of the film into being the more liberated young woman than what the backdrop of her family and fiance represent. AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE/DESPUES DEL TERREMOTO is a good example of this re-emerging political aesthetic and practical empowering effort through r&squachismo methodology. Rasquache aesthetic comes alive when the protagonist is seen keeping her money in the top drawer in a VIDA SEXUAL book. There'' s no IRA accounting here. The money is hidden with a barrio survival technique, stashed in an undercover book. This book deals with the "sexual life" - vida sexual - and this latina is bound to have a liberation of sorts. Liberation comes through sexuality with rasquache techniques in the film to do her 157 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. hustle to get her desired TV! This is the money she works hard for which she'11 use to purchase her television. There are signs of working class in her wardrobe; she wears a white uniform as she leaves to use the public transportation city bus. Here, the protagonist does posit an attitude of confidence; and in her own particular way, she is "turning the ruling paradigms upside down."2 7 The book that holds the protagonist's money has an image of a bitten apple on the front cover — the forbidden fruit. And as Rosa Linda Fregoso points out, the play and contradictions between the traditional older ways of her Central American home, with the cultural difference of this American society, provides for the central dramatic conflict.2 8 Our protagonist Irene is constantly challenging, questioning and making changes within this newer more privileged reality - a setting that enables her to take some important first steps and perhaps to consider going a lot further. I would argue that one of these future possibilities is the move toward a lesbian experience and identity - a possibility that is immanent in the text. Her "best friend" seems a more hip woman, encouraging her to somewhat play with the sexist role of 158 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the elder women remaining in the kitchen. For example, she allows a space whereby the protagonist can challenge the role of the elder Latinas in the kitchen with these younger women’s need to wear pants, acquire newer technologies and go out of the house and into the world more than previous generations within la cultura. Even the role of the church is symbolically questioned as the protagonist exits her family's home with a huge statue of the patron saint of marriage and also a full frame of the Virgin Mary taking up much of the screen for a moment. This frame from this mujerista movie is shown in Rosa Linda Fregoso’s book THE BRONZE SCREEN.29 This is something that la nueva mujer must deal with in the newer age: how much religious doctrine to accept and how much to reject. In the immediate sense, this move towards the protagonist’s autonomy first evokes criticisms from her community and loved ones. Her best friend, a Latina who has lived longer in the U.S. or was born here, teases her about her heavy workload. The friend recognizes what a privilege it is to have the television, and jokes that she’ll have to carry the TV around in her pocket as she works her long hard hours. 159 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The protagonist is faced with similar complications when her male lover, a refugee from Latin America, returns to his anxiously awaiting fiancee. Near the closing of this narrative, this couple breaks off the marriage because of his resistance to her independence (via the buying of this newer technology) which represents something their relationship can't handle at the moment. She decides that maybe they need more time to discuss this purchase, their marriage plans, and other changes that arise during their separation. In her case, she has moved toward a feminist perspective by asserting her independence in deciding how to spend her own money, whereas he thinks she's being extravagant compared to the economic hardships of his war-torn Third World country. They conclude that if they can't resolve their differences over this purchase, how can they make that big lifetime commitment? This couple decides to continue negotiating, and they move forward to continue discussing their ideas and their future in a nearby cafe. Despite the openness of this ending, we remain confident that she will continue to insist on maintaining her rights, and the openness enables us to perform a mujerista queer [re] reading of the film. 160 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The conscious and unconscious homoerotic elements in the film open a space I would argue, for the agency of the spectator. In AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE/BESPUES DEL TERREMOTO, "traditional" Latinas are touching, stroking, and bonding, engaging in physical contact that is even more intimate than what lesblanas could "normally" express on the streets. As a spectator, I am given the opportunity to see brown women touching each other in loving and intimate ways. These spaces of homosocial bonding become a "women7s-only" space — in mind, body, and spirit. Irene, the protagonist in Portillo's mujerista movie, is definitely a bit butch. Her clothes are similar to those of a conservative nun, and throughout the entire narrative she is apparently always happier when she's with her woman friend Maria Amanda. The body language that I am reading, and have read as a lesbiana all my life, is that her woman friend is much more femme in their relationship. Irene is the one who first seeks out Maria Amanda at her job. With a nearly voyeuristic stance,' Irene smiles staring through the window as her friend goes into the closet to take off her work apron and put on street garb. Briefly, we see Irene very glad 161 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. to see her homegirl Maria Amanda. Irene momentarily rubs Maria Amanda's back as they begin to walk down the streets of la mision, san pancho, a special barrio that allowed for early progressive stages of racial and cultural diversity and multi/transcultural connections. In many Latin American countries women hold each other and walk down the street, often for safety from men. Heterosexual women will see this as a "traditional" mode of engaging between heterosexual women themselves, instead of the socio-homoerotic perspective I am taking. The film's setting allows for this dual reading. As one of the tias says in the film's narrative, this story is taking place "en este pais," and specifically in San Francisco during the sexual revolution days of the 1970's, I might add. Irene assumes the stance of the masculine arm to escort her female amiga down the street. Maria Amanda takes Irene's arm in what traditionally is the heterosexual "women's" stance/role. When they get back to Irene's room, they become more at ease with each other. Rosa Linda Fregoso points out that it is in these spaces where socio-economic and political contradictions from the two cultures are played out - in the kitchen and in the bedroom. 162 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. As in the first few frames of the film, an older basic radio is playing - in one kitchen, and in Irene's bedroom. First, we hear an American tune, '•'■Could It Be I'm Falling in Love," and Irene’s hand goes into the frame to change the station. It is ambiguous whether Irene is thinking of her absent boyfriend, or her woman friend who is in her bedroom here and now. Next, Maria Amanda plays with Irene's hair, and in fixing her hair they are able to be physically intimate. Next, there is a long curious gaze between them. (This is where I always want to holler at the big screen that is filled up by two Latinas - "JUST KISS!" But noooooo, I am usually relegated to silence unless I'm watching Portillo's film with my gay y lesbiana blood and extended familia members.)3 0 Yet all too soon, within the diegesis, an off stage voice over is calling Irene. A culture clash with the two different generations of Latina women emerges. A juxtaposition of elder mujeres are two tias making tamales in the kitchen and praying for Irene to finally get her man, with the two younger women who have been holed up in Irene's bedroom. In fact, it's a point of discussion between the elder 163 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. mujeres that the young woman friend of Irene is just "too much, " especially because she "wears pants."3 1 As media affects the sensory perceptions and various levels of consciousness, these mujeres allow bits and pieces of a postmodern world to seep into their everyday life as well. This intrusion is the fear of their boyfriends, husbands and elders. Breaking the norms of the Latina virgin, this hera is open to learning about premarital sex. Right on with solidarity and the historical realities of the period: "our bodies, our selves." Therefore, within the narrative of the film, Portillo represents the feminist attitudes of the younger women, which differ diametrically from those of their female elders. In real life, Portillo puts into practice her own feminist strengths and diasporic (or emigre) experience. Lourdes Portillo, as a pregnant woman filming this movie, becomes even more radiant in her creativity. What an amazon woman I admire. Portillo actually reenacts a torture scene of the fiance Roberto while he was back home in Nicaragua. The audio level during this scene gets recognizably louder to amplify the painful intensity of the torture flashback. The dream sequence in AFTER 164 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. THE EARTHQUAKE/DESPUES DEL TERREMOTO is juxtaposed to a scene in which Roberto rests in a room in San Francisco where two young girls are playing and find a pistol under the bed and are curious to know what that's all about. Instead of answering their questions, which is expressed in English, Roberto (who speaks only Spanish) complains to a female adult that the girls should also know how to speak Spanish. The language barrier leads him to overreact to their discovery of his gun, and prevents him from communicating with them or seeing the situation from their perspective. The protagonist Irene dumps Roberto as her fiance. Ultimately he learns to be sensitive, as Irene forces Roberto to chill when she breaks off their marriage engagement and takes control over what's happening within her own self and between them. This nueva mujer protagonist insists on buying and keeping her color TV. Others might read this move towards acculturation as move towards a materialistic consumerism, as in the scene with the discovery of the gun, it becomes the double vision of the image that makes the film so rich and complex. These elements of conflict in the film are the contemporary choices she will make. And she's going to suggest and 165 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. offer this dude a chance to go have coffee with her - and begin to talk in a different way. There are many subtle and blatant clues to support my mujerista/queer reading of Portillo's debut film DEPUES DEL TERRREMDTO/AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE. Yet, I would briefly like to add a few more points that were in the storyline regarding cultural differences across nation, gender, and age. For example, when the boyfriend returns from Central America to his fiancee protagonist Irene, and they see each other for the first time after a very long separation, the second thing he comments on is that she cut her hair. This could be a sign of liberation for her in dealing with her own body image. In Latin America in general women's hair is often preferred longer. Then she responds quickly that he has grown a beard. So he has also changed his hair and appearance - which changes are usually more acceptable and unquestioned, than when a woman makes such a physical change to her appearance. For example, during the time of the making of this movie, his thick dark beard was a symbol of radical and revolutionary look for young Latinos (Che Guevarra, Fidel Castro, etc.). These representations remain great images Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. of gender differences in San Pancho, Cali - from Central America to Aztlan. During their reunion in a family gathering, Irene takes a minute to be with her homegirl again and to discuss "their men" who are talking amongst themselves in the next room. The protagonist asks her homegirl, "What do you think they're talking about?" The faster one says jokingly, "They're probably talking about their mothers." Then we cut over to a medium shot of the men's conversation, and they are indeed talking about their mothers. This shows me that the women really do know what concerns "their men." Next, Roberto, the fiancee attempts to show some slides of the harsh living conditions back home in Central America, and the troubles that the U.S. has caused for his country. An elder woman in the gathering doesn't want to hear this political rhetoric and jumps up in front of the slide show and starts arguing with Roberto. He is forced to shut off his slide show. Here we see again the differences of values and issues of concern between the generations from two different countries and the range of political views expressed within Portillo's DESPVES DEL TEBBEtSDTO. I find this 167 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. fictional airing of debates and modes of discourse within filmmaking extremely helpful in understanding such issues as the conditions of war and resolution that we were and are still faced with. A diverse mix of gente/raza are represented and given a voice in this short and powerful classic of Portillo's and Serrano's film through the representation of the protagonist. DISCOURSE on the DIFFERENCES and SIMILARITIES of IDENTITY and MOVEMENT POLITICS The similarities and difference discussed in this chapter are important for understanding the specific symbols, styles, forms and contents of their respective debut films. Both filmmakers continue to explore hybrid overlap of fiction and documentary, describing how they conceptualize, represent the real and imaginary, or produce "documentary" and "fiction" works respectively. Morales's CHICANA and Portillo's AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE/DESPUES DEL TERREMQTO both exemplify indxgena/Xicana/latina liberation individually and collectively. In the gender/body politics of both films we are led through all the visual transformations of la nneva Chlcana/Latina. The montage form and narrative 168 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. style of CttlCANA and AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE/DESPUES DEL TEKEEMOTO, for example, push traditional borders of predecessor Chicano male portrayals of self, community and people. Both filmmakers had strong Chicana/Latina umjeres as central characters throughout the narrative fiction and facts. While Portillo focuses on two main female characters to represent Latinas/Chicanas, Sylvia Morales uses many subj ects to represent one ideal of Chicana/Latina, illustrating the solidarity based idiom of one for all and all for one. Both use generational conflict to represent the difference challenges faced by la nueva mujer in contemporary U.S. experience. Sylvia Morales's CHICANA opens by poking fun (causing laughter again for the spectator) at the backwardness of the oppressive and sexist condescending glares of familia towards the liberated nueva mujer in the beginning of the film. Lourdes Portillo's film DESPUES DEL TERREMOTO portrays this conservative stance against the liberation of women throughout her narrative. In these films, Portillo and Morales are addressing a few of the differences and similarities between "identity politics" and "movement politics." Although 169 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. many people would like to see these two realms as distinctly separate and different, I would like to emphasize their complementary relationship as well as promote the stronger possibility of their unity, as opposed to their disjunction. The previously mentioned seven elements of mujerista moviemaking (addressed in CHAPTER ONE), are a part of this identity and movement politics. Director and producer Morales and writer Neito-Gomez purport the importance of la nueva mujer within la familia in the raza context. They break away from their Chicano filmmaker counterparts, who focused specifically on the role of la mujer/la indigene within that structure in a static manner. These mujerista moviemakers trace pre-columbian roots: the Earth Mother, Mother Nature, and female deities themselves taking their rightful center stage position. In both narrative and visually, her- story is retold. The ancient Mexican Goddess CQATLICUE was imaged and understood as Mother Culture to all cultures. In this vomyn centric POV, the female goddess ultimately has the power to give life, and the power to take life away. 170 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHICANA takes a radical and wonderful leap of faith in reclaiming indigena women as the center of humankind. For me, this is connected to the oldest human bones found to date that belong to an African female. This strengthens the mujerista moviemaking POV as well, as Morales purports that COATLICUE is a part of the "Mother Culture" of all human beings. These are our matrilineal roots, shifting within the movement of mujer, mother earth, and mother nature. A vital issue in today's world, we are reminded for example, in CHICANA, that Sylvia Morales includes and emphasize Chicanas connection with indigena culture. The EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES: On Performing Radical Popular Cultural Criticism Both Morales and Portillo produced their first well- known films (both 16mm) at their film/art programs, coincidentally, in 1919. Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo are exclusively known as filmmakers. This identity has empowered them as leading Chicana artistas. This professional identity is a similarity shared by both, even if at times they have had their own respective original "camps." In particular, there was a marked 171 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. difference between the dynamics of Northern and Southern Calxfas sabor. A mini-public rivalry developing around what, I wonder — their visions, styles, auras? In the printed media there tended to be several earlier publications that either mentioned one filmmaker and not the other, or vice versa. In film festivals and speaking venues, they are seldom in the same space and time, contrary to what I would imagine of contemporaries. Nevertheless, I think these geopolitical differences probably revolve around a dichotomy between being a U.S. born Chicana and a Mexican Immigrant. The (mind, body and spirit) boundaries are constructed as a means of survival, safety, and last but not least, for support. Maybe when put together in a similar arena, some could read a near rivalry, if not, in the least, definitely you can feel their tons of power.3 2 I wish to compare these two events at two levels, the more personal political consciousness (raising), and the historical context. Of concern is also my own vision developing vis-a-vis these cultural moments and reflections. Since I traveled, went to school, and taught throughout Calxfas, Aztlan, I recall at a moving distance, distant learning, waiting anxiously with many 172 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. other mujeres the making of the movies AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE/DESPUES DEL TERREMOTO by Lourdes Portillo, and CHICAHA by Sylvia Morales.33 These two mujerista moviemakers cultural/political productions both relied on and continued to build women’s networks/comunidades. Illustrating this idea, Fregoso uses Chela Sandoval’s mapping of "differential consciousness" in looking at Lourdes Portillo and Nina Serrano’s construction of the protagonist in DESPUES DEL TERREMOTO/ AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE. Not only is this narrative strategy important for the text, but also it allows the spectator a different way of knowing. Fregoso writes: These films offer their spectators a different way of knowing and a different vision, and here I mean vision as a socially constructed way of locating oneself in the world, a tactical positioning, rather than simply a different way of seeing or looking.3 4 Specifically, Fregoso writes, LA OFRENDA and DESPUES DEL TERREMOTO are films of Portillo's that address the spectator as female. 173 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chon Noriega points to a hybrid!zed/mestizaje mix in both the form and content of Portillo1s AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE/DESPUES DEL TERREMOTO. He says: These elements undercut the soap opera cum romantic melodrama, then redirects its exposed fictional status toward feminist political parable.3 5 This addresses the issues of self-identity "la nueva mujer" with movement politics. This hybridized/mestlzaje mix also evokes influences and transitions experienced by the Chicana diaspora, in these mujerista moviemaker's debut films. Examples during their emergences are Portillo's influences from Latin American and Cuban cinema, and Morales's influences of cinematic movements from radical anglo feminists, gay and lesbian, and U.S. Third World newsreel/documentaries in the late I960's and 1970's. For Portillo, the late Cuban filmmakers Sara Gomez and Tomas Gutierrez Alea are good embodiments of Renov's concept of Poetic Documentaries in that they address heavy political issues of the day through narrative storytelling. For Morales's cincematic beginnings, she was surrounded by Aztlan 174 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. nation, new versions of history of oppressed peoples, in- response to systematically biased representations in the traditionally accepted "white man's" history. An example of this is Jesus Trevino's early works on the East Los Angeles riots and student walk-outs, and his early classic film YO SOY CHICANO.3e Morales mentioned getting "sidetracked into documentaries," and Portillo originally wanted to do a documentary on the Sandinista movimiento, but ended up doing a fictional piece because of rigid restraints and criticisms from the male leftists in the movement.3 7 Ultimately both of these mujerista moviemakers' debut films and breadth of filmmaking was aimed at consciousness raising for the individual self as well as for the community. Portillo's AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE/DESPUES DEL TERREMOTO personalized the political, and Morales's CHICANA documentary politicized the personal. With Chicana/Latina sabor, in the North Country, Lourdes Portillo was rocking la mision distrito de san pancho, in the making of AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE/DESPUES DEL TERREMOTO. Patricia Thumas, salsera, who's been in several all-women and lesbiana salsa groups, and comes 175 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. from a lineage of Nicaraguan familia of musicians, was one of the younger women in the scene of the celebration of Roberto's return. In Los Angeles, many of our greatest contemporary Xicana/Latina thinkers, artists, organizers were involved in the making of CHICANA.38 In addition, it was good hearing via an ancient oral tradition, there was much "good hype" surrounding these debut films, as well as "good chisme" behind the empowering Chicana/Latina filmmakers on this Pacific Rim de Calxfas, Aztlan.39 For both Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo, families have played important parts in their productions. Their extended familias, which I consider crewmembers, have different relationships than that of the Hollywood film industry and mainstream moviemaking. It is this difference within the process of production that I find radical. Portillo's XOCHITL FILMS, Morales's SYLVAN PRODUCTIONS, and my own ROYAL EAGLE BEAR PRODUCTIONS c/s, all work with family and friends as production crewmembers. All production crews are transcultural in composition in that they have Asian, African, Native American, Latino, gay and lesbian, young and elder, straight and bisexual peoples, so that the 176 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. activism element is manifest in the process of making films. In learning from Morales and Portillo's similar yet different modes of production, I have been empowered to express my own particular voice as a Chicana filmmaker. Their films have been useful in my and others' teaching experiences as well. Of particular interest are the ways in which alternative representations of gender/sexuality and community/nation and their relational dynamics work in instances of healing the self and community through the process of production as well. For example, according to the XOCHITL ("flower") Distribution Company's brochure of which Lourdes Portillo is the founder, these issues are addressed. I do not find it a coincidence that Sylvia Morales's company is called SYLVAN (which means forest) and that both of these women have chosen indlgena/Xicana/Latina names that come from Mother Nature, or Mother Earth, or la madre tierra. In a simple formula it seems as if Healing - [a] rasqnache/the outlaw, mixes with [b] mestizaje/the not white patriarchal superiority complex. Sylvia Morales!s and Lourdes Portillo's two debut films, respectively CHICANA and AFTER THE 177 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. EARTHQUAKE/DESPUES DEL TERREMOTO deal with issues of war, male aggression, patriarchal sexist structures, stereotypes and attitudes, and various forms of "poisons." The continual problem is a poison contaminating both the individual and the community, and in turn, the nation and this nation contaminated poisons around the world - and finally, this diseased earth sends the toxic urge into the universe. We are not being real with each other. In that statement, I mean that evil is conveyed as women, children, and families of color, en masse. And foolishly, the white straight male is nearly always represented as hero and knowledgeable in the western world of mass media. This is the legacy of U.S. cinema, (and independent film festivals and venues often times) from the dominant U.S. in this day and age, media rules as a dominant methodology of message sending. Now it becomes the hegemonic force of imperialism globally. People of color are often portrayed in mainstream media as evil, stupid, lazy, Corrupted, and anything less than healthy world citizens. Does any of this really matter? To several Chicana femznista/lesbiana/mujerista upcoming filmmakers - we do question when will we be able to represent ourselves, 178 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. live in the flesh, Chicana-identified-Chicana? Alternatively, are we 'looking for justice in a place where there's ample proof of it not existing?1 In the mean-mean time, I look to the works of these independent Chicana filmmakers to see how it is they are making their mujerista movies. The 1979 debuts of CHICANA by Sylvia Morales, and AFTER TEE EARTHQUAKE/DESPUES mi TERMMOTO by Lourdes Portillo took place as a response to a mostly male-created Chicano cultural mandate: their first movies incorporate a reality of eros, referred to by Lorde as female and spiritual. Using innovative fictional and artistic styles (e.g., creative narratives, cosmic raza icononography and poetic cinematic languages), along with culturally acceptable non-fiction styles (journalism-documentary production styles), Morales and Portillo create a foundation of interplay between fiction and documentary that moves their moviemaking into the hybridity of what later became mujerista moviemaking. This hybridity evolves to include cultural variances such as sexuality, and the creative interchanges between accepted (male Chicano) realities and newly defined {mujerista) realities. The debut of these new voices helped to set 179 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the foundation for future stories that are inclusive of a Chicana eros and reality. FICTION/DOCUMENTARY and NEW CHICANA MEDIA and STYLES An important context for the interplay of fiction and documentary in the debut works of Morales and Portillo lies in the cultural prioritization of storytelling and communication styles initially developed and enforced by traditionally male Chicano culturemakers. This prioritization included the use of both fiction and documentary as a means of cultural survival. For instance, the use of fiction helped to promote the flourishing of culture and our visions of utopia through poetry {floricanto) , muralism, and the development of a mythos of Aztlan; in this case fiction helped to allow a (re)imaged and newly realized concept of Chicano[a]s who were worthy of propagation. The use of documentary helped preserve Chicano[a] historical, political and cultural antefacts and realities (e.g., language, history, patterns of oppression against Chican@s); in this sense non-fiction films created by Chicanos appropriated traditional means of documentary filmmaking. 180 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. In order to understand how Morales's and Portillo's interplay between fiction and documentary and how these definitions were later broadened into a more open hybridity found in both dir&ctoras1 later works. Central in these discussions of narrative (fiction and documentary) filmmaking is the importance and privileging of "story" and the messages that are sent within them. This privileging also encourages the oral and symbolic tradition. In Cmzando Fronterasf the first encuentros of Latinas from the U.S. and Mexicana film and video makers, the late pioneer mera mera veterana, Mexican director Mathilde Landetta reminded us emerging media makers that we shouldn't get caught up in the debates over whether film is "better" than video, or digital "better" than analogue format, and so on.4 0 As responsible film and video makers we should remain focused on "storytelling" as the most fundamental importance - whether we're working with an old fashioned typewriter, a pen, or a high tech computer. Documentary Documentary movies are often categorized as based in the real, including newsreels, travelogues, and 181 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. scientific films of record; documentaries distinguish themselves from other non-fiction films with a dramatization of the real.4 1 Another definition of non fiction films by Roger Odin refers to "those films which block some or all of the fictionalizing operations. "4 Z This concept of non-fiction is based on Odin's definition of fictionalization.4 3 Documentary may reflect democracy in that it can represent the array of human differences. These representations of the self/other are portrayed through race, gender, class, sexuality, ethnicity, age, physical ability, etc. Contemporary use of the computer generated reality (i.e. morphing and other effects) differs from Andre Bazin's ideas of photography.4 4 Bazin believed that "Photography embalms time." The indexical representation as presented by photography (i.e. capturing of light rays onto the film stock) proved the actual physical evidence of the subj ect matter. Because of computer generated reality, there is no guarantee of ontological assurances. The ways in which reality is imported into our sensory perceptions and transformed are ontological questions concerning the film or mujerista movie under study. The nature of its origins, essence and how it is 182 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. constructed has been of interest since the earliest traces of media making. Today, the referent and its relationship to the sign is important in understanding how language and messages are transmitted and what meanings various language systems are making. As Godard said, "It's not a just image, its JUST an image." Roland Barthes said, "Every photograph is somehow co-natural with its referent" — meaning every photograph is a DOCUMENTARY of sorts in that it captures some of the object's essence (same as Andre Bazin's idea of essence). I believe that many indigenous people (Host World peoples) understood this concept because originally many tribes and indigenous people did not allow Anglos to photograph them or their children. This comes from the belief that photography "captures the spirit" of the person. Still today, many people are camera shy because the photograph can last for such a long time. Originally in France, photography was used for mugshots to monitor people. This surveillance technique was similar to today's practice of fingerprinting.4 5 Photography also becomes a state apparatus after the failed European revolutions of the 1840's. Therefore, the State used photography to control and repress primarily workers, vagrants, the insane, colonized people 183 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and lands. Simultaneously, photography was used to immortalize the aristocracy much in the same way as the use of commissioning artists to paint portraits of the rich and those in power. As it. is clear to see, documentary cinema is a descendant of photography. This brings in issues of what is "real" and what the documentary style consists of. For women, these definitions neglected to address gender related problems related to documentary production. According to Paula Rabinowitz: [T]he invasion of personal space and the power of the camera's unrelenting gaze, the tape recorders' ever-open microphones, and, most signficantly, the editor's scissors, still left this form of ethnographic film-making firmly lodged within its imperialist legacy. Feminist anthropologists [in the late 1970's] were searching for new methods as well as new practices to unpack the differing constructions of the 'sex-gender system,? as Gayle Rubin had called it, at home and elsewhere. The by now tired 'freedom' of direct cinema, which Pat Loud noted resulted in 'the treatment of us as objects and things instead of people, could not provide 184 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. feminist ethnographic film-makers with a form that would not strip its subjects 'of such honor and dignity as (they) owned.' Other strategies were necessary.4 6 Is it too much to ask for in a film text or in a critique of such intellectual and creative work to be concerned with women and people of color's basic human rights? This is both an ethical and political matter of representation. In both documentary and fiction forms, Morales and Portillo have shown similar socio-political concerns of their time, particularly through their editing strategies. This remains an effective tool to viewers across the decades, and across cultures. For example, the use of montage editing style is repeated in various parts of Morales's CHICAMA, as well as in Portillo's works. Morales and Portillo's use of this editing technique fall under the category of Sergei Eisenstein's ideological montage.4 7 Here the director/editor/filmmaker consciously play/manipulates space and time to make a statement. Ideological montage relies on the shared/common cultural understanding of particular icons/symbols/images. For examples, are the montages of Morales1s ancient pre-columbian mother 185 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. goddess/deities in CHICANA, and Portillo and Munoz's use of montage in the opening and closing sequences of LAS MADRES: The Mothers of the Plaza d e Mayo. On several levels this discourse is an objective investigation headed toward a destination, and vice versa. That is, consciously the self/other critical stance, and the participant/observer point-of-view leads the journey of this dissertation, this writer, and to you the reader. It is always on the contemporary forefront of this mind, to keep "my kind" in central focus — at all costs, in the mean-mean time. Since the advent of Chicana/o consciousness, the questions of storytelling and identity have remained focal points of telling it like it is, what's coming down, what and who to look out for — in part, important survival techniques. Like barrio writings on the walls, the use of cald, and rap, testimonies are a coded way of talking as we do, in our own languages, about the things that concern us .4 8 Popular media does not adequately reflect the transcultural nature of contemporary U.S. society. If women of color are represented in mainstream media, they are usually predictable, one-dimensional roles.49 Mass 186 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. media shapes one’s reality while simultaneously reflecting a particular worldview or "mind-set."50 In WHEN OLD TECHNOLOGIES WERE NEW, Carolyn Marvin argues that: The early history of electric media is less the evolution of technical efficiencies in communication than a series of arenas for negotiating issues crucial to the conduct of social life; among them, who is inside and outside, who may speak, who may not, and who has authority and may be believed.51 To understand the context from which Chicano/Latino representations in media derive, we must look at the macro theories and levels of existence as they relate to the hegemonic mass media/technology/Culture industry.52 Lynn Spigel writes in the "Introduction" to TELEVISION: Technology and Cultural Form, that cultural theorist Raymond Williams insisted that: ...equal access to media production would allow for a more democratic culture in which people had chances to discuss issues, 187 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. formulate ideas, and creatively envision their lives. By moving away from the degrading terminology and the limited imagination of the mass communication model, Williams opened up a space for thinking about the media's relationship to an alternative future.53 I believe, the "point of departure" in critical analysis is important - that is, how our critical and intellectual work is tied to the real world. To reflect on the several examples of Chicanos, we must also come to understand the canons of taste and value systems established within traditional television and popular cultural representations and productions. In a frame of reference inherent in this particular classical code system, an "independent" or "alternative" Chicana/o film/video/television/internet interface and mixed- narrative may be more clearly understood. Through the U.S. Culture industry's "canon," the "authoritative" dominant hegemony is brought to bear.54 My concern is with issues of Orientalism, Africanism, Native Americanism and other colonial and post-colonial discourses, which permeate the peripheries of inner- national borders. In recognizing and working within 188 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. traditional western patriarchal structures, institutions, norms, traditions and values the same tyes of narrative strategies are utilized at yet an-other level, for example with many teen mothers of color who wrote treatments accepted, as if they were real movie mogul producers. They also worked within their real reinvested, reproduced and represented race, genders and sexualities their progeny was being. They were creating cultura in many senses of the word and action. Many people, including those on the left and progressives involved in past mobilizing efforts and movement[s], feel that social-political movements are nearly defunct; they focus on the "apathetic" attitude of people today.55 I disagree with this position, arguing instead that social political movements have transformed into other entities that are not using strategies [de]employed in the late I960's to the present. In the same vein that feminists believe there have been two to three "waves" of U.S. feminisms, so too, I believe, have there been similar, multi-generational processes of the other movements.56 This brings up questions of Native/Other, particularly now that it is apparent to businesses: more 189 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. industries will be targeting these populations merely for greed and exploitation. Many therefore advocate that more people and women of color should run their own sovereign businesses, industries, and communities and generate their own cultural and political self representation . It appears that only then will there be a true sense of democracy.5 7 First, at the local level (as in Aztlan), where Chicana filmmakers were developing amongst themselves we must be understood in respect to our own particular her/historically specific moment/location. This space time, self-reflexive interpretation and politic can also take a myriad of directions, depending on the multiplicity of culturas one may identify with/as. For example, the heteroglossia found within class, race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender, age, color, religion, spirituality, size, physical ability allow for a range and spectrum of possibility relative to all the cultural mixes and combinations. Particularly now, in world events, our immediate local Chicana dynamics are related directly with global world affairs. Here, technologies of the heart and spirit, of ecological/socio-political responsibility, as in the mujerista movie examples of 190 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Morales and Portillo, should be understood as a greater culturally valuable priority in addressing viable means and POVs towards positive individual and collective change. 191 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. See Audre Lorde's "Uses of the Exotic: The Exotic as Powex" in SISTER OUTSIDER - Essays and Speeches (New York: The Crossing Feminist Press), 1984. p. 53 2 See Michael Renov's "Towards a Poetics of Docmaentaxy, " in Renov, Michael, ed. THEORIZING DOCUMENTARY (New York: Routledge). p. 21 3 For example, see the wonderful anthology edited more recently by Michael Renov and Erika Suderburg, RESOLUTIONS: Conteopoxaxy Video Practices, (Minneapolis: Regents of University of Minnesota Press) 1995. I am very moved to see the powerful images and words of the late African American gay male filmmaker, Marlon Riggs in his "TONGUES PE-Tied." This strong and sensitive testsmonio clearly represents the dynamics between identity and movement politics from a queer sex and self-love reality and truth claim. 4’ See Alicia Caspar de Alba's CHICANA ART INSIDE/OUTSIDE THE MASTER'S HOUSE: Coltoxal Politics and the CARA Exhibition. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998. See also Shifra Goldman and Tomas Ybarra-Frausto, eds., ARTE CHXCANO: A Comprehensive Annotated Bibliography of Chicano Art, 1965-1981 (Berkeley: University of California Press), 1985, and Richard Griswold delk Castillo, Teresa McKenna, and Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano eds. CHICANO ART: Resistance 192 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and Mff.ixma.tion, 1965-1985 (Los Angeles: UCLA/Wright Art Gallery), 1991. 5 For the purpose of this project, I will use the definition of "Chicane" as presented by the GSJR& Exhibit: As a part of the civil rights movement, Chicano' became a positive cultural and political term that denoted a position of political resistance to ethnic stereotyping, discrimination and cultural repression. It also affirmed the pride of a people in their mestizo heritage. See Richard Griswold del Castillo, Teresa McKenna, and Yvonne Yarbro- Bejarano eds. CB2CMSO MRT: Resistance and Mffirmation, 1965-1985, (Los Angeles: UCLA/Wright Art Gallery), 1991. 6 From a personal interview Los Angeles, Nov.16, 1991. 7 Ana Nieto-Gomez started one of the first small press Chicana feminist publications in the 1970's. See Maylei Blackwell's dissertation from UC Santa Cruz's History of Consciousness, on the important work and contributions of Ana Nieto-Gomez's under acknowledged revolutionary work. 8 Jean Victor, an ex-partner of Sylvia Morales’s, and co producer of several of her movies, perforins the role of the woman laid off from work. 193 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. As mentioned earlier, in the LA TIMES 1974 article by Wilson, "Chicana Artists Still Seeking- Identification" (sic), it is apparent Wilson was writing from an outsider’s position. 10 See Gregg Barrios ZOOT SUIT: The Man, The Myth, Still Lives (A Conversation with Luis Valdez) p. 164 11 Upon Ana Neito-Gomez'es being fired in 1976, this radical Chicana historian had her handful of battles in the Chicano Studies Department at Cal State Northridge. Predominantly Chicano males were beginning to advance a little in the high echelons of academia (Rudy Acuna was chair of her department then). They also were barely beginning to break into mass media, and be invited for exhibition in dominant society's museums, theaters, libraries and other venues of this sort. Gradually, they began to be promoted bi- nationally with Mexico, and to a smaller degree, internationally, for example, the publication works of ELEFANTEN PRESS, and the works of Wolfgang Binder and Reinhardt Schultz from Germany early on acknowledged the important of la cultnra chicana. 12 As a side note, Adalijiza Sosa Ridell was one of few Chicana full senior professors to head an academic department at UC Davis and not without some incident either. More recently, Professor Yolanda Broyles-Gonzales won her long battle after she charged UC Santa Barbara with pay discrimination based on race. Yet many mnjeres can support causes such as with one of Chicano Studies 194 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. founding fathers, Rudy Acuna. The betrayals and traumas experienced by Chicana feministas (not even to mention lesbianas), in where at the final hour most often Chicano males fall within the patriarchal privileges of the academic institution. Nevertheless, returning to the importance of this film classic CHICANA, over twenty years later it continues to be used as an important documentary work describing the history and contemporary situation and plight of 2a major chicana, from a Chicana point-of- view. 1 3 See CHICANO CINEMA - Research, Reviews and Resources - Edited by Gary D. Keller (Binghamton, NY: Bilingual Review/Press) 1985. 14 See Sylvia Morales's "Chicano-Rrodnced Celluloid Mujeres," in CHICANO CINEMa - Research, Reviews and Resources - Edited by Gary D. Keller (Binghamton, NY: Bilingual Review/Press) 1985. p 93 15 Ibid p.93 16 See Sylvia Morales's essay "Filming a Chicana Documentary (1979) " in Noriega, Chon A., ed. CHICANOS and FIIMt Essays on Chicano Representation and Resistance (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota), 1992. 18 Ibid p. 309 Ibid p. 309-310 195 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. According to the dictionary, mammary is "a designation of the milk-secreting glands." This reminds me of the reality that most humans across all times and spaces, men, women and children suck on women’s breasts (calo: chi chi) . 20 This reminds me of Jane Caputi1s message reminding us of the ancient female powers. Moreso, how it is that we still must rely on these powers to advance, even save and heal the planet with. See Jane Caputi' s GOSSIPS, GORGONS AND CRONES: The Fates of the Earth (Santa Fe: Bear and Co.), 1993 21 See Sylvia Morales’s essay "Filming a Chicana Docnmentary (1979) " in Noriega, Chon A., ed. CHICANOS AND FIXM: Essays on Chicano Representation and Resistance (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota), 1992. 22 See Noriega, Chon A., ed. CHICANOS AND FIIM: Essays Representation and Resistance (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota), 1992. p. 157 23 This is an issue in the black and white classic SALT OF THE EARTH (1954) as well. The Chicana protagonist of this independent feature has a domestic quarrel with her husband from tensions of a labor strike, and her insistence on purchasing a radio console on a new purchasing system called "credit." 196 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. See Jose Esteban Munoz'es DISXDEMTZFXGATXONS: Queers of Color and the Performance of Politics (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press) 1999. 25 This is a good place again to bring in TERMS i.e. 'QUINTO SOL, ""La Raza Cosmica," etc., and OUR MYTHS (COYOLXAVHQVI) as they come up and are alluded to within the films of Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo. Yes as well, for time and space of our personal use of the terms mestizaje, ''Mextiza Collective," "Mestiza Press," "Mestiza Familia, " with the CENTRO HE ARTE, in Eastside Longo. 26 See Rosa Linda Fregoso's THE HROHZE SCREEN: Chicano and Chicana Film Culture, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota), 1993, Rosa Linda mentions that she learned this in a conversation with Portillo, who stated "Sandinistas living in the Bay Area who first viewed the film did not appreciate its emphasis on gender, and refused to be associated with the film." p 153. 27 Tomas Ibarra-Fausto says this of rasquache aesthetics. 28 See Rosa Linda Fregoso's THE HRCffiZE SCREEN: Chicano and Chicana Film Culture, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota), 1993. 29 Ibid. p. 100 30 I don't believe Portillo was teasing out the homoerotic element that I intentionally see. 197 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. That really gets me. Because in my reality I felt privileged that at the same time this Latina was being criticized for wearing pants, I was riding motorcycles and going on Chicana. lesbiana poetry reading tours throughout Aztlan with my younger Chicana lesbiana blood sister, Liz. 32 Maybe this is my overactive imagination looking for further tales of 2a bionic chicana, la auera mnjez - or maybe it is a desire longing for more blatant mnjerista novelas y chisma arte from the shores of westcoast Aztlan, from the contemporary hearts and minds of la raza cosmica. 33 For a more developed contextual understanding (and excellent photographs) of the making of CHICANA and EESPUES BEL TEKREMOTO/AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE, see Rosa Linda Fregoso's essays "Actos of "Xmaginative Re-discovery," and "Nepantla in Gendered Subjective, ty1 ' in Fregoso's THE BR3NZE SCREES: Chicano and Chicana Film Culture, (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota), 1993. Ibid. p. 96 Ibid. p. 161 36 See Trevino's Eyewitness: A Filmmakerra Messoir of the Chicano it. Houston: Arte Publico Press, 2001. 198 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. See Fregoso's Lourdea Portillo: The Devil Never bleeps and Other Films. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001. 38' See: Angela Y. Davis' "Ehe Struggle For A People's Art," in ISSUES IN AESTHETICS (Reader - Fall 1985) , and her WOMEN, RACE, AMD CLASS (New York: Random House), 1981. 39• See Trinh T. Minh-ha's, WCmB, NATIVE, OTHER: Writing Postcoloniality and. Feminism, (Indiana: Bloomington University Press), 1989. 40 Rosa Linda Fregoso (Editor) and Norma Iglesia (Coordinator and Editor) put together a wonderful book of the conference. See MIRAEAS EE MUJER: Encuentro d® Cineaataa y Videoastas Mexicanaa y Chic anas (Tijuana, B.C., Mexico: El Colegio de la Frontera Norte) and (Davis: Chicana/Latina Research Center, University of California), 1998. 41 See Brian Winston's CLAIMING THE REAL: The Grieraonian Documentary and its Legitimations (London: British Film Institute), 1995. p. 103 A.J. Greimas's use of the semiotic square would also be helpful in elaborating and charting the relationships between documentary and fiction, and the real and un-real. 199 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 42 See Robert Stain, Robert Burgoyne and Sandy Flitterman-Lewis' s NEW VOCABULARIES IN FXXM SEMIOTICS: Stzuctuxalism, Poat- strueturaliam and Beyond. {London: Routledge) 1992. p. 214-215 43 The following complex but detailed definition of fictionalization by Roger Odin depends on seven "operations.” FICTIONALIZATION refers to the process by which the spectator is made to resonate to the fiction, the process which moves us and leads us to identify with, love or hate the characters. Odin divides this process into seven distinct operations: (1) FIGURATIVIZATION, the construction of audio-visual analogical signs; (2) DIEGETICIZATION, the construction of a fictive "world"; (3) NAERATIVIZATION, the temporalization of events involving antagonistic subjects; (4) M0NSTRATXON, the designation of the diegetic world, be it "actual" or "constructed," as "real"; (5) BELIEF, the split regime whereby the spectator is simultaneously aware of being at the movies and experiencing the perceived film "as if" it were real; (6) MISE-EN-PHASE, (literally the "placing-in-phase" or "phasing- in" of the spectator), i.e. the operation which enlists all the filmic instances in the service of the narration, mobilizing the rhythmic and musical work, the play of looks and framing, to make the spectator vibrate to the rhythm of the filmic events; and 7) FXCTIVIZATIOM, i.e. the intentional modality which characterizes the status and the positioning of 200 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the spectator, who sees the enunciator of the film not as an originary self but as fictive. The spectator knows that he/she is witnessing a fiction which will not reach him/her personally, an operation which has the paradoxical result of allowing the film thus to touch the spectator in the very depths of the psyche. The FICTION FILM, for Odin, is that film conceived in order to foster all seven of the foregoing operations. See a summary of Roger Odin's article (1983) "Pour one Semio~ Pxa.gaa.tiqKze da Cinema.," Iris, 1 (1), in Robert Stam, Robert Burgoyne and Sandy Flitterman-Lewis’s JOSW VOCABULARIES IN FIIM SEMIOTICS: St. 2ru.cbuxa.lism, Poat-atimataxaliam and Beyond. (London: Routledge) 1992 p. 214-215 44 See Andre Bazin's "The Ontology of the Photogxaphia Image, " WHAT IS CINEMA?, trans. Hugh Gray (Berkeley: University of California Press), 1967 45 See John Tagg's THE BURDEN OF REPRESENTATION: Esaaya on Photogxahiea and Hiatoxiea (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, Ltd), 1988 46 Gayle Rubin and Patricia Loud as quoted in Paula Rabinowitz's signficant THEY MOST EE REPRESENTED: The Politics of Docmnantajcy (London: Verso), 1994 . p. 157 201 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. That is, when one image A, which is completely in and of itself unrelated to image B, but is consciously juxtaposed to each other in the editing process, A and B conjures up a third idea or image in the mind of the spectator. Montages can also simply be arranged in post-production via the emphasis on color, or vertical or horizontal image content, and so on. For example, the intermittent repetition of camera pans moving from the bottom of the still image to the top. See Sergei Eisenstein's FIIM FORM: Essays in Film Theory {New York: Harvest Book) , 1949, and FIIM SENSE (New York: Harvest Book), 1942, both Translated and edited by Jay Leyda. 48 For an excellent history of testimonioa in California, see Rosaura Sanchez's TELLING IDENTITIES: The Californio teatimonios. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995. And for an excellent discussion on the significance of rap, see Mark Costello and David Foster Wallace' s SIGNIFYING SAPPERS: Rap and Race in the Urban Present, (New York: The Ecco Press), 1990. 49' See: Lipsitz, George. "The Meaning of Memory: Family, Class, and Ethnicity in Early Network Television Prograxoa," in PRIVATE SCREENINGS: Television and the Female Consumer, Spigel and Mann, eds., (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press), 1992. 202 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. See: Adorno, Theodore and Horkheimer, Max, "The Culture Industry; Enlightenment as Mass Deception," in DIALECTIC of ENLIGHTENMENT (New York: Seabury Press) , 1972. 51 See; Marvin, Carolyn. fHEW OLD TECHNOLOGIES WERE MS? (New York: Oxford) 1989. p. 4 52 See: Adorno, Theodore and Horkheimer, Max, "The Culture Industry; Enlightenment as Mass Deception," in DIALECTIC of ENLIGHTENMENT. (New York: Seabury Press) 1972. 53 See: Williams, Raymond, TELEVISION, TECHNOLOGY, AMD CULTURAL FORM (Wesleyan University Press), 1993. See also PRIVATE SCREENINGS; Television and the Female Consumer, Spigel and Mann, eds., (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press), 1992. p. xiii 54' See: Marvin, Carolyn, WHEN OLD TECHNOLOGIES WERE NEW (New York: Oxford), 1989. 55 For example, Chon Noriega alludes to this in his Introduction. See Noriega, Chon A., and Ana Lopez, eds. THE ETHINC EXE: Latino Media Arts (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota) 1996. p ix 56 For indeed, we are reminded, and we remind each other (in an eye-to-eye connection - between an endangered species of brown skinned poverty raised colored graduate girls, with brown skinned 203 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. janitors and food service workers, caring for the elite, food, toilets and gardens. We are reminded of urban industrial madness separating/sectioning ivory towers in the depths of the most drab/dismal U.S. barrios and ghettos - as surrounding Stanford University, as surrounding my school...And in this total recall, is this a moment to bite my own tongue, instead of the hand that feeds me? And if, for a moment I should feel lost or confused, I am reminded that we, are 'the people; we are the majority of global citizens, legitimately and illegitimately alike. It makes no difference for now. This is OUR identity in the making. In this entire connection is the emotional and political with the identity of cleaning woman, from MAID IN MANHATTAN to MAID EN AZTLAN in DESPXJES DEL TEKRBSMOTO and the variations of roles of majoxea in CHICANA - the diversity of Chicanas, void of CEOs, governors, senators, and even in 1979, few professors. 57 In the context of this political positioning I appreciate the stark seriousness of Russell Means’ essay in MOTHER JONES "Fighting Honda: Fox Indiana to Liv<er Enxopo Mnat Dio." December 1980. 204 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER FOUR The CINEMATIC BODY of SYLVIA MORALES (TRANS)FORMED: The Evolution of Sylvan Productions Sylvia Morales's hybrid of fiction and documentary work in film and television production continues to deal with the representations of race, gender, sexuality and class. Her move from graduate school student to professional mujerista moviemaker started with her being hired as a cinematographer for the groundbreaking, Chican@-centric, UNIDOS program in 1971.1 UNIDOS was produced by KABC-TV in Los Angeles, and utilized Morales to shoot 13 half-hour documentaries. Communities of color were pushing for more film, TV, and media industries representations of Chican@/Latin@ people, both in front of and behind the cameras.2 Many of the early Chican® films (including those made by Morales) could be characterized as being "didactic," or a little "preachy." This is understandable, however, when considering that in the early 1970's so few representations existed of Chicanos and of Chicanas especially, who had been historically 205 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. silenced so long that some of the initial cultural production focused on didactic teaching and learning. As such, mujerista movies, which developed in tandem with Chicano films, also exhibited didactic characteristics, as a response to the dearth of movies that contained positive and affirming portrayals of raza. This didactic style— emanating from a strong sense of cultural criticism combined with pragmatic activism — has evolved to include experimental technical advances (and other accrued filmmaking expertise) that serves to improve the educational value of her movies. The following is a selection of Morales's body of work, highlighting the impact of hybridization resulting from the interplay of fiction and documentary throughout her movies and television shows. EL ESPEJO (1979) was a cultural series directed, written, produced and edited by Morales for KLCS-TV 58, Los Angeles. MYTHS AND VISIONS IN FIIM (1982), is a half- hour documentary produced by Morales for PBS focuses on the question of positive and negative images of Latinos created by filmmakers. Morales produced several documentaries in succession, including one on the important civil rights organization MALDEF (1983), a half- 206 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. hour program focusing on the work of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. THE ART AND MAGIC OF RUFINO TAMAYO (1983), features an interview with this renowned Mexican artist, and LOS LCBOS...AND A TIME TO DANCE (1984), another documentary directed, produced and edited by Morales won several awards including the New York Film and Video Festival's Silver Medal, the Ohio International Film and Video Festival Bronze Award, and at the Global Village Film and Video Festival an Honorable Mention, all in 1984. LOS LCBOS...AND A TIME TO DANCE opens with Sylvia Morales as narrator in a glamorous hot red outfit (even though producers were initially advised not to use such "hot" colors on broadcast television, and interviews in particular), hot red lipstick, and a large Latina hairstyle. Latino KCET program PRESENTE, produced by the Latino Consortium - features the award winning band, Los Lobos. They are an "eclectic quartet" as several critics are quoted throughout the popular Chicano musical documentary - which alludes to their mix/hybridity of postmodern sounds. Morales says it "draws on such American roots music such as 50's rhythm and blues, zydaco Cajun, blues and rock-a-billy. Not only that, they also 207 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. draw heavily on the Tex-Mex sound known as Norteno, music that is Mexican American in origin." As one of the musicians states in an interview, their Tex-Mex music also borrows from German roots in the use of the accordion, which band member and singer David Hidalgo plays. David Hidalgo also played an electric Hawaiian guitar, used as the soundtrack for the late and great Chicano musician Richie Valens, in Luis Valdez's rendition of Valens’ career, and his early tragic death in Valdez's crossover blockbuster hit LA BAMBA (1987). Morales!s documentary is typical of several Chicano productions in its territorial Angelina-centricism. Smiling broadly, Sylvia is proud and very happy to introduce this band, "LOS LGBOS...AND A TIMS TO DANCE." Emphasizing the word "dance" from the title, we see an exciting montage of footage of various people from several concerts, dancing to the sounds of Los Lobos, attesting to their multi/transculturalism/heteroglossia. AN INTERVIEW WITH... (1985) , produced by Sylvia Morales, was a Latino Consortium Talk Show for PBS, featuring stellar guests, for example the first program featured Ricardo Montalban. 208 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The HOPE o f F I C T I O N Sylvia Morales's professional development as a cinematic storyteller and technician (in both documentaries and fiction films) naturally progressed to her having more access to resources and able to work with a larger budget, paving the way for the well received production of ESPERANZA (1985), a 48 min. narrative fiction. This very moving story focuses on Esperanza, a young immigrant girl from Chiapas, and her little brother Miguel, who courageously survives after the Los Angeles immigration patrol pick up their mother. The children have no knowledge about where their mother was taken. Chicana/Latina favorite, Lupe Ontiveros makes a guest appearance as a tamale vendor. Opening titles say "Los Angeles, California 1985." Here we can attest to the "Angelina" centricism again. There are kids of color playing ball on a city street. This visual shows the mestizaje experience that a variety of cultures can interact in a positive way given the chance. In a rasqnache manera they get whatever is available to play the traditional street baseball game that so many children have improvised. 209 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. This can also be seen as a Chicano "walkabout” that demands an urban form of bricolage.3 Cool musica as well. Next, we see a Latina mother cleaning as her daughter gives the Catholic sign of the cross before a photo of her father. In the background, a Spanish radio newscaster is talking about one of the earlier Chiapas uprisings. Next, this mother is picked up by la migra while leaving a neighborhood grocery store. Confused about their mother’s disappearance, the children must use their wits to survive. During this process of survival, they encounter various hardships. On the first night, their young Chicano street friend understands that the kids are alone. The boy brings them a banana, apple, and a blanket and the little brother Miguel is seen looking out of the dark window up to the moon above. This scene exemplifies the notion of the young Chicano as a bricoleur, because the young boy gives the kids two pieces of fruit and a blanket, providing them both food and shelter in their urban surroudings. Miguel is resting on Esperanza's lap - although she is merely a child herself - her mother instincts nurture her little brother to sleep. 210 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. When their Chicano friend returns to the house the next day, and finds his blanket neatly folded but the children gone, he decides to go on a quest to find them. Putting his cap on backwards and riding away on his little Stingray bike, he becomes an icon of the urban Chlcanito. After finding the children, all three begin to dance the wave and the moonwalk of the mid 1980's, he lifts the spirits of the children, who try to learn these American dances. There are several anglo characters depicted that are questionable. For example, the children pass an anglo male with an empty wine bottle and he startles them. At this time, the little Chicanito friend rides up to them and seemingly saves the day, as the children are extremely glad to see him. Their sense of confidence is restored. Together the youth continue on with their quest as urban walkabouts. Rasquache survival techniques are used and successful again. Because the Chicanito speaks English, he is designated to ask for directions to the kids’ father home in Oxnard, California. They know this information from a letter sent by the father to the mother along with a seventy-dollar check. The children make it to the bus 211 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. depot to buy two tickets to get to their father. They do not have enough money and decided to try to sell tamales with the tamal woman vendor played by Ontiveros. The second time the children return to the bus station with money, a security guard notices that these two frightened looking children who are alone. The police catch the children as they try to escape. The final scene is from the camera’s point of view inside a police car. We hear a voice over in English, "There's two of them." Although a Chicano cop is shown trying to be sensitive with the children, this is a foreign and scary experience for these immigrant children, Miguel and Esperanza. This is an open-ended story as the audience is not sure whether the children will ever be reunited with their mother. This important narrative was the First Place Winner in Fiction at the Democracy in Communication Video Festival in 1992. Morales co produced this production with her companera Jean Victor, who also had Production Manager Credit on the film. Morales produced ESPERANZA, in part, through the prestigious Women in the Director's Chair grant from the American Film Institute (AFX). She was also able to use 212 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. AFI's facilities for post-production. While the movie is one of Morales’s first fictional works, it uses her real- life children as actors, demonstrating Morales's application of rasquache/bricolage theories. The movie solidifies her voice by her assuming various important roles, such as Director, Writer, Executive Producer and Editor, making this movie more of her "baby." In terms of mujerista moviemaking principles outlined in CHAPTER ONE, this film embodies six out of the seven elements outlined. One scene in particular where these qualities are exhibited is where the protagonist, Esperanza, upon the arrest and deportation of her mother, responsibly assumes the role of guardian to her little brother. This serves to educate the spectator on the plight of the undocumented worker and its impact on their familias, through a Chicana feminist perspective. VAYMM CON DIOS (Go with God) (1985), is a feature documentary produced by Sylvia Morales and Jean Victor for KCET Los Angeles, 58 minutes running time. This is a definite focus on Raza women within two different Christian religious institutions, exploring the exodus of Latinos from the Catholic Church to Pentecostal and 213 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. fundamentalist sects. Most the religious scholars are comprised of male priests and there is one female nun scholar. The end credits are accompanied by music sung by Joan Baez. End credits also give "Research" title to Jean Victor. The documentary highlights Latina Christians, specifically Catholics who have left their denomination and switched over to Pentecostal. A Pentecostal white man is preaching to a predominantly Raza congregation, saying he respects the Latino Roman Catholics who have switched over to his church: I immediately praise them, because they have two very vital components - faith imbedded in their hearts and have been taught to respect the 'Man5 of God, and they do that faithfully and morally and they do that - also they respect the 'Word' of God. Also in the movie, a cleric talks about a letter issued from The National Conference of Catholic Bishops about race and the exodus the Catholic Church. One of the main motivating factors for writing the letter was that for certain communities (insinuating Latina/os) that "they addressed the concern of certain elements, for one thing 214 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. there are certain prejudices still existing in some communities where they just don't feel at home, they don't feel comfortable, they don't feel wanted, they don't feel accepted." The speaker addresses that the central theme of the National Conference of Bishops pastoral letter is that "the Catholic Church has to accept the Hispanic presence as a challenge, and not as a problem." Cut to a huge gathering for La Virgin in La Placita de Olvera Street in Los Angeles with mariarchis - 10 to 11 hundred people attend services on any given Sunday. The documentary then intercuts between images of the Catholic Church, the Pentecostal Church, and their respective congregations. From 1963 to 1965, the Roman Catholic Pope made many changes in the church, particularly the need for people to worship in their own language. In this documentary they mention how liberation theology is used in helping the community to think and act through the challenges of the society in which they exist - and in turn, to liberate themselves from the socio-political problems of their society and their immediate communities. The footage shows a mix of cultures - Native American dancers, a progressive nun playing her guitar, and the use of sage 215 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and copal burning representing ancient native religious ceremonial practice is integrated within this contemporary Catholic experience. The Pentecostal experience is definitely given much more airtime than the Catholic Church in this video production. Yet, what is of particular interest to me is that there also is airtime for the ancient and vital role that La Virgin de Guadalupe has had for Roman Catholics, an issue that leaves room for the uromym-centrie concerns of mujerista moviemaking. As an important god/goddess figure - it was the image of La Virgin (aka TONANTZIN) that helped convert many more native Indians into Catholicism during the Spanish conquest, because she resembled the dark-skinned female deity who was familiar to them. At this time, Sylvia Morales wrote the compelling film HEARTS OH FIRE (1987). One year later, Morales wrote, and went back to directing, with SIDA IS AIDS (1988), a one hour documentary program for PBS and UNIVISION, that follows three Latin0s with SIDA/AIDS who are living in the US and shows their crucial activism in educating their communities about SIDA/AIDS prevention. 216 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The film teaches how the pandemic cuts across racial and cultural difference. VALUES, SEXUALITY AMD THE FAMILY (1989) is a half- hour documentary piece for UNIVISION. It opens with a 26 year old Spanish-speaking Latina mother discussing the importance of speaking openly about sexuality with her teenaged daughter, as she mentions that her own mother didn’t discuss sexuality with her. This is a very important topic especially in this day and age of so much high-risk sexually transmitted diseases. An English translation voice over is dubbed over the traditional looking Latina parent learning to communicate with her children. This documentary uses various formats to transmit this important information about sexuality, contemporary diseases {SIDA/AIDS), teen pregnancy, and how parents can discuss these issues openly and honestly with their children. These images are juxtaposed to a more modern looking Latina in a studio. She is wearing white earrings and has a hot red suit, similar again to narrator Morales in her documentary LOS LQBOS...AND A TIME TO DANCE (1984), and the abundance of the use of red titles in her earlier CHICANA. It was apparent that many 217 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. of the transitions in this documentary used the color red in fades and dissolves, similar to the titles used in the earlier celluloid documentary production of Morales, CH1CANA, I believe the use of this "hot" color is a conscious choice of cultural preference which can be distinguished as a [sub] cultural icon. VALUES, SEXUALITY AND THE FAMILY uses title cards in between reenacted scenes where the narrator describes the issues addressed in this documentary "Mutual Respect and Trust," "Active Listening" "Self Esteem," and "Exploring Alternatives.” The video also includes clips of community consciousness raising and rap groups, and health care facilitators addressing and educating on these issues, mujerista moviemaking definition #3. The communities represented are from Philadelphia, Miami, and Santa Ana, California. A series of statistics are shared with the spectator - for example, 18 percent of the SIDA/AIDS cases in the U.S. from the ages of 13-18 year olds are Latino, 178 out of 1,000. This is proportionately almost double the number from their age group in the nation. For Latina women they are 16 percent of the national SIDA/AIDS cases. Anglo women in the same age group comprise twelve percent of cases. 218 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. These types of didactic productions have been extremely crucial in Latin® communities. Especially with the diversity of cultural representation in this piece, many people across different cultures of age, class, race and gender can learn quickly and even get to the point of prevention, In this case, video accessibility proves even more helpful and immediate as more home televisions have video and digital technologies. Morales produced, wrote and edited FAITH EVEN TO THE FINE (1990-91), a one hour documentary for PBS and nominated for an Emmy. This story follows the stories of three American nuns who collide with the Catholic Church over racism, sexism and classism within the church's hierarchical patriarchal structure. LIFE AND TIMES (1992), is a half hour documentary produced by Morales for KCET-28, Los Angeles, which looks at pediatric AIDS from three different point of views. Morales's works for television include not only prestigious, politically committed PBS documentaries such as, WORK AND FAMILY (1994), and a two-hour documentary she directed in the six-hour series, A CENTURY OF WOMEN (1994) , (which was nominated for an Emmy and an ACE Award) , but also two half-hour narrative pieces for cable 219 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. television's PLAYBOY station SHOWTIME, which she wrote and directed. Both LA LJMPIA and ANGEL FROM THE SKY (1996) are two fiction erotica pieces coverd more in-depth in CHAPTER SIX. Sylvia Morales directs and produces "THE STRUGGLE IN THE FIELDS," (1996), a 60-minute historical PBS documentary in the groundbreaking four hour, four part series, CHICANO!: THE MEXICAN AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT. Never before has any piece thoroughly documented the his-story of the Chicano people and their social, political, and cultural struggles and celebrations. One major event crucial to the origins and soul of the Chicano Movimiento was that of the United Farm Workers struggle and legacy. Producer-director Morales allows much airtime for and regarding our contemporary Chicana wcmyn-hera activists Dolores Huerta, and the influence she has had in shaping an entire movimiento. In 1962, Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta organized the National Farm Workers Association {NFWA) in Delano, California. The UFW’s origins were in the I960's, although one of its major leaders, Cesar Chavez, was being trained to organize in the 1950's. The agribusiness 220 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. of central Califas was one of the largest industries in the United States. This area produced food for many and wealth for a few, contrasting the poor working conditions that Cesar Chavez helped expose to the world. This organization was to become a central organizing force of the entire Chicano Civil and Human Rights Movement. The battleground (my home) was Central Califas, the rich agricultural San Joaquin Valley. The immoral injustices between farmowners and farmworkers was audacious, alive and well (sic), in the old gold rush Valley. This situation is reminiscent of a near to Apartheid-like reality long after slavery was supposedly outlawed. The U.S. has a similar history in its dealings with slavery and indentured servant labor systems. Eventually, local, county wide, statewide, regional, national international attention made it clear of the multibillionaire monopolies, growing en america. Nevertheless, to organize for labor unions would cause such a threat to the rich farm and land, industry tycoons and owners that much bloodshed and many deaths would come to pass. The old divide-and-conquer tactic was perpetuated in decades of racist movies, mirroring similar stories of struggle and victory in overcoming d e 221 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. facto and de jure segregation and oppression of Latino/Chicano/Mexicanos in the United States. The mega agribusiness landowner moguls were the villains in this drama/story, and the postmodern heroes became predominantly the Chicana/o, immigrant, Filipino, and Raza Farmworkers. Chavez helped to educate the world about the inhumane living conditions the farm workers had been subjected to. He also used non-violent tactics in the face of oppression. It was a David-Goliath scenario with the multimillion and billionaire farm owners. Again, this situation is not a new story. CHICANO! successfully highlights the underdog status by illustrating the important role of rasquachismo in teatrof murals, and other community organizing efforts. This manifests itself in on various levels. In many illustrative and creative methods rasquachismo is used within the political strategies of the United Farm Workers and many of their leadership and representatives’ words and actions.4 "Turning the paradigms upside down" are leaders Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, Robert Kennedy, and Chicana muralista Ester Hernandez, to name a few. There are Pan-American connections between our experiences with struggle, for example Chicanos on 222 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the streets of a U.S. barrio share similar struggles with campesinos en Guatemala o Chiapas in relationship to socio-political, economic, and land right issues. In addition, indigenous peoples around the planet, the Inuit Eskimo of Alaska connect with the struggle faced by Mexicano people in the U.S. This experience is also transformed into a celebratory and self-reflexive awareness in its will to survive in the face of oppression. The ongoing oppression is indeed long-term. Moreover, as we will see, this vitality of a "complex identity" developed particular survival strategies and creative forms and contents to overcome various forms and contents of the oppressors toxins. The agricultural mega business of the rich San Joaquin Valley was a central location for Chicano battlegrounds. This warfare was similar to the Chicano labor strike depicted in SALT OF THE EARTH (1954), a fictional film that looks like a documentary. In the Chicana/o reality and experience, pain comes from a constant struggle against genocide, poverty, illiteracy, and starvation for bread and 223 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. roses. This pain articulates and communicates the spirit, element, and activity of resistance. This is a resistance against dominant western-anglo-andro- centric hegemonies, late capitalist pathologies, post modernist technologies, post colonialist freedoms - and towards what Chon Noriega refers to as "neoindigenons” situations, narratives, icons and strategies.5 What I mean by this is that "Chicano/a People" may be a new tribe, descendants from a variation of tribes: Aztecs, Mlxtecs, Zapotecs, and Olmecs. All this and more are encapsulated within the Chicana/o Liberation and Arte Mbvimientos.6 In addition to directing films, Morales wrote REAL MEN AND OTHER MIRACLES (1998) , with Carmen Tafolla. TELL ME AGAIN...WHAT IS LOVE? (1998) , is a half-hour documentary on teen-dating violence which Sylvia Morales wrote and produced. Morales also directed several episodes for REYES Y REY, a police dramatic narrative series for Sony/Telemnndo in Spanish, filmed in Tijuana, Mexico. Morales recently directed several episodes for the popular 224 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ex-television series RESURRECTION BOULEVARD (1998- 2002) . As is demonstrated in the trajectory of Morales''s work, the interplay between documentary (in television and independent video) and fiction serve to develop her focus on realistic aspects of political issues while building strong narratives and characters to engage audiences. For example, this helped to shape her representations of Latinas in her first major work of fiction, ESPERANZA, as well her strong documentary treatment of Dolores Huerta in the "STRUGGLE in the FIELDS" episode of CHICANO! The Mexican-American Civil Rights Movement. In addition, her beginning work in the 13-episode series, UNIDOS, to her most recent television work with the popular RESURRECTION BOULEVARD, she has remained prolific and has been able to successfully work within the fast paced commercial television production system. She is, to this day, an important role model to many emerging Chicana/o filmmakers in Aztlan. The above chronological summary of Morales’s films is augmented with comparisons between Morales and Portillo's films, at the end of CHAPTER FIVE. 225 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. For an acknowledgement of Morales's induction into Chican@ cinema, and recognition of her as a contemporary collaborator, see Jesus Salvador Trevino's EYEWITNESS: A Filmmaker’s Memoir of the Chicano Movement (Houston: Arte Publico Press, 2001). p 225. 2 See Teresa "Qsaf Hidalgo-de la Riva's, "Stone Chioana Rap: An Interview with Sylvia Morales," SPECTATOR University of Southern California, Vol. 19, No. 1, Fall/Winter 1998. 3 The use of the terms "walkabout" and Jbsrieo lage refers to Beverle Houston and Marsha Kinder's interpretation of Nicolas Roeg's movie, WALKABOUT, as discussed in CHAPTER ONE. 4 l See: Homi Bhabha1 s, "Dissemination: Time, Narrative, and the Margins of the Modem Nation,” in NATION and NARRATION, Bhabha, ed., (London: Routledge, 1990). 5' This term comes up in many popular Chicana/o cultural criticism texts. Especially in addressing MUJERIA: The Olmeca Rap. 6 For example, in the epic poem YO SOY JOAQUIN/l AM JOAQUIN by Rodulfo "Corky" Gonzalez (Denver: Crusade for Justice), 1967, and later turned into one of the first Chicano films by Luis Valdez and performed by El Teatro Campesino. 226 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER FIVE The CINEMATIC BODY of LOURDES PORTILLO (TRANS)FORMED: The Evolution of Xochitl Productions Lourdes Portillofs mestizaje mix of fiction and documentary in her mujarista movie production has continuously privileged representations of race, gender, sexuality and class. Originally from Mexico, Portillo developed professionally by building her talent as a visual artist. After briefly working in Los Angeles at an educational film organization, Portillo came into filmmaking after she moved to the Bay Area during the I960's and 1970's and through her collaborations she developed a political consciousness different than that of Sylvia Morales. Portillo left Los Angeles as a response of resistance to the moguls of Hollywood and with a drive to create cultural products and to preserve her vision which was being developed. In San Francisco, she was instrumental in the development of what later became a resourceful, independent Latino film institution, Cine Accion. Portillo gained filmic technical expertise at the San Francisco Art Institute, and circled back to her visual 227 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. art talent via training at the Otis Art Institute. This led her to become a talented visual and narrative moviemaker, with the Bay Area continuing to be her base. Portillo's transcultural production crew has facilitated her artistic and political growth, resulting in several films that innovatively mix fiction and documentary to create splendid hybridizations of her criticism and technique. Portillo's first film in 1979 (DESPUES DEL TERBEMOTO) , like Morales’s debut film and other early Chicano films, presents some of its subjects in a didactic fashion.1 As pointed out by Rosa Linda Fregoso, Portillo1s decision to work in an independent setting characterizes her work as "other" and having a great sense of urgency. Later, Fregoso notes that Portillo's styles evolved technically, becoming "less straight-forward, didactic, and programmatic..."2 While thematically, Portillo experimented with narrative content in LA OFKEMDA, COLUMBUS ON TRIAL is a prime example of a dazzling mujerista hybridization that interweaves fiction and documentary to educate and entertain. The following is a selection of Portillo’s body of work, highlighting major turning points for her 228 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. professionally, as well as serving as a milestone for Chican@/Latin@ cultural progress. Lourdes Portillo's and Susana Munoz's first documentary LAS M&DRES: The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (1986), was nominated for an Academy Award. This most powerful documentary opens with a montage sequence that visually weaves together the direct similarities and differences of the mothers of missing children in Latin America during the 1970's and 80's. The montage shows the Latina mothers with tributary photos of their missing relatives, ndesparacidos”/"disappeared” youth and students, due to political tyranny/corruption. 30,000 missing men, women and children were kidnapped and known to be tortured. This film is unique in that it teaches both local and international communities actual strategies on how to organize. The mothers of these disappeared people organized in a small group at first, by walking around their "Plaza de Mayo" as a means of protest and concern. In the documentary, the mothers consistently walked and eventually asked for international help - and received it in many forms and from many countries. They got a few houses donated in which they helped to raise 229 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. several of the children of missing parents, and they used one house for organizing as their group grew, and they all got governmental support from policies from U.S. President Jimmy Carter. In a meeting with the dictator Pinochet, Carter demanded that these disappearances and murders be stopped. He also sent a female diplomat, Patricia Derrian to Argentina to help investigate this "orgy of death." The traditional Latino politicians were not accustomed to dealing with a woman in such a position of power and thought she was going to be a pushover. In addition, President Carter outlawed the U.S. military training of Argentinean troops to keep the dictatorship in place. In 1976, groups like Amnesty International also were helpful. A new government came into power in 1983. They were able to be more public regarding this issue and also allowed for more investigations through the courts and made the government be held responsible for such indignities towards human rights. Several of the main officers responsible for thousands of tortured and missing people during the dictatorship were tried and convicted. The end of the film has a stark written dedication - white titles over a black background - "We dedicate this film to all mothers around the world who 230 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. have transformed their suffering into a struggle for human dignity." This documentary covers several mujerista moviemaking practices together. First, LAS MADBES: The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo demonstrates Portillo and Munoz's willfulness to get the movie made, independently, to achieve its liberational goals of empowering the voices of mothers who have lost children and family other members in Latin America. This movie has been made available to an enormous amount of people globally, and fits definition number two in the mujerista moviemaking elements outlined in CHAPTER ONE. LAS MADPES: The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo also retells the narrative from a distinct female point of view, which counters hegemonic control of storytelling, focusing on amplifying the voices of Latinas in order to change society for the better. In this respect the movie falls under definitions four and seven of the mujerista moviemaking elements. These issues in this production are activist at its core, beginning even with the subject matter addressed. Cleverly, through allowing the mothers such a clear retelling of their stories/testimonios and a 231 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. layout of organizing strategies, others in various communities around the world have used since this movie. These two Latina filmmakers had to endanger their own lives by shooting this controversial and educational piece, especially since the dust of the dictatorial regime had not yet even settled. Therefore, it is clear that they constructed this film with content and form aimed to help change that society, and this world, for the better. These two mujeres and their own mestizaje mix of Chicana and Argentinean joined forces to combat patriarchal abuse. They were very successful, whether or not they received an american academy award during our own reagonomic regime back home. Another good example of mestizaje with the mujerista moviemaking- mix can be found in Lourdes Portillo’s and Susana Munoz's next documentary LA OFRENDA: The Days of the Dead (THE OFFERING) (1989) . There is a blend of ceremony and traditions of Latinos living in the U.S, mixed with the Mexican experience of dia de los muertos. Chicana/o artistas congregate primarily at the San Francisco Mission District's GALEBXA DE LA BAZA/STUDIO 24, an "interdisciplinary Chicano/Latino space for art, thought and activism." They collectively and individually 232 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. exhibit so much of a variation of elaboration of their creations in comparison to the more ancient and traditional Maxicano/Indlo celebrations and ceremony. Combined, both sides of the border share the depth of reverence and respect in honoring their ancestors and the recent family and friends who have passed on into the next world. Portillo’s third major production opens in a similar way to Sylvia Morales1s works - they both privilege the use of the female narrator, giving power to a female gendered voice of authority. After an opening sequence of calaveras (skeletons) dancing and festive Mexican music, comes the title LA OFKENDA: The Days of the Dead. A first image is that of an indicfena elder in a Mexican pueblo surrounded by a bunch of children. A woman says in English, "A scene unimportant, that now possess my memory - how we treat one another, how we live, now takes on great significance." This is a significant statement on several levels. Within the deigeis it speaks for itself, and functions as a reassuring voice and consciousness linking at least two cultures together in the face and name of how it is we are being, living and dying as humans. On another level, it 233 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. speaks to mujerista moviemaking by not being homophobic. Throughout the film, there are positive images of gays, transgendered, and cross-dressing representations that appear natural both in Mexico and in San Francisco. The aforementioned narrator's statement also sets a sentimental tone for this beautifully shot film as we travel across locations that celebrate the spirits who have passed into the next world. Although the film shows cultural difference, I would like to acknowledge the cultural similarities as well. The film gets into the history of the souls of the dead that come to visit the living. It is mixed with personal narrative and the historical elements of this important ceremony. Fundamentally, this is a beautiful educational experience. The film shows various cultural ceremonies, from the ancients before Cortes into contemporary Mexican culture and the streets of the Mission District of San Francisco. Food is very crucial to give to those living and offer to those spirits who have passed on. Lots of music, colors, candles, marigold flowers, and even on some altares "spirituosen” or alcohol are used as offerings. This keeps the dead spirits happy and fed. Also, to demystify the process of death for the living, there are scenes of 234 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. street teatro where the characters are dressed as skeletons. This is an element void in Western culture as in this U.S. society we are taught to be afraid of death and dying. If it were represented more as a daily part of life, people would not have so much fear about this part of life. Famous Mexican print master Posada understood the relevance of the calavera and politicized its use often making fun of the extreme classism of the elite in contrast with the indigena. There is a very moving section in the documentary that portrays a well-known artist who makes clay-sculpted calaveras. The artist explains to us that all of his images have come to him through dreams. A large part of this film is also shot on the grounds at several pyramids of ancient Mexico. Interviews with grounds keepers discuss the actual spirit energy they feel at the archeological site of Mitla, Oaxaca, Mexico. Mitla is believed to be one of the temples that house the dead. On hundred upon hundred of pyramids of ancient Mexico there are images of living entities, animals, humans, flowers and the mix thereof - whereas, in Mitla, there 235 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. were only an amazing amount of pre-columbian geometric designs. In Portillo and Munoz's LA OFKEJNDA: The Days of the Dead, their crew from the U.S. is asking the native groundskeepers young and old about their work and role at the ruinas. One crewmember asks one little boy, "Aren’t you afraid of the dead here?" and the little boy laughs, "No, whey" ("ox" - a masculine term). It is beautiful that the native do not even question the idea that the spirits are present at the grounds and these men’s roles to protect them. The camera moves into a close-up of a little Indian boy at Mitla laughing with the cutest smile and exposing several missing front teeth. The filmmakers juxtapose his living and smiling image with one almost identical to a smiling image from a pre-columbian face. A cut to the beautiful full moon is juxtaposed to the child’s smiling face, and then into a montage of COATLICUE with tons of calaveras are on her "skirt" as archaeologists have described. These goddess images of COATLICUE, COYOLXAUHQUI, and TONANZTIN are definitely being revived by contemporary Chicana artxstas.3 The female narrator’s voice over comes up again in English. "To my ancient Indian ancestors, life and death 236 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. were cycles. Life is destroyed to be reborn. What is there in me of my Indian past?" Here we are brought into the contemporary questions of Chicana identity, with the eternal need to stay connected with our roots so we in turn can understand where we are headed. In its spirituality, the film allows the spectator to see through souls. This cinematic mujerista connexion with our ancient indigenous roots and culture is made more effectively through the filmmakers' here-and-now play/manipulation with space, time and movement. The movie1s representations of Latinas/indigenous women demonstrate political agency with body politics as well. LA OFRENDA: The Days of the Dead focuses on the political agency in female body politics is also shown in an ideological montage of the Chicana representation in the classic film SALT OF THE EARTH (1954), when all the women strikers come together. This is when the woman protagonist played by the late Mexican actor Rosaura Revueltas is having a child. Her gritos are intercut with her striking husband who is getting beat up by the tycoon's thugs and hollers aloud also. As in SALT OF THE EARTH, LA OFRENDA: The Days of the Dead also depicts visually the physical struggles, but goes back as far as 237 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the conquest where the Spanish conquistadors plundered our people and raped and abused our women. Yet we survive at all costs, life goes on, and in the tone of this mujerista documentary film, we even continue to celebrate this life/death/life process. Lourdes Portillo is very skillful with the use of humor in many of her narrative and documentary pieces. In this piece, she has a humorous section where she interviews several Anglo elders on a tour at the pyramids of TEOTIHUACMf. You almost have to be an "insider" to understand the humor. There are strong U.S. southern accents, extra huge hats on the white women tourists so as not to be sunburned by the extra strong Mexican sun, and so on. Portillo allows her own questioning voice to be heard within the narrative. "Sir, what do you think of the Aztecs' concept of death?" The older white man responds, "Well, this whole group is up there in age where maybe it is a good idea to start worrying about that." The "worrying" experience sets in instead of a more positive glad acceptance of death. This "worrying" is led by fear, not celebration. An older white woman responds, that it gives them (insinuating the Mexican 238 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. people) something to look forward to since they had such a suffering life this time around. A third tourIsta explains that when she recently experienced the death of her husband, actually all the people close to her did not really want to hear her talk about it. "They would just leave the room" she explained. This is sad and attesting to what I mentioned earlier that Western patriarchal norms and standards have taught us to be in denial about death and dying - and have not allowed for a healthy expression of this vital part of human existence. The female narrator returns with what Chon Noriega calls a "neo indigenous" point of view to bring closure to this section. She explains, "With our ancient ancestors, time was awake the risings and settings of the sun and the moon were evidence of this eternal turning. The universe was a single unified whole. Within it took place the endless struggle of opposites, night and day, light and dark, life and death." This takes us back to the philosophy of the QUINTO SOL and the ideology of reincarnation, five suns, five human epochs and evolutions and so on, a thought and culture in contradiction to what we are taught and living today. This "universalist" mode of consciousness is connected 239 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. with Alice Walker's original definition of womanist, as well as with her definition that the womanist "Loves the moon" and "loves the spirit."4 One good example of working with alter-native crewmembers and powerful women of color, yet not necessarily a women-centered production is Lourdes Portillo's COLUMBUS ON TRIAL (1992). Produced and directed by Lourdes Portillo, screenplay by Culture Clash (Richard Montoya, Ric Salinas, and Herbert Siguenca) and Lourdes Portillo, COLUMBUS ON TRIAL is an 18-minute wonderful satiric narrative starring Culture Clash. Culture Clash also took the Associate Producers position. Assistant Director was Emiko Omori. Portillo and Omori also did extra videography work, since this video included so many more effects and visuals for the blue screen work used throughout COLUMBUS ON TRIAL. Several of the same crewmembers that worked previously with Portillo worked on this piece as well. For example, Portillo's crewmembers consist of her cinematographer Kyle Kibbe, same editor Vivian Hilgrove, Xochitl Perales, who is Chicana film critic Rosa Linda Fregoso’s daughter, played the little sister. Gaffer was Stephanie Johnson, a well known African American 240 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. filmperson who also worked on A PLACE OF RAGE (1991), Pratibha Parmar's documentary production portraying the powerful work, lives and thought of Angela Y. Davis and June Jordan. Again, even within the process of production, Portillo is employing several radical mujerista moviemaking elements in working with such a transcultural crew. COLUMBUS ON TRIAL uses humor effectively to remind us of the atrocities by the Eurocentric imperialistic belief of Columbus's greatness (sic) and the myth of his "discovering America." A Chicano lawyer begins by smoking his peace pipe and praying that his ancestors help him win the long overdue case of The People vs. Christopher Columbus. Columbus is seen flying through the sky, erroneously towards "America" hollering "tierra, fcierra" and the native lawyer with long braids and wearing a suit, looks up to the sky and says "help me.” Titles come up saying "Dreaming of Justice..." This is a highly experimental and postmodern form of addressing some exaggerated truths. Storm Cloud gathers up all the characters. "Bob Oso" represents Christopher Columbus. This lawyer comes out goofy looking wearing huge red framed glasses. There is also some sort of 241 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. sellout "His-panic" female judge who is blatantly playing favorites with Columbus. The judge in this case is an "Hispanic” woman and a dominatrix of sorts. The Native counsel, Storm Cloud starts by burning a sage stick. The judge is extra tough on the Native lawyer from the beginning, obviously siding with Columbus, and warns Storm Cloud early on, shaking her finger, "I will not let this be turned into a circus!” Humor is used from the cinematic blue screen behind the judge's desk. For example, there are images of an actual circus while she is speaking. She continues with her conservative lecture, mixing historical fact with political humor, "We Hispanics have worked hard in this country. Try not to revert to being uncivilized!" This experimental video is educational but not in the traditional sense. Bob Oso ("hoboso" is stupid), Columbus's counsel, begins his opening statement, "My client accidentally discovered America, he was really on his way to Japan." We should be grateful that "he introduced Europe to America...and chocolate peanut buttercups." Bob Oso asks the judge, "Is this a crime, Your Honor, whom I believe is Spanish by way of Mexico." Then they break into a song and dance "Mambo." 242 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Priorities of trying to reclaim, rename, reeducate and celebrate legacies of ' raza survival’ are central within this deigesis. The production is one in the rasquache and mestizaje spirit. The script and acting are done it in a bold, challenging, and 'in your face* manera/way.5 There are several cinematic examples where a multiple healing function works via the means of both "rasquache" and "mestizaje" methodologies together. For example, in Portillo’s COLUMBUS ON TRIAL, cultural, political, and ideological healing takes place by reimagining and rewriting "History."6 For example, mestizaje is definitely represented in all the play of mixtures of culture in COLUMBUS ON TRIAL. The Native lawyer says while sobbing because he lost his case against prosecuting Christopher Columbus, "The Chicano brothers are going to cut off my braids." There is Hawaiian Island musica at the beginning and at the end of this humorous short narrative. Now there is even an-Other change that may connote openness to fluidity in identity politics. Many Chicanas are actually changing the spelling to "Xicana" leaving the nX” open as an unknown. There is an important African descent young male in chains with an "X" on his hip cap. As the character says to the Native 243 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. American attorney, just call me "X." He reappears a few times in the story prophesizing first, and dances to a rap beat with traditionally dressed Native American women. He tries getting Storm Cloud to listen to him and his plea for unionizing. Coalition building between the brown man, the black man, the yellow man, the red "man" - Storm Cloud asks, "what about white?" And X says, "The white man's not in this script.” Then he goes on a long monologue- about his version of history, and the role that the number thirteen plays in it, including celestial powers such as Haley's Comet effect on history and says such things as "Extermination is a thirteen letter word." Afterwards, Storm Cloud tells X that "it's been a very nice multicultural moment," and says, "You should see my therapist" and walks away. X hollers back angrily "If all you Indians wouldn't have been lazy, then the white man would've never have brought us over to cut their sugarcane.” Nevertheless, X acknowledges that Storm Cloud is representing "Us All - five hundred years, my mestizo brother, five hundred years." After the hip Native American attorney loses his case against Christopher Columbus, we have a surprise 244 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ending. The dark skinned homegirl (whom Storm Cloud refers to as "little sis"), toting a tattoo and costume in drag (low brimmed hat, suspenders, baggies, etc.) proves that she's the one who "wears the pants" in the family. While Storm Cloud stays at home crying, she says "Don't worry, I'll handle it." Storm Cloud weeping asks, "Can you bring me home some fry bread?" We cut to a press conference with people asking Columbus how he feels about winning his case, and maintaining his heroic reputation. His response all happy is, "Chevere!" Then they ask if he is going to sell the movie rights. In comes little sister who does the destroying job right by assassinating Christopher Columbus. Attorney, Bob Oso hollers out, "But nooooooooo, he didn't pay me yet!" This humorous portrayal of a long painful history was healing for me for more reasons than one.7 It is not a coincidence that similar content and revisions of history were represented in alternative media practices around the quincentennial celebrations of the "discovery of America." Portillo's piece remains an affirmation to continue dreaming/and producing in new and creative ways. Given the history of the U.S. media industry's propensity for denigrating people of color in crime 245 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. dramas/reality cop television, THE DEVIL SEVER SLEEPS/E1 Diablo Nunca Dnerme (1995) , is a wonderful challenge to the traditional of crime dramas. Still, I prefer the personal videodocumentary form of CORPUS: A Home Movie for Selena (1999). Nevertheless, THE DEVIL NEVER SLEEPS has received its due recognition for its potency in challenging traditional cinematic boundaries between what is "fiction" and what is "documentary.” The movie takes on a topic few other of Portillo's do: homosexuality. The film "insinuates" that maybe he was or wasn't - there are "rumors" about it. In this case, his homosexuality is a melodramatic co-factor to a larger mystery. Portillo plays with this idea in a genre mix of telenovela, melodrama, and documentary. It is strong indeed that this Chicana lesbiana filmmaker shows herself in several instances in the film: 1) In her sunglasses as she talks about the first time she saw a movie in Mexico and shows the location of the theatre house. 2) In her self-reflexive stance - as a filmmaker, she puts herself more into the film - in front of the camera - as a Chicana going back to Mexico. 246 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. (mujerista moviemaking definition # 4 in that Portillo privileges a woman of color's point-of-view as the dominant reoccurring perspective) 3) I find all this part very interesting when she's sitting on the bed making fun of the way they're recording the audio with her [evil, bad, untrustworthy] widow tia, whom many believe may have killed her uncle, but most agree she did marry him for his money. They show Portillo's crew - the sound person, cameraperson, and Lourdes Portillo writer, director poking fun and laughing while recording her tia's narrative, without her tia's knowledge. Most film critics have liked Portillo's play between documentary and fiction, the use of novelas, and the representations of Mexican culture. Mexican teacher and cultural critic Norma Iglesias Prieto, editor and co-organizer for CRUZANDO FRONTERAS: Encuentro de Mexicana/Chicana cineastas y videoastas, reports at a Society for Cinema Studies Conference that when she taught this film to her Mexican students, several were actually critical of Portillo's portrayals 247 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. of "Mexican culture" noting that she played on, or maybe even encouraged stereotypes. For example, one student mentions that Chicanos/as continue showing the same traditional Mexican heroes — Zapata, Villa. I find this believable and also ironic that Portillo is native Mexican, yet possibly through her own acculturation process into "Chicana-isma" the cultural borders and boundaries shift. Ultimately, cultural difference is made more apparent - dependent on whether you'' re speaking from within the culture being observed or if you are being the observer.8 I find it interesting that the one time Portillo spends so much footage and "air time" with the gay issue, it is in dealing with her tio, a male, and not, so far, with her own sexuality. One theory in the narrative of THE DEVIL NEVER SLEEPS: El Diable Nunca Dnerme is that her tio died of SIDA/AIDS. One of the most important tools of Chicana film criticism is Rosa Linda Fregoso's recent anthology LOURDES PORTILLO: THE DEVIL NEVER SLEEPS and Other Films.9 This collection includes writings - both creative and analytical, storyboards, scripts and even an actual facsimile of an original film proposal submitted 248 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. by Lourdes Portillo and Nina Serrano to the American Film Institute. As a filmmaker, it was important to have access to log notes and script notes. First of all, I can see that they're rasquache, but they get the work done, and the production is made.1 0 The independent filmmaker's process in this way seems different than the more rigid professional Hollywood system.1 1 Publishing Lourdes Portillo and Nina Serrano's proposal allows for upcoming filmmakers to see the basic elements of putting a successful proposal together and help other filmmakers to see how to break down the cost of a half-hour celluloid piece. Storyboards for COLUMBUS Offl TRIAL can appeal to, be accessible to, and teach across many ages, the illiterate on how to construct a narrative. I know the high school teen moms of color that I have worked with in the San Francisco East Bay, and in Eastside Longo (Long Beach, CA), would have benefited greatly from such a text. Fregoso also incorporates the technical floor plans for set design, privileging and giving more space to the visual element in this wonderful anthology. A queer look at so many personal photos, recently unpublished, of Portillo on various movie sets and with 249 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. famxlia and her crew, reinforces the beauty of dykehood. For example, in one photo she looks very much a young, non-traditional Latina, sitting cross-legged in a traditionally masculine stance, rifle in between her and guy friend. She is wearing an army fatigue shirt with its sleeves torn off. These published visuals are useful for youth at various levels of literacy. They can encourage the filmmaking practice and represent positive images of Chicanas and U.S. Women of Color. The cover of Fregoso!s anthology of Lourdes Portillo's THE DEVIL NEVER SLEEPS is also wonderful. The black and white close up photo of Portillo's profile with several acupuncture needles in her face/cara rests on a deep violet background. Her eyes are slightly closed and tilted as if she is in an altered state of consciousness, subterranean below this reality or in another supra space, beyond this consciousness. This incorporation/representation of a non-Western healing art adds to the power of this hybrid./mestizaje text. Fregoso's anthology includes an interview of Lourdes Portillo by Kathleen Newman and B. Ruby Rich. One reason in particular I find this interview fascinating is that Portillo asked me to be the earnera-woman for this 250 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. interview which was produced for Stanford University. This was exciting because I got to experience the interview first-hand which was taken at the Miradas de Mujer Encuentro de Cineastas y Videoastas Mexicanss y Chlcanas in Tijuana, Mexico, 1990. With Norma Iglesias, Rosa Linda Fregoso later edited MIRADAS DE MUJER: Encuentro de Cineastas y Videoastas Mexicanas y Chicanas, an entire book based on this unique gathering of women filmmakers.1 2 In this interview, Lourdes Portillo incorporates her personal life between speaking about the films that she was making. Family seems to fuel her productions and Portillo exemplifies how our domestic world is relevant and fuels our outside work. This supports the idea that the personal is political, showing how a person like Portillo is a political activists all the time. In addition to her family, Portillo mentions many crewmembers, critics and other filmmakers who have influenced her work along the way. In discussing Lourdes Portillo's work, Rosa Linda Fregoso says that she has been one of "our most misunderstood and distorted film practitioners. Male critics simply don't know what to make of her.” (p. 173). Again, being critical of Gary Keller's earlier 251 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. anthology on Chicano cinema, Fregoso accuses him of false assumptions ("that only a man could conceive of a national activist film association" (p. 173, i.e. Portillo was one of the founders of Cine Accion). Portillo "who dares to give a subject-role to gays” in LA GFRENDA, i.e., attesting to the variations of what/who Chicanas can be and are (p. 173), therefore, not "essentializing" Chicana identity. One essay in Fregoso!s anthology that I find of great interest is Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano’s "Ironic Framings: A queer Reading of the Family (Melo)drama in Lourdes Portillo's THE DEVIL NEVER SLEEPS: El diablo nunca duerme." This essay exemplifies how PortilloTs perspective (as writer), and voice (as narrator), permeates the film. The writer shows how ironically throughout the narrative Lourdes Portillo can be seen as a "devil" of sorts, according to traditional Christian values. As Yarbro-Bej arano states: . . . Portillo focuses on family and Mexico as her childhood home. In the process of framing the subjectivity, the film differentials of power: the social and familial devaluation she experiences in 252 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Mexico as a pocha, woman, and lesbian, but also her status as a professional U.S. filmmaker. In this capacity, Portillo uses the film apparatus to establish power over her family, especially in the areas of authority and sexuality.1 3 In her construction of melodramatic-detective- documentary, Portillo returns to her familia in Mexico to investigate the death of her favorite uncle, Oscar. Yarbro-Bej arano cleverly leads the reader to a very strong queer reading of Portillo's THE DEVIL NEVER SLEEPS, while deconstructing the filmmaker's position of making this film within the context of one part of her family and homeland. This radical, experimental documentary/novela exposes the suppression of gay and lesbian self-identity and experience, while [un] consciously addressing the sexuality and body politics of the Chicana lesbiana filmmaker herself. In her deconstruction of THE DEVIL NEVER SLEEPS Yarbro-Bej arano shows how in Portillo's quest for truth about the death of her uncle, she uses and even manipulates the technologies of film to expose the inconsistencies in the investigation. Through 253 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Portillo's interviews with several family members, it is revealed that many believe Ofelia, Oscar's most recent wife, may even have been responsible for his murder. The audience comes to laugh at this tia's ridiculousness and ignorance. For example, in one scene Portillo is filmed in a room apparently surrounded by her crew speaking to Ofelia and recording the conversation. Portillo laughs to the camera and this segment exemplifies what Yarbro Bejarano discusses as the authority of the filmmaker. Portillo is aware that she is undermining the validity of what her aunt is saying, therefore, Portillo’s point of view demonstrates her investigation. She uses technology to approach the inconsistency of the tia’s story. Due to possible legal ramifications and problems, Portillo later substitutes an actor's voice verbatim over the tia’s recorded conversation. Yarbro-Bejarano acknowledges that Portillo uses her power again as author, by using her own body in this documentary. In another interview in Chihuahua with a Catholic priest friend of Oscar's, Portillo is refused pertinent information to her line of questioning 254 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. regarding her uncle’s death. He hides behind his cloak and retreats to his Catholic domain. The next scene shows Portillo after her rejection from the priest, taking her body to an acupuncture treatment, which encourages the practice of this ancient, non-Western, healing art. Portillo's image in the film, and on the cover of Rosa Linda's book, was important in that it influences others with the content of this work to help change society for the better, especially those not so concerned with traditional Western ideas of health and healing. Portillo takes the freedom to change and transform herself as necessary, for health. In this way she is an "outlaw," to use Alice Walkers' definition, and like "the devil," as in Yarbro-Bejarano's analysis. Portillo's reclaims the female body, as was initiated in the foundational radical feminist book on women’s health, OUR BODIES, OURSELVES.1 4 PC®$S, PRAYERS, and PROMISES of PAYBACK The mujerista moviemaking that challenges patriarchs, challenges our premature forms and realities of death is in the essence of SEMGRITA EXTRAVIADA: Missing Young Woman (2001). This movie aims to mutate the madness surrounding 255 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the perpetuation of violence against women. These crimes seemingly go unanswered, but the truth of this evil paints the sky and the Chihuahua deserts with all the reasons why, more mujeres must cry, and young beautiful brown women continue to die. The murders of the malquiadores in Juarez, Mexico are represented across the screen of Portillo's most recent 74-minute documentary in living and dying color. Producer and Director Lourdes Portillo, questions young barrio girls about their sense of safety, and what they have heard about the murders. Portillo's representation of Maxicana girls and young women near the beginning of the film remind me of the protagonist character in her debut film AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE/DESPUES EEL TERREMOTO, where at least in fiction, these young brown women are given the privilege to make choices and be in greater control of their fates and future destinies. Portillo blares somewhat of a Christian hymn-chant louder and louder at times reminding one of the mix between Mexican/Raza Catholicism and the various levels of the meanings of these crimes manufactured against nature, against humanity, and in the most literal sense, against mujeres. 256 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. SENORITA EXTRAVIADA is a most powerful investigation of the murders and rapes of between 200-400 young women. This challenge is unlike any man-made exploration into these continual crimes against humanity to date. As an activist near the end of the film reminds us all that indeed these brutal young women's deaths are a part of all of us who live on and enjoy the garments, automobiles, and computer worlds in which the majority of these women have suffered in their working reality for approximately $5 a day pay. A small salary for independence, for economic survival, for themselves, and for their famillas, living and dying on a Third World land, sharing desert sands with this first world nation for which it stands - I wonder, and this movie makes us wonder, why must these mujeres die? This film moves masses into realizing that there is a war against a population of young and lovely women-girls here on the shores of las amerxcas - across a man-made border that not everyone recognizes. As bombs fly across the skies aimed at everywhere but here, and the covert chemicals are disseminating quietly to kill the populations of brown famillas seemingly afar, across the cold seas, it is only within reaching distance, blatantly, 257 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. loud and clear and in our faces. This genocide against this generation of women is exposed in Portillo's powerful film. Portillo's nearly monotone voice narrates statistics and questions from remaining relatives directly hit by the assassins and rapists as well. For memory is as strong as skin - and the sacrificed have gone and worked and earned their ways into heaven, by any means necessary. SENORITA EXTRAVJADA warns us that indeed it is necessary by every means to end this murdering mayfair of madness. Or in fact - it is the end of us all, as we too ate near to touch these deaths in our own back yard, in ignorance and fear, in our consciousness screaming clearly the 'echoes of their shadows,' as a local's organizing banner reads. The opening sequence and closing shots are superimposed images of a fading young beautiful brown mujer. This woman's image is over the landscape of the barren desert of Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico, also the state where filmmaker Lourdes Portillo was born. Portillo returns near this land of her birth as Chicana lesbiana filmmaker guarded by Nemesis to deal with death. Also, reinforcing the power of cinema, here is an-Other thanks as well to all the many funders large and small who helped 258 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. make this movie happen. As amazon warrior, "loving" as Moraga says during "the war years,” these warrior women will not be forgotten.1 5 Y no mas. Ya basta. We hear familiar battle cries again as the contemporary funeral processions proceed. All this is accurately documented within this film. Basic community organizing efforts are taken up, raising pesos here and there, raising hopes and spirits across all borders. This abundance of cultural wealth of enduring faith of justice no human can access, count, nor measure. Using this cinematic media SENORITA EXTRAVJADA, reassures my hope that yes indeed, we can succeed to find the culprits to end this war, to put a cap on this multiplicity of murders of Mexican and American raza mujeres. Lourdes Portillo's film ignites a shortly stalled excitement, a movement momentarily masked in memory, a reality unfolding again, that indeed, Si se puede!1 6 The universal respect of the sensuous senorxta, who by any name is celebrated for her eternal nobility, is systematically violated by the heinous attacks on women in the mujerista movie. The suppressed response to the mysoginistic dehumanization of women in these situations 259 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. has built-up over time. As feminism has spread throughout the world, it is only a matter of time before the fierce power of women's righteousness is unleashed like a volcanic eruption against patriarchal systems of mass destruction. To you, "Miss" (English), "Fraulein" (German), "Senhorita" (Portuguese), "Signorina" (Italian), "Mademoiselle" (French) and "Senorita" (Spanish), as opposed to the "Senora, " "Frau," "Signora," "Senhora," "Madame," or "Mrs.," connotes married mature females by way of sexual intercourse with a male (sic), or induction into an enforced compulsory heterosexuality restraining marriage. As we face our fear of individual and collective powers, physical, and psyche capabilities, we draw upon an overabundance of passion and compassion, of anger and love, and in the final analysis, of knowledge that we will overcome these maddening murders. My Amazon anger is unleashed against those who would rob you of your youth, by hands of a testosterone poisoned animal. A poem and prayer and promise of rectitude your way. SENORITA EXTRAVJADA is so vital to me, in that it reconnects with similar movements against mujeres across His-story. Where males in all walks of life seem to 260 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. participate in such brutal rituals against women, as they laugh and perpetuate these huge amounts of pain inflicted upon women. This documentary addresses several mujerista moviemaking concerns such as a willful determination to complete the movie, even when her subjects received death threats as a result of participating in the movie. This demonstrates an application of element number two of mu jerista moviemaking, as outlined in CHAPTER ONE. The documentary also highlights the need to publicize and expose the systematic and cultural threats to Mexicanas, in an educational fashion. It also broaches, in a REAL way, the paralyzing impact of the familia. This production influences, through its content, the need for international awareness regarding the atrocity of these murders. In SENORITA EXTRAVIADA, the women still endure in mind, body and spirit - until they are lifted higher than the desert storms and painful patriarchal torture. In mind are his-storical pre-columbian "virgin" sacrificial rituals to save a dying sun, speak bitterness and so many bound feet, medieval witch hunts and burnings at the stake, slavery rapes, cliterectomies, forced welfare sterilizations, y las senoritas extraviadas, y mas... 201 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. COMPARISONS and CONTRASTS A. Two Styles of Geopolitics The interplay of fiction and Renov's concept of the poetics of documentary in Morales's and Portillo!s bodies of work should be prefaced with the fact that approximately 75% of their media production is non fiction/documentary. Perhaps more interesting though, is that while both mujerista moviemakers focus on social issues affecting Chican@s/Latin@s, Morales has consistently centered her films in a U.S. domestic perspective and dynamic, and Portillo has remained focused on presenting issues through an international prism of experiences. This discussion of domestic vs. international dichotomy helps to contextualize other aspects of Morales's and Portillo's work, namely their particular styles of representation. A sample of Morales's works that are focused on U.S. domestic Chican® issues include television productions UNIDOS (1972-1973), ESPEJO (1979), MALDEF (1983) , LOS LGBOS...AND A TIME TO DANCE (1984) AN INTERVIEW WITH . . . (1975) , SIDA IS AIDS (1988) , and RESURRECTION BOULEVARD (1999-2001). In comparison, a 262 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. majority of Portillo’s works use subjects and themes that are international in scope. Examples of this, LAS MADRES". The Mothers of the Plaza del Mayo (1986) , LA OFRENDA: The Days of the Dead (1988) , THE DEVIL NEVER SLEEPS: El dlablo nunca duerme (1995), and SENORITA EXTRAVIADA: Missing Young Woman (2001) . Along with the dichotomy of focusing on domestic vs. international themes, is the idea that Morales and Portillo move in and out of varying styles of sophisticated organizing aspects in their mujerista moviemaking. Both have used a mestizaje/hybrid approach across their trajectories of movie productions. The following section explores examples of how hybridization occurs in terms of content for Morales, and in terms of form for Portillo. First, hybridization in content is demonstrated in Morales1s segment "Work & Family” from the series CENTURY OF WOMEN (1994) , and in her episode "Struggle in the Fields” from the series CHICANO! The Mexican-American Civil Rights Movement (1994-96), These two historically significant documentaries were well funded and stand as examples of Morales's ability to work outside of a rasquache style. Her contribution to the diversity of content in CENTURY 263 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. OF WOMEN focuses on integrating race as a factor in women's labor issues. Without this mestizaje/hybridization, the series would have been severely limited to a white women's history in the U.S. In CHICANO! Morales's hybridization occurs by privileging gender issues through her choice of subjects and the themes they speak to. Without Morales’s interjection of gender issues, the series would have been deprived of addressing the strong roles women played in the Chicano civil rights movement, resulting in an incomplete male-centric version of the history. Morales mainly worked in the Los Angeles Chicano milieu, which privileged rasqnachismo/bricolage and mestisaje /hybrid applications of theory. Morales's hybridization occurs in the thematic content of her productions, in terms of her privileging issues of race and gender. Second, hybridization in form occurs in Portillo's THIS IS YOUR DAY (1998) and CORPUS: A Home Movie for Selena (1999). By the time THIS IS YOUR DAY was produced Portillo had made a name for herself internationally as a powerful political filmmaker. Nevertheless, she chose to work in video format, mainly because of the urgency of these two films. In THIS IS YOUR DAY, Portillo captures 264 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the beating of a Mexican undocumented woman in Riverside, California, by border patrol officers, as she is trying to illegally cross the border. The hybridization occurs in that along with footage from the actual beating (taped from a helicopter), is a talking head interview with Walter Mercado, an astrologer well known in Latin American television. Mercado's astrological analysis does not fit into documentary form, as his assertions are hypothetical, effectively hybridizing the form of this video installation. CORPUS: A Home Movie for Selena was made on video format to reduce the time required fundraising for a feature length documentary. Additionally, CORPUS privileges the voices from the Chicana feminista/lesbiana community, in a roundtable discussion section labelled "the intellectuals." This serves to hybridize the form of the documentary by including a non-traditional look and dialogue of Selenaf s life and death. CORPUS is further explored through a mujerista reading that privileges sexuality in CHAPTER SIX. Portillo worked in the Bay Area environment where an avant-garde style, influenced by experimentalism, is encouraged. 265 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. The resulting hybrids differ as a result of their influences. Morales's and Portillo's geographic origin of these rasquachismo and avant-garde styles help to understand how each "hybridized" their influences to create completely new approaches that combined social justice issues, specifically Chicana feminists issues, with their divergent schools of style. Morales brings documentary elements to her fictional work on RESURRECTION BOULEVARD, creating a resonance with Chican@ spectators. Portillo brings fictionalized elements into her documentary works, such as COLUMBUS ON TRIAL, to tell stories that are more engaging, while inserting vital commentary on the historical plight of colonization. The ability to take risks, in both their cinematic worlds, allows their works to survive and thrive among the many hybridized versions of fiction and documentary that currently range from the absurd (SURVIVOR and COPS T.V. shows) to consciousness-raising {OPRAH TV show and Pratiba Parmar's A PLACE OF RAGE, 1991) . The play of cultures in COLUMBUS CM TRIAL is one of the strongest independent cinematic attempts at trying to mix so many representations of cultural diversity, and "Culture Clashes" in such a relatively short piece. In Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHICANA, Morales uses mestizaje in the representation of diversity within the mestiza subject. The documentary CHXCANA does this by showing a mix of human shapes, sizes, ages, colors, classes and professions. The hybridization of form, content, and practice has allowed for Morales 1s and Portillo’s work to effect social change, while simultaneously engaging with cutting edge, dynamic storytelling. The result is that by these two divergent styles have led to the international recognition of both directoras' mujerista movies. B. Collaborations with Chicano Male Counterparts Sylvia Morales's collaborations are framed by employment/professional opportunities she secured with Chicano moviemakers Jesus Trevino, Hector Galan, and Jose Luis Ruiz. These collaborations are instances where Morales was able to apply her feminist cultural criticism in a television production, transforming both her own views on Chicano cinema and Chicano cinema’s views on feminism. Perhaps her most postive collaboration occurred with Jesus Trevino. Trevino and Morales were peers in that they were both part of the first generation of Chican® 267 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. filmmakers. They both attended college in Southern California and focused on Chicano culture in their media production. They also worked on two educational television shows, the 1970’s UNIDOS program and the 1990's PBS production of CHICANO!, though as Morales noted about the latter, "[t]he upper echelons, all the important decision making roles [were] taken by men."1 7 So, on one hand, Morales published articles criticizing sexist practices in Chicano cinema, and on the other hand, she established longstanding relationships with Chicano male television and movie makers, like Jesus Trevino, who were entrenched in the belly of the beast, both in Hollywood and in the heartland of Aztlan.1 8 Another major collaboration occurs when Sylvia Morales is hired by Hector Galan, Series Producer of CHICANO! THE MEXICAN AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT. Morales directs and produces one segment in the series, "THE STRUGGLE IN THE FIELDS," (1996), a 60-minute historical groundbreaking documentary. She prominently features important Chicana voices and experiences in the documentary.1 9 Equally important is that her collaboration with Galan— a well-established Chicano 268 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. filmmaker based in Texas— shows she can hold her own in the barrio "boys club.” She was able to maintain her own point of view as a ferninista from a U.S. domestic, low- income Chicana familia.Z Q While Morales developed her talents through collaborations with Chicano men over several decades in television, Portillo built her filmic talents independently in the Bay Area. She worked with Northern California's comedic Chicano crossover group, Culture Clash in the 1990’s. As a middle-class immigrant from Latin America transplanted to Northern Califas, Portillo was able to plug into the Bay Area's heterogeneous Latino/Third World community, gradually coming into her own Chicana consciousness and identity. Portillo met Culture Clash many years before their working together on on their popular experimental video, COLUMBUS ON TRIAL. Up until then, Portillo hadn't worked with Chicanos as co-writers in her films. Portillo directed COLUMBUS ON TRIAL as a post-modern hybrid response to colonization, interplaying fiction (satirical re-enactments based on Christopher Columbus's "discovery of America") and documentary (historical information on America’s colonization). Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. At this point, it is good to mention that mujerista moviemakers Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo have been courageous and willful in their collaborations and cinematic productions such as these. Portillo and Morales have created a distinct subculture rooted in the politics of mujerista aesthetics and activism. These Chicanas developed their own aesthetic practices, which operate along the lines of Hebdige's theory of subculture. Yet, Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo’s aesthetics departed from patriarchal Chicano culture as well as the dominant art world. In the aspect of securing the funding for these productions, as well as negotiating contracts and so on, these two women began their grassroots efforts without the boys club networking that had already been put into place by predecessor Chicano male filmmaker counterparts. It is beautiful to see the collaboration between Portillo and such popular cultural icons as Culture Clash, who have also become another Chicano crossover success story. Portillo avoids reverting to didactic narrative stereotypes by juxtaposing Culture Clash's revolutionary comedy with innovative visual effects, colorful montages and time-travelling chronology. In this respect, 270 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Portillo is able to blend her post-colonialist cultural criticism into her imagery and narrative structure to counter the quincentennial hegemony with artistic flair and political power. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Two examples of didactic storytelling in AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE/DESPUES DEL TERRSMOTO include a scene that exagerratedly conflates religion with sexism via a verbal exchanges between the female protagonist and her co-star, and their female elders. Another instance reenacts a torture scene in a Latin American dictatorship, via a character's nightmare, that by today's standards seems like a blatant visual stereotype. Another element that highlights the didacticism in this scene is that the audio track seems to be boosted causing a dramatic effect. For photographs of the first example, and a more detailed discussion of this film, please see Rosa Linda Fregoso's THE BRONZE SCREEN: Ghiaano and Chicana. Film Coltmre (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota), 1993. p 100. 2 Ibid. p 96. 3 I always love the "coincidence" that ancient indigena goddess COYDKAUHQUI was being "uneartherd" in Mexico City at the same time that both Chicana filmmakers Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo were "unearthing" their "coming out" or debut films. 4 See Alice Walker's definition of wemamiat in IN SEARCH OF OUR MOTHERS ’ GARDENS (New York: Harcourt Brace Joanoich Publishers), 1983. 272 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. This 'in your face1 jnaaexa is from the radical political tradition of El Teatro Caxapesino as well. 6' See Elizabeth Martinez's 500 HEARS OF CHICANO HISTORY IN PICTURES, (Albuquerque: Southwest Organizing Project), 1991. 1 COLUMBUS ON TRIAL was produced near the quincentennial, around the same time that our own film/video company, ROYAL EAGLE BEfiR PRODUCTIONS c/s, made MUJERXA II: Primitive and Proud (1992) . At the same time we also produced TWO SPIRITS; Native Lesbians and Say® (1992), a 26-minute compilation tape for BEEP DISB TV' a "Rock the Boat" series. This experimental documentary includes clips from Native filmmaker Mona Smith's HONORED BY THE MOON. 8 See Dick Hebdige' s SUBCULTURE: The Meaning of Style (London; Methuen) 1979. Ironically, this was my fear when MUJERXA: The Olmeca Rap made her world premiere in Mexico at the Cmzando Fzontexas Encnentxo in 1990. Fear that I would get heavy criticism from the Mexicana filmmakers for "warping" the Mexican oultuxa again via Chicana POV because I animated the ancient Olmeca stone heads and turned them into female rappers with shades on. Nevertheless, I got a great and positive response. From that reception, and with the backing of my immediate fami.Ha, I felt free afterwards to trust and to follow my visions cinematically. Mexican film critic Norma Iglesias, and Chicana filmmakers Lourdes Portillo and Nancy de los Santos were 273 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. some of the organizers of Cmzando Fronteras Enauentro. Rosa Linda Fregoso with Norma Iglesias anthologizes this important conference. 9 See Fregosor Rosa Linda, ed. LOURDES PORTILLO: The Devil Never Sleeps and Other Films (Austin: University of Texas Press) 2001. 10 They look like our Royal Eagle Bear Production c/a notaa in that, they're hand written rather than typed, for example. 11 In researching the Warner Brother* s Special Collections film archives at USC, for the SPECTATOR essay on JUAREZ (1938), I came to realize how ultra documented and excessively bureaucratic the movie production process was even back then for "big budget features." See T. Osa Hidalgo-de la Riva * s "A Chicana Rereading of Juarez," SPECTATOR University of Southern California, Vol. 17, No. 1, Fall/Winter 1996. 12 See Rosa Linda Fregoso and Norma Iglesia, eds. M2RADAS de MUJER: Encuentxo de Cinaastaa y Videoaataa Mexicanas y Chicanaa (El Colegio de la Frontera Norte and Chicana/Latina Research Center, University of California, Davis) 1998. 13 See Yvonne Yarbro-Bej arano's ”Ironic Framings: A queer Reading of the Family (Melo) drama in Lourdes Portillo 'a TEE 1TEVII NEVER SLEEPS/E1 diahlo mmca dtuazme” in Fregoso, Rosa Linda, ed. LOURDES 274 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. PORTILLO: The Devil Never Sleeps and Other Films {Austin: University of Texas Press), 2001. p. 103 14 See the groundbreaking and still relevant OUR BODIES, OURSELVES: A Book by and for Women (New York: The Boston Women's Health Book Collective), 1971. 15 Also, openly lesbian musician Cris Williamson wrote and performed her popular women's music. "Song of the Soul" has lyrics telling women in the early 1970’s to "come to your life like a warrior." Maxine Hong Kingston wrote her popular novel WCBtAN JR during the next decade. Thanks forever to Dolores Huerta for coining this phrase. 17 See interview in APPENDIX A 18 For a sample of Morales feminist Chicana critique on Chicano cinema, see Sylvia Morales's "Chicano-Produoed Celluloid Mujeres, " in CHICANO CINEMA: Research, Reviews and Resources - Edited by Gary D. Keller (Binghamton, NY: Bilingual Review/Press) 1985. 19 For example, CHICANOt The Struggle in the Fields features Dolores Huerta and Ester Hernandez, utilizing their voices and historical contributions to the Chicano movement as a means to introduce a feminist critique in this discourse. 275 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 20 For a visual example of this, see a 1979 b/w photo of her strong presence in the front-row and on the front-lines of a dozen Chicano media-makers, in Jesus Salvador Trevino's EYEWITNESS: A Wilimaakex’ b Memoir of the Chicano Movement (Houston: Arte Publico Press) 2001. The photo of Morales shows her accompanied by mostly mustached, male Chicano media counterparts. She is one of only three women in the picture, with the other two in the background, p 202 276 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER S I X MUJERISTA BE-READINGS; The Ideology and Image of Love FURTHER TALES OF LA VIDA LOCA P/V "Because sex has been split off from us as women in a colonizer culture, we ourselves police our pleasure." Chrystos1 SISTERS are DOIN’ it for THEMSELVES Both LA LIMPIA (1996) and CORPUS: A Home Movie for Selena (1998) can be read from a feminists lesbians Latina point of view to show that Morales and Portillo's treatments of their subj ects diverge from the blatantly heterosexual representation of Latina sexuality in films made by male filmmakers. These movies significantly differ from the traditional fare created for PLAYBOY or mainstream cinema (e.g. the movie SELENA by Gregory Nava, made in 1997). The movies achieve this by privileging political and personal healing by positioning the 277 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Xicana/Latina as protagonist/hera in positive and proactive sexual terms. As an active xxxxicana lesbiana spectator, I exercise the privilege to do a queer reading to highlight the importance of these treatments. Additionally, as mujerista filmmakers, Morales's and Portillo’s aesthetics and activism have directly and indirectly influenced my own filmmaking activities and narrative tactics, make these two movies ideal to explore in a detailed queer reading. In Sylvia Morales's LA LIMPIA, and Lourdes Portillo's CORPUS: A Home Movie for Selena, we see straight Chicanas with a CHICANA lesbiana presence, in front and behind the cameras, creating more positive constructions of their body politics and sexual actions. SEXUAL HEALING in LA LIMPIA LA LIMPIA, written and directed by Sylvia Morales, is about a grandmother, played by Maria Conchita Alonso. In using her newfound "psychic" powers and energy she not only heals others through her limpias (cleansings), and needs a "limpia" herself to transform her mental, emotional, and sexual self. This Latina character is what most people would know as a typical, traditional 278 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. "appearing" straight middle-aged woman. The narrative opens with the Latina protagonist'' s voice over about "the only man [she] ever loved..." with a Latin beat musical composition [name musician] that will be repeated. She calls in the word "fantasy" that connotes a sense of freedom. Mainly always in military outfit, he is once shown bare breasted during a sexual encounter with his wife. This PLAYBOY made for SHOWTIME cable TV one-hour program has paid programming audience late night viewing for primarily/mainly straight and bisexual couples. In LA LIMPIA we begin with the first words being a V.O. by Maria Conchita Alonso talking about the man she misses, and soon thereafter about her "fantasies." How rare it is that a brown woman's desire is privileged as central to nearly any mainstream, or Chicano/Latino or gay y lesbiana films and TV shows to date. Not many. What is unusual about LA LIMPIA is that Sylvia Morales represents a Latina dominatrix of sorts. This is something traditionally at odds with Hollywood cinema. Moreover, even up to today's few feature films where Latinas are protagonists in Hollywood cinema much is to be desired.2 In LA LIMPIA, protagonist Sofia implies that she is Chicana. Her first lines are, "My first 279 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. husband is the only man I really ever loved. Vietnam took him." "In my fantasies we always started out dancing. We loved dancing." In a cultural exchange she explains to an Anglo woman friend's question, "Danzon, what is that?" "It's a very beautiful, sensual dance from Mexico." Her friend continues, "So your fantasies are about your husband?" "Well no," the protagonist admits, "I would have to start from the beginning..." which allows us to be sutured into her story and narrative of who she was, and who and how she is now. This reverie of the young dead Latino is always depicted in a U.S. military uniform. This is a very political narrative strategy as it was the Chicano (Mexican-American, His-panic) military personnel who served and won many medals and awards doing combat for the U.S. This repetition of Conchita's memory of her dead husband is packed with a collective memory of all the U.S. men of color who have died serving this country, and continue to die doing so. Due to institutional racismo on many/all levels of society, men of color in the U.S. are an endangered species of sorts at home and abroad. Because there is systematically a lack of economic opportunity for men of color in the U.S. barrios 280 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and ghettoes, a large percentage of this population is forced to surrender to "serving" this country via the military. Directly related to a lack of high school retention and graduation, men of color have made a living, or as in LA LIMPIA, a dying, in the service of the U.S. military (Korean War, Vietnam, Gulf War, etc.). This ironically speaks to issues of what is good citizenship. If you look in many Latino/Chicano homes, you'’11 usually see a proud display of a photo or photos of our men in uniform. Maria Conchita Alonso's photo of her man in uniform throughout the course of the narrative is eventually turned face down for her own self-limpia so that she can love again, live in the flesh, and have sex with another person other than her late husband in memory/fantasy. LA LIMPIA shows how the Chicana/Xicana takes total control of herself, the brown man, the white man and gets to choose and act upon her own construction of sexuality, and not in the traditional cinematic image of virgin or whore/puta. Sylvia Morales's scenes have rarely been depicted on television or in mainstream moving image culture. To an even greater degree this dynamic is 281 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. amplified and intensified when we consider Morales casts/writes her protagonist as an older Latina woman and it is a younger white male who is seeking her healing powers. From the self to the many, Maria Conchita Alonso not only heals him, but also herself, and Sylvia Morales, and me, and potentially other Latinas, women and men across cultures. This multi/transcultural healing practice combines both politics and sexuality very well. This representation of Chicana/Latina erotica speaks also inverts Kaja Silverman5s idea of the "disembodied voice" in the form of the "disenvoiced body." This is a visual image of a woman of color loving her self, taking control of satisfying her own desire and giving herself pleasure. That’s another form of mujerista healing. Maria Conchita Alonso tells us that she makes and sells dolls at the local swap meet to make ends meet. In addition, from her recently discovered psychic powers she has begun doing tarot readings and performing "limpias" for side money. Morales addresses the class issue of being a poor woman of color in a patriarchal world once her husband is no longer a breadwinner. She's a grandmother doing her mujerista survival techniques, hustling her non-taxable income under the table, to make 282 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ends meet, and still have a sense of independence. This lifestyle is in opposition to Collier/RD Laing's role of women in the "nuclear patriarchal family."3 She explains the plight of many women of color head of households, "I live by myself but I'm not lonely. I have my child, my grandchild, nieces, and nephews. They' re the most important thing to me...I married three times and my last husband still comes around to eat my food." While she is giving/offering us this voice over, she is bringing in laundry. While watching a telenovela that is heard in the background, she is cooking chiles on a comal/placa. We see the tomates, chiles being grilled and the camera then pans across a collection of dolls across the top of a simple sofa. She's "manager of her apartment building, collects dolls and on weekends makes a few dollars at the swap meet." In a stance of self- confidence she let's us know, "I don't ask anybody for help. I take care of myself. I always have." In her own sense of sovereignty for the moment she makes do with what she has and what she doesn't have. This is that hyper independent stance that so many third world women and children of color have had to have. Nevertheless, she's comfortable and sure of herself- 283 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. sufficiency. And most often, she has this world of survival not only for her, but also for her children and their children as well. This is about relying also on un/supra consciousness of ancient woman of color survival techniques, then and now. Sofia says "But what really helps me with my bills are my cartas. I've done the cards for about ten years. I charged folks for doing their cards. I found out I was psychic by accident...It sure comes in handy to pay the bills." Then in a next scene she is sipping coffee with her sister, Maggie. Maggie shares that she just dumped the last guy that she had been seeing. Sofia, "I thought he was the one..." Maggie's, waving her hand connoting big time NO, "I got tired of him. Cabron, telling me what to do! Nobody tells me what to do!" Sisters of a feather flock together. And the contemporary colored girls chorus echoes in some subaltern voice in the background of my personal hearing sensory perceptions, "We are family. I've got all my sisters with me," and "Sisters are doing it for themselves." In a course in "Directing Writers" that I took from Sylvia Morales in the Screenwriting Program at USC, I was 284 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. privileged to hear her cuentos of the process of making LA LIMPIA. Never before had Morales directed such lovemaking scenes, and she really appreciated being able to work with a professional actress of Maria Conchita Alonso's caliber. Morales described the ease that Alonso had in representing her body and her sexuality, as well as taking off with a semi-improvisation of the actual limpia scenes. Usually we see Latina/Chicana/indigena women being acted upon by men, especially in relationship to romance and/or sexuality. And if Latina/Chicana/indigena women are assertive with their sexuality they're usually characters representing "bitches," "whores," "evil outcasts," "prostitutes" and so on, like the mujeres in DUEL IN THE SUN (1947), or Orson Welles' s A TOUCH OF EVIL (1958) . Still in Latina culture women are destined to be "virgins" until they're married, or else they're scorned and looked down upon. It is very rare to have a self motivated, sexually proactive, positive depiction of Latina/Chicana/indigena protagonists in feature films or in television shows still today that doesn't end up in a tragic way or mandated to relate romantically to some anglo male during the course of the narrative. 285 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Sylvia Morales commented that during the limpia scene she encouraged Maria Conchita Alonso to do as she felt during the limpia. Argentinean born Alonso takes an egg and rubs it first along the back of her young white male client. The egg is used as a medium to absorb negative/evil energies. With Maria Conchita Alonso concentration on the cleansing, we see her lulled away as that familiar melody begins, connoting that her late husband is to reappear on the screen. As she rhythmically brushes the egg along one man's back in one material reality, she is soon being intimate and physical with another man in her dream/fantasy world reality. When she comes to her "normal" waking consciousness she is surprised and somewhat embarrassed that she has "drifted" so far away. She plays it off quickly and tells the young anglo that he needs several concurrent limpias (i.e. he needs a lot of work, which she and he are readily available to handle). He wants to return tomorrow, and she is glad that he does and agrees with their second appointment date. This plot point builds the spectators1 anticipation of the inevitable romantic energy begun and shared by these two in the limpia process. 288 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. LA LIMPIA translates into "The Cleansing." Cleansing here is meant as in cleaning, making clear, fresh, whole and healthy from evil, negative or dirty karma, thoughts and/or actions. This is an ancient Native American and African tradition as well, used to chase away evil spirits. In various regions and cultures, limpias are performed in a variety of ways. Often there is a lead performer, curandera (curer), shaman or spiritual guide that can lead one or take one through a limpia. I find it important that Morales uses this ancient practice in a contemporary PLAYBOY flick. Another moment of cultural resistance by filmmaker Morales in depicting limpias — alter-native powers still used today by many people of color around the planet. All cultures have their forms of healing as we can say the American Medical Association can somewhat cleanse one of a cancer via laser surgery. However, this ancient form of healing through limpias is different. Claude Levi-Strauss elaborated on one such form of healing in his writings on the Muugan people and their tradition of curative powers.4 Levi-Strauss deconstructs the variations of meaning through symbols within a closed system of 287 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. thought. He charts a working system that is shared by both healer/shaman/curanderj? and the person being healed or cleansed of their problem/pain/dis-ease, arguing that the cure is effective based on these mutual systems of belief. Still, it is only from an "uneasy" outsider's position, as Hebdige calls it, that contemporary Eurocentric Western patriarchal types such as Levi- Strauss, can understand or see/view this process, the world and the characters from which it is derived. This happens in LA LIMPIA in the second healing session that Alonso performs for the young Anglo male. This time there is a red scarf and red and white candles to assist in the process of l a limpia. We all know that red is for passion and love, connoting romance and sex. The second date leads to a near kiss and more embarrassment along with a building sexual tension. Alonso says, "I never face a client," and this time she did enough for them to nearly kiss. Even though it's all heterosexual depictions I enjoy this build up of tension created by the female protagonist. Alonso is now acting like a dominatrix, and tells her young man what to do and when and how to do it. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. At the same time, the sensuality between her and her reveries of her husband are developing in intensity. The film's most powerful sex scene is one of "self love.” One of the biggest hidden secrets in a woman's and especially in much of Latina culture is this self- love . In one scene, Maria Conchita Alonso is standing in front of her living room window of what appears to be a common casita in a U.S. Latino working class home environment. The protagonist is looking as if in somewhat of a daydream state. In this reverie state of mind, she begins to hear the music, which always connotes the reappearance of her dead husband’s spirit. Alonso closes her eyes, tilts her head back, and begins to caress her breast with one hand and her pelvic area with her other, all the while standing up. The scene progresses to heavier breathing, intercut with images of her husband caressing her. Eventually we hear her climax - and see her face of bliss. She is rudely called back to her "regular" state of consciousness by a ringing telephone. She rushed to the phone, being forced to a quick recovery, back to the most conscious of states. We discover it's her daughter on the telephone. And this 1 lustful' Latina was nearly 289 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. busted brown handed in the middle of her self-sexual/ female masturbation act that traditionally has been condemned by a patriarchal culture that holds double standards on female sexuality. But homegirl quickly plays it off- and says, "Oh, I'm out of breath, mija because I just came from doing laundry." Pobrecita! Poor suffering mujer - a woman's work is never done. A traditionally [stereo] typical role and image of the sacrificing mother working on laundry and house chores. In fact, she has told us that she makes and sells dolls at the swap meet on occasion for extra cash, and also, the title of the story LA LXMPIA, has more recently discovered her more "psychic" self and now makes some side dinero also by "reading the Tarot cards." Lots of work - yet all these gigs in her hustle allow her to get by - and in several ways keeps her own economic survival going. It is so empowering to show this scene of self-love which can encourage otherwise sexually repressed mujeres to take more of their life and love into their own hands literally. Mujerista movidas en la vida loca. It doesn't cost anyone anything, and she is being satisfied even without the help of either real or imagined men in 290 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. her life. Her object of desire, of course remains her late husband in the self-love scene, but she took it upon herself to do something about her desire in the meantime, and not stay frustrated, as many women are taught to be sexually satisfied by only one man. We have to get over that, and that's why I think this scene is so liberating, especially for Latina/Chicanas. Also, she is getting to know her own body, despite the fact that women are traditionally conditioned not to touch ourselves sexually. Although female self-stimulation may be interpreted as a classic straight porn trope, this form of mujerista self-love is especially not privileged [taboo] in a PLAYBOY program I argue, which is traditionally produced for the heterosexual male gaze. Along with conducting a queer reading of the movie, it's important to consider the political ramifications of Morales making a movie for PLAYBOY. The UFW movement taught many Chicana/os the power of boycotting. With David and Goliath political dynamics, people that had historically been disenfranchised could demand certain rights that should be afforded to all citizens. With a newer wave of feminism, big corporations such as PLAYBOY were boycotted as well for exploiting women's bodies and 291 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. women's sexuality for self-serving interests and economic advancement. In this vein, it has been vital for people/women to boycott negative images of women that are/were believed to be the cause of rape and ether forms of misogynist behavior perpetuating violence against women.5 Nevertheless, big mega businesses such a Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Coors Beer and so on were boycotted causing them to change policies and practices that were detrimental to particular disenfranchised populations, and in turn they are learning or have been forced to make concessions for their harmful ways. Now, many mega businesses have developed various avenues whereby a percentage of their revenue can go back to help many of the communities which they exploit. They are also given larger tax write off for doing these activities. For example, scholarships for students of color and women are one such way these companies can help develop various communities. More recently, the PLAYBOY station encouraged and allowed women directors to write and direct a series of shows to be developed and programmed in their erotica/soft porn cable TV programming. Here's where writer/director Sylvia Morales comes into the picture. She was hired to make two of 292 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. these shows, LA LIMPIA (1996), and ANGEL FROM THE SKY (1997). By working with PLAYBOY, Sylvia Morales was able to claim control as both filmmaker and as spectator. That is, instead of merely being passively fed sensual and sexual images of women, she actually directed and produced her own visions. Although there is resistance in the way I feel about the fact that Morales used a pseudonym Fimbres as her director's name, there is also political healing in that she broke into the system not only by portraying newer images (woman of color centered POV), but also by her own hands on practice (access to technology/means of production) within traditional mass media moving image culture.6 This is mujerista activism as a filmmaker. To me, this emphasizes the importance of us taking control of our positions within otherwise exclusive boys' club organizations, systems and institutions. These experiences can be empowering to women as well in that we gain more access to technology and a wider range of audience members. These mujerista movidas can be subversive in that they allow women-centered spectators to be encouraged to participate and change traditional 293 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. sexist viewpoints and stereotypes. This in turn can allow future Chicana filmmakers to gain access to cinema and television technologies as well. That LA LIMPIA shows positive images of a woman masturbating, and obtaining sexual pleasure by herself (without a man) to a larger audience is perhaps one of the empowering elements of the PLAYBOY program. It reaffirms the power and energy of all women's sexuality. We are capable of multiple orgasms and I believe a larger capacity for sexuality and sensuality than males. That''s part of my mujerista centrism. In the past, this point of view could have been called a radical lesbians political perspective as well. Out of the closet and virtually into the streets. You go girl, we've come a long way - and all the feminista/vomanista slogans combined echo here in this scene for me — reminding again that "the personal is political." TRANSFORMING DESIRE and BALANCE in CORPUS CORPUS; A Home Movie for Selena, (1999) is a feature length movie made in video format, which is not typical of celluloid media maker Lourdes Portillo. During one premiere screening Question and Answer session with 294 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Portillo at the San Diego Latino Film Festival, Portillo was able to address a primarily Latino audience about her purpose and process of production. This project was somewhat of a homenaje/homage to the special super star Chicana Tejana singer Selena, who was murdered before her 25th birthday. In the documentary style of Portillo, she politically and emotionally portrays the strength of Selena in the eyes, hearts, lungs, minds and depths of the soul of a diversity of fans then and now, in a diversity of spaces, geographical locations and forms of a healing love centered in the source of her strength, her song, her beauty and her soul. Portillo uses the first third of the documentary to set up the history and background of Selena's brief life and death. On a flier from the Women of Color Research Cluster at the UC Santa Cruz campus, a day after Cinco da Mayo, 1999, we see sexy Selena showing some stomach skin on a photo. Her arms are up and her hands are behind her head. Her smile shines from the heart and her cultural aura radiates even/especially today as I re-view it and re-read it. The flier's narrative reads: "CORPUS focuses on the singer's fans, the people on both sides of the border who 295 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. saw in Selena a symbol of hope and cultural pride." It's political. As I look at her fine spirit and self, her image still heals me today. Selena offered hope, cultural pride and border politics - such hot contemporary issues. Texas stands a few hours from where a first world country and third world country share borders. The flier continues, "The people on both sides of the border who saw in Selena..." - past tense. While not in Portillo1s video, an-Other woman of color artista, playwright Lorraine Hansberry, also died at an early age of cancer. Like Selena, her life was tragically cut short as her career flourished big-time as an over night sensation. In Hansberry’s own words from four decades earlier almost presaging her own death, she questioned, "What happens to a dream deferred, does it glisten in the sun...or dry up like a raisin in the sun?"7 Lourdes Portillo's Selena homenaje CORPUS: A Home Movie for Selena (1999) is a powerful and progressive video. Portillo tells audience members during a Q and A session after it's screening at the San Diego International Latino Film Festival in 1999, that it was her first feature attempt using the medium of video partly for economic reasons. Of course, Portillo said 296 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. she prefers the celluloid film format, but she didn't want to spend much time securing the necessary funding to shoot the 90-minute documentary. The moving tribute captures not only a wamanist/vmjexista point-of-view of the life and death of the young super star Selena Quintanilla, but also captures the hearts and minds of many fans drawn by Selena's short-lived talent and beauty. Portillo uses various modes of address to give spectators both a sense of her-story as well as a strong personal and political contextualization. Even for those unfamiliar with Selena before her death, one cannot deny her effect on the role of Latina/Chicanas in the U.S., and within the music industry in general. Portillo's "home movie" allows for the type of aesthetic that anyone who has shot homemovie footage can appreciate. A sense of rawness allows us to be sutured into the piece nearly as an extended familia member. The mujerista point-of-view is obtained emotionally through the privileging of Chicana/Latina female youth that adore Selena's music and her life practice which they try to emulate. The mujerista POV is obtained intellectually through a table discussion with several prominent Chicana writers and cultural critics. This nueva onda of 297 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. academics openly consist of fern.inistas y lesbianas. Cherrie Moraga, Yvonne Yarbro-Bej arano, Rosa Linda Fregoso, Sandra Cisneros sit at the table of "intellectuals." Portillo presents this section in CORPUS with its own title "The Intellectuals" which made the audience during the San Diego Latino Film Festival laugh. That's good politics because often times intellectuals, thinkers and critics have a tendency to take themselves too seriously. And this naming of the group serves to heighten the importance of these "intellectuals'" voice and thought on the life and death of Selena, as well as cause a leveling effect of their perspective in relation to a majority of "other" 'common folk' interviewed in the home movie. For example, the many young brown girls who spoke about Selena, and brought tears to many of us in the packed house audience that evening. CORPUS: A Home Movie for Selena opens with footage of Selena coming into her stardom. She is always smiling with her dark round face and large lips. Her style of clothing was unique and we living Chicanas can debate her taste. In the "intellectual" section, writer Sandra Cisneros said she hadn't heard much of Selena until after 298 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. her death, never listened to her music, and didn't like her style of clothing. Selena had designed much of her wardrobe and started a boutique with her own label. On the other hand, it is cool that a budding young Chicana businesswoman was promoting something new — Bueva Chicana entrepenuerisma. Many women did indeed like her fashion designs though. The content of the "intellectuals" dialogue opens a range of issues to be considered in the case of Selena Quintanilla-Perez. One major issue is the role that her father played in her development, and the role of her alleged murderer Yolanda Quintero. During the Q and A session with Lourdes Portillo, she was asked what role did Selena's father play in the making of CORPUS, as rumor has it that Abraham Quintanilla had a strong control from beginning to end of Selena's life and career. Portillo responded that when she first began shooting she didn't even try contacting Mr. Quintanilla under the assumption that he would be unattainable, and since this was a low-budget movie, her odds at buying original footage Portillo believed was even slimmer. Upon her return to San Francisco from Texas, Portillo tells us, out of the clear blue sky, to her 299 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. surprise, she gets a call from Abraham Quintanilla. He said, 'I heard you're making a film about my daughter, Selena." She somewhat hesitantly says, "Yes..." And he asked, 'Well, why didn't you try to contact me when you were in Texas?" Portillo tells him her situation and preconceived notions of expenses and his availability, and so on. He in turn invites her to come back to Texas, and Portillo says he was very generous with rare home movies of Selena as a child and so on. Therefore, she was given permission to use many special materials and footage for her documentary, which brings it yet to another level of power and healing for us all to have and share. Through the life and death of Selena, her spirit continued to feed these youth with the bittersweet reality of what it means to be Chicana in occupied Aztlan. Selena had rocked the charts internationally before she officially "crossed over" on the North American shores and charts. Her versatility showed the power of a cultural hybrid!ty that encompassed banda, rancheroSf cuntblas, pop, disco, and so on. Being murdered at her young age could have solely remained a tragedy, but the power of her mtisica and her positive Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. self-image remains a strong affirmation to Latina/Chicanas today. This is what was transferred onto the female children in the movie. As Cherrie Moraga said in the opening of the "intellectuals" dialogue, "Selena allowed these young girls to have/develop a sensuousness/sexuality" — and this is in their own terms. In this way, we are given tools of self-esteem to heal from otherwise historical negative stereotyping and attitudes of our thick lips, non-pointed aryan noses, thicker hips, thighs, larger buttocks, and darker skin and hair. In the way that Latina/Chicanas are empowered in front of, and behind the camera in Sylvia Morales's LA LIMPIA, so too are they in Lourdes Portillo's CORPUS. The title itself allows for a play on word between the Corpus we know in Tejas, but mainly the idea of "body." Body politics is definitely a central theme in this picture. From the star Selena, Latina/Chicanas were put on the map in a big way. Selena's beauty allowed for and encouraged a change in mainstream media's concept of the ultra thin European female physique to a more round and darker featured mujer such as Selena. Her robust curves paved the way for "J-Lo" to pop onto the screen bringing 301 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the spirit of Selena to the stage. For Jennifer Lopez who starred in Gregory Nava and Moctesuma Esparza's Blockbuster hit version of SELENA (1997), the link with Selena launched her both as a physical role model and a musical superstar. In CORPUS, many young girls are interviewed in a Selena look-alike section. We get to hear the girls' sing their hearts out and we can tell by their seriousness and mannerisms of body language how vital the real woman Selena was and still is to them. Some of them had voices that indeed showed talent, as the real Selena did at a very early age. They also showed discipline in what it takes to be good and skilled at any endeavor. And for young Chicanas, this is nearly a miracle since an overwhelming number of Chxcanitas never even get to graduate from high school and are traditionally relegated to the lowest paying demeaning jobs. To see these girls striving to be good at their art was inspirational on many levels. Frances Negron-Muntaner has written a wonderful article on the selling of Jennifer Lopez's butt.8 In a negative way, we are sold by the pound, and in an affirming way, it is a newer aesthetic that is rocking 302 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the world. Negron-Muntaner being a Puertorriquena lesbiana independent filmmaker agrees that we all do get pleasure in seeing J Lo's butt. And the Puertorriquena pride is a powerful sexuality and politic. Simultaneously, the Chicana moving into a demographic position of becoming the largest minority population in the U.S. still has not come into her full light. The Puertorriquena actress-singer Jennifer Lopez played the Chicana superstar Selena mas finue. No complaints or regrets for J-Lo’s stardom taking off from Selena's tragic death. I do regret this tragic her-story, and long for the day when a live Chicana protagonist and Chicana superstar singer will come and remain for a natural full time and space. At one point, one of the young girls interviewed in CORPUS says that she couidn"t even listen to Selena's music any more because it was so emotionally tragic to her. On yet another level, Selena may have been a unique mobilizing force, in the same vein as Bob Marley's musical genius, and political-spiritual role within the development of Rastafarian cultura. Selena was being listened to and praised throughout Latin America and the strong bipolar positioning of black-white racial dynamics 303 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. at home was not yet old or wise enough to open their doors, ears, and hearts to some "other" cultura. Here "other” is the mestiza/chicana/indxgena. Too often in media and history-telling narratives, only African descent and white/Anglo POV* s and subjects are addressed and focused upon. The young Chicanas interviewed were obviously not the norm of children seen on television or on the large screen. We all are aware of this under-representation. So Portillo allows them a time and space to speak their mind. In addition, in a sensitive and caring manner for others, the dark brown girls giggle and openly acknowledge that the body of the real Selena did not represent the typical traditional U.S. mass media's norm of "womanhood." They shyly say, "She looked liked us, you know, she wasn't blonde." You don't need tons of political propaganda to educate these youth on the facts of American life. CORPUS is a true form of reality viewing, as Selena's actual life was a catalyst for the dream of what a true multicultural nation could consist of. CORPUS perpetuates positive self-esteem and a healthier self-love for women of color, and youth of color that are actually looking like the majority of the 304 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. world's population, mestizo hybrids. What is beautiful and desirable has thus been given a chance to be articulated, seen and felt via Lourdes Portillo's CORPUS: A Home Movie for Selena. And still on yet another degree on the spectrum, definitions and paradigms of what mujer is comes to be questioned and challenged in this documentary. Portillo includes the body politics of a transgender from masculine to feminine/male to female person who also emulated Selena in her performances. These images are critical in that they clearly cross the usual boundaries of class, race, culture, gender and sexuality. Portillo bravely covers several mujerista moviemaking definitions through this representation of a Latin® transgendered Selena performer. For examples Portillo covers mujerista moviemaking in that she addresses a radical reality, particularly around women and sexuality issues. She also non-conventionally gets the job done in her tribute to Selena, "by any means necessary." This is a very educational production documenting Selena's her-story, power, creativity, familia, community, and fans — representing Selena’s 305 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. inclusivity of various types of people, genders, and sexualities. For example, CORPUS follows this queen of yet an other sort as she dresses in drag, explaining the importance of Selena in her life. She says that in the transgender world, they would rarely sing in Spanish, and now that Selena busted the popular musical charts, they are singing with a new sense of cultural pride, breaking in their own world's stereotypes of emulating white American/anglo singers and performers only. They have transformed from an English-only paradigm themselves. What is humorous, yet deadly serious is that Portillo shows the body politics involved in representing Selena within this svbcultura which allows issues of identity in and of itself to be questioned and transformed. Within yet an-Other world, paradigms shift and newer sensibilities are constructed. This transgendered individual stuffs her buttocks area to allow for a better representation of the late and dear Selena Quintanilla. These various forms of cultural, sexual and political affirmation are healing to us via the ideas we hold of who Selena was. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Since then, Rosa Linda Fregoso has published a very strong anthology on the works of Lourdes Portillo whom she has followed for over 18 years. In LOURDES PORTILLO: THE DEVIL NEVER SLEEPS and Other Films, Fregoso testifies in detail about her involvement and interest in the making of CORPUS: A Home Movie for Selena. Originally she was to be Associate Producer but later rescinded the title. As the leading Chicana feminist film critic, Fregoso felt that it was also necessary to come to terms with the actual process and experience of filmmaking as well as film analysis. In CORPUS, Fregoso is given much airtime throughout the video documentary and attests to her role in getting Portillo turned on to the icon of Selena and her music. Unfortunately, Fregoso states that "the film lost its magic" for her when Portillo began to negotiate with Selena's father, who many believe to have been exploitative of Selena throughout her short life time. As Fregoso shares from a journal entry she wrote when she saw Abe Quintanilla come into a restaurant where she was, in walked "the Devil himself." Rosa Linda Fregoso strongly disagreed with Portillo's interview of Abraham Quintanilla and letting him have some say in the final editing stage of CORPUS. 307 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. With the help of her companion, cultural critic Herman Gray, Fregoso came to realize that she is a critic and not a filmmaker. CORPUS was not her film being made, and that is one of the lessons of production, the director ultimately has the final say. Yet, much documentation is given to the fact that Portillo has actually worked in a more collective manner allowing her crew to make many of their own decisions in the production process. In regards to Lourdes Portillo's films and videos, production begins with Lourdes Portillo's vision as primary nevertheless. Fregoso's new work, LOURDES PORTILLO: THE DEVIL NEVER SLEEPS and Other Films, is powerful in addressing the fact that Portillo is led by great feelings of love for her cinematic subject matter.9 Under the end credits, after much footage of Selena's funeral ceremony memorial, there is the grandest pile of roses I have ever seen representing the community’s love for this mujer. And complimenting the human idea and memory of death, there is a long close-up sequence of a baby Chicanita, maybe two to three years old, dancing Latin style salsa/cwnbia to Selena's music. She is so adorable - and reminds us of the power of arte to transcend the depths of our emotional turmoil and 308 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. tragedies. As in all rainbow world peoples - long live the race. Qae viva la raza cdsmlca. Gregory Nava and Moctesuma Esparza's more recent SELENA (1997) becomes one of the few existing feature length films focusing on a Chicana protagonist - unfortunately with a very real tragic ending.1 0 Chicana critic Rosa Linda Fregoso in her new book LOURDES PORTILLO writes that she and Portillo anxiously awaited the opening of Nava's film, but were sadly disappointed.11 COMPARISON and CONTRAST of LA LIMPIA and CORPUS By returning to LA LIMPIA and CORPUS, we can see commonalities and divergences surface. Commonalities appear in terms of sexual liberation, and healing grief, while divergences manifest themselves in reference to political correctness of subject matter, and the impact of funding on their production styles. One commonality between LA LIMPIA and CORPUS is the use of women's bodies and stories to effect a rebirth of sexuality. In the case of LA LIMPIA, this takes form in the protagonist literally beginning a new sexual life beyond her grief for her dead husband. In 309 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CORPUS Selena’s life and loves are recontextualized outside of the heteroseuxal male gaze of Selena’s father, Gregory Nava and Eddie Olmos, allowing a more holistic picture of the singer’s life and sexuality. By privileging Chicana/Latina voices and stories, the two directoras reclaim sexuality on our own terms. Another commonality addresses the scarring wounds of death. In LA LIMPIA, death is the obstacle toward the protagonist’s sexual liberation. The sense of loss felt by the Maria Conchita Alonso’s character places her sexuality in an endless loop defined by her grief. It is only through the healing, or cleansing, of her loss that she is able to reach an orgasm with another person without fantasizing about her dead husband. In CORPUS, death looms over Texas and Aztlan with the violent murder of their homegrown budding superstar, Selena. By contextualizing her deaths impact on young girls and intellectuals alike, the documentary helps women heal the loss of Selena, without the imposition of a male morality (e.g. framing Selena's sexuality in terms defined by her father) .1 2 Within minutes of starting, Portillo’s CORPUS introduces the sensationalism of Selena’s alleged murder 310 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. possibly being the result of a lesbian relationship gone bad. This scenario hinges on the relationship between Selena Quintanilla and Yolanda Saldivar, her personal assistant who later became her confidante and trusted business associate/partner.1 3 While Portillo ambiguously introduces the topic of potential lesbianism, I think it's important to reframe the conversation as a critique against patriarchal abuse.1 4 Portillo's portrayal of Selena is in many ways a response to the strict control of Selena's father, Abraham Quintanilla, on her daily life and career. Perhaps, Selena's intimacy and steadfast refusal to end her affiliation with Yolanda Saldivar was a rebellion against the patriarchal overbearing of her father, who did not allow Selena the autonomy she grew to demand. Toward this end, CORPUS notes that Abraham Quintanilla took his young daughter, Selena, out of school in order to ensure she remained focused on the plan he created for her career and life.1 5 Another instance of Portillo's questioning patriarchal assumptions is in the actual footage presented early on in CORPUS, of Saldivar being arrested after Selena was shot. While police escort Saldivar to 311 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. their patrol car, her head covered with a jacket as they walk, Saldivar reaches a curb, and the police fail to advise her to watch her step. As a result, Saldivar trips and falls for all to see. This shot subtly holds the police accountable for this Latina's "accident," allowing audience members to question if this is another instance of patriarchal abuse. For balance, Portillo presents Cherrie Moraga, radical lesbian of color playwright and writer, reading an excerpt of her poem in front of the motel where Selena was shot and killed. Later, in the "Intellectual" roundtable section of CORPUS, Moraga dramatizes the idea that Selena was found with the ring in her hand, given to her by Saldivar.16 Gregory Nava gives time to the redramatize the issue of the ring in his crossover movie SELENA. The ring was supposedly purchased by several of Selena's employees, but presented by Saldivar as one purchased solely by herself for Selena. This can solidify, to the general public, the idea that Saldivar was allegedly an obsessed lesbian who may have murdered Selena after being rejected by her. Also of interest, is that Sandra Cisnero's reaction to Selena and Yolanda's relationship during the 312 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. "Intellectual" roundtable is one of protest, with Cisnero boldly stating that Selena was not a lesbian, to which Moraga responds, "neither was Yolanda," hinting that one doesn't have to identify as a lesbian in order to be in a homoerotic relationship. One of the differences of Portillo's and Morales's mujerista movies described in this chapter, is that they frame their subjects in seemingly oppositional politically correct stances. LA LIMPIA takes a potentially politically incorrect stance on soft pornography instead embracing a liberational concept of women making soft porn that is more enlightened than your average pornographic industry production. CORPUS on the other hand takes politically correct steps by remaining within the boundaries of self-representation. She achieves this with a female narrator, the roundtable of feminista/lesbiana intellectuals, and testimonios from Chicanita fans of Selena as role model. Another divergence in these movies is on the basic level of funding. LA LIMPIA was made with the full support of PLAYBOY, with emininent distribution through SHOWTIME and HBO. This, of course, helps to create a high quality of production and post-production. On the Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. other hand, CORPUS was made on a shoestring budget on video format, in order to ensure a prompt release, considering the then recent death of Selena. This changed the aesthetics and feel of the movie. Portillo herself said she prefers to work in film, but simply did not want to spend extra time raising funds to make CORPUS as a celluloid product. Still, together these mujerista movies work in tandem to move both their directoras and spectators to a place of increased enlightenment of mujerista issues and liberation. A GIANT STEP FOR WOMANKIND: Liberating Mujerista Erotica and the Mujerista Moviemaking of Morales and Portillo Women7s sexuality has always been such a threat to the patriarch.1 7 As Chrystos' epigraph noted, women in a colonizer culture police our pleasure— I believe Morales and Portillo work to reframe our pleasure outside of a policing context, into a realm that liberates the hidden mysteries of women7s desires, fundamentally and effectively countering not being able to speak of one7s sexuality. Sexuality, and mujerista erotica, is such a core/basis of who we are as human beings. Our first experiences as human beings combine our sensory 314 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. perceptions with sexuality. For examples, sensuality is experienced in our movement, touch, smell, dealing with our mouths when we're first born, and so on. Not being able to have full and fair expression or a more true representation of that sexuality via the point-of-view of a Latina by a Latina norm perpetuates a cultural imbalance. These are the important issues addressed by Morales1s and Portillo’s mujerista movies. Films such as Sylvia Morales's LA LIMPIA and Lourdes Portillo's CORPUS: A Home Movie for Selena are good for all of us; insiders and outsiders. They speak less of war and hostility, and more of love, especially from the hands of brown women, and women and children of color in front of and behind the camera. They combat violence against women and children by addressing this history head on and offer alter-natives. These films are more of a benefit to society precisely because they are more cooperative and collaborative versus combative and competitive. Although "Mexican-American" descent people, and/or "Chicano/a" people (depending on the political/cultural persuasion), have been a large and important population in the U.S., there have been few feature length films unfortunately, with 315 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chicana/indigena/Mexican American mujeres as protagonists. Individually and collectively, the bodies of work by Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo show the ways in which race, class, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, function on a multiplicity of registers, all to make for a diverse variation of cinematic inflections. These mujerista moviemakers also explore concepts of hybridizing fiction with documentary, varying styles of rasquachismo and independent filmmaking, while including a diversity of voices (e.g, Chicana/Latina intellectuals and women of color). These innovations cement the importance of recognizing that Morales and Portillo are part of the canon of Chican0/Latin@ cinema. The analysis of these elements from a mujerista point of view serves to add important commentary on how these two Chicana leshiana filmmakers came to embrace sexualityfmujerista erotica and liberation in their movies. Most importantly is that their works address issues of personal healing through political self-empowerment. They achieve this within the cinematic processes of production, reception, textuality, and authorship/storytelling. Their pioneering work as mujerista moviemakers, helps realize the truly radical 316 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. change is being made to move away from the dominant cinema7 s (mis)representations of Chicanas/Latinas. Their work also helps dismantle the imperialistic practices that suppress raza as whole, and specifically mujeres. In this respect, Morales and Portillo are part of a vanguard of cultural revolutionaries, with their cameras and hearts in the right place. In looking at the array of protagonists and issues addressed in the works of Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo, we can see the similarities and differences in their works. Fundamentally, they have always taken raza mujeres from the margins and placed them center stage. Though they took separate paths to achieve their goals, while ultimately doing so with a Chicana flavor, blending mujerista consciousness, innovative aesthetics, and activist based themes that use new and ancient voices and images to reach a better understanding of what Chicanas/Latinas/indigenas are about. Con safos, y que! 317 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. See the radically moving collection of writing by Chrystos IN HER X AM {Vancouver BC, Canada: Press Gang Publishers) 1993. p 83 2 More recently, writer/director Allison Anders' MX VIDA LOGA (1993) is a good depiction of motherhood and daily survival for several barrio hamegrirls de east los, but nevertheless, the power of the storyteller did not do much in the way of offering a possibility of progressive change within the original independent, cross-over feature length narrative, An-Other example is the role played by Jennifer Lopez in ANGEL EYES (2001), a tough dominatrix cop, who in the end succumbs, to an anglo male lover. In the final scene, he literally takes over "the driver's seat" so that she can become a truly complete, healthy and loving woman in this society. Throughout the entire film she tells him nearly everywhere to sit, talk, move, etc. In the end however, she whuzzes out and submits to him, ENOUGH (2002), a domestic abuse victim learns eventually how to defend herself and her daughter by killing her ex-husband. The ending of this film has protagonist, Jennifer Lopez in a well- calculated ritual of self-defense training and chess before she enters into physical battle with her abuser of many years. Mini-me Xena, Laura Croft Tomb Raider combo transfix/transforms on the big screen this superstar contemporary Latina superhero. Most recently, Josefina Lopez's NEAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES (2002), is a powerful statement on changing our outdated (and racist) standards towards the vulumptuous Latina body. This mujerista movie 318 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. advances the development of Latinas in the areas of education, healthy body image, sweatshop working conditions, and interracial relaitonships in a young woman coming of age. This crossover movie was successful at the Sundance Film Festival, and has become a favorite of many people across many cultural differences. I am thankful that Ms. Lopez also mentored and encouraged several up and coming Chicana filmmakers to participate in this film. 3 See Andrew Collier' s RD L&XMG: The Philosophy and Politics of Psychothexapy (Hassocks: The Harvester Press) 1977. p. 190 4 See Claude Levi-Strauss STRUCTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY, trans. Claire Jaobson and Brooke Grundfest Schoepf (London: Penguin Books) 1972. 5 In 2000, as a Chicana/Latina Research Center Dissertation Fellow at U.C. Davis, I prepared to give a talk regarding my Ph.D. work. I had prepared several clips to screen to accompany my writing. I was somewhat surprised to hear that a professor and a student were against my screening the clip of Sylvia Morales's from LA LIMPIA because of the fact that PLAYBOY had commissioned it. These two heterosexual Chicana feminists had a good point that PLAYBOY should be boycotted just because they were PLAYBOY and had traditionally perpetuated negative images of women's bodies. I clearly understood this position but countered with the argument, that at various times we have also boycotted Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Denny's, and so on, and times do change, and boycotts are lifted. I argued that I believed it important and maybe even a bit 319 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. subversive for Sylvia Morales to actually portray Latina sexuality through her own eyes. These two Chicana feminists wouldn't have it. In the spirit of compromise, I ended up showing IA LIMPIA in its entirety during a special evening screening of "Aftrjarista Moviemaking'," and it didn't surprise me that neither of the Chicana feminists who objected screening the clips during ray talk showed up. This is all fine because it allowed me to measure where we are and where we are not in relationship to these issues. (Ironically, two other women staff asked to borrow the tape to view it in the privacy of their own homes!) What was very exciting was that the evening screening (to a packed house) motivated a wonderful discussion afterwards which shed light on aspects that I had not previously considered which were related to IA LIMPIA' a narrative. I wanted to share this recent experience to show how problematic this whole arena of self-representation of Chicana/Latina sexuality is and the politics behind it even to date in this newer millennium. 6 Morales decided to use her mother's maiden name, Fimbres. 7 See Lorraine Hansberry's RAISIN IN THE SON (New York: Random House) 1959. 8 See Frances Negron-Muntaner's "Jennifer's Butt" in AZTLAN: International Jovuma.1 of Chicano Studies Boseaxdh, ed. Chon Noriega (UCLA), Vol. 22, no. 2 (Fall 1997) . 320 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. See Rosa Linda Fregoso, ed. LOURDES PORTILLO: The Devil Never Sleeps and Othex Films (Austin; University of Texas Press), 2001. 10 Gregory Nava implied that the murder of Selena was commited by her friend and employee. The general press implied that this friend was a lesbian, and that the murder was the result of a jealous rage prompted by unrequited (or requited) love. 11 Ibid. p. 14 12 Chicana film critic Rosa Linda Fregoso discusses her disagreement of working with Selena's father in Portillo's documentary on Selena. See Rosa Linda Fregoso, ed. LOURDES PORTILLO: The Devil Never Sleeps and Other Films (Austin: University of Texas Press), 2001. This conflict is ultimately relative to the filmmaker's decision making process of production. Spectators, on the other hand, would most likely view the mujerista movie as liberatory in relationship to Nava's SELENA, where Selena's father maintained thematic control of Selena's life story. 13 For example, in one of the opening scenes of CORPUS, Portillo has Chicana film critic Rosa Linda Fregoso drive by and point to the motel room where Selena was shot. Interestingly, Portillo lists Fregoso as a "Corpus Christi Native" in a subtitle under Fregoso's image. This identifies her as an established film critic, instead lending legitimacy to Fregoso's connections with Selena's 321 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. geopolitical reality. Either way, it privileges Chicana fans' personal connections with Selena's life and death. 14 Portillo maintains a similar ambiguity in terms of (homo) sexuality in her movie, THE EEVTL NEVER SLEEPS: El diablo arnica. doaxme. In this case, the character in mind is her murdered uncle. 15 After Portillo collected her initial footage she returned home to San Francisco. Upon her return she received a phone call from Abraham Quintanilla questioning why Portillo hadn't approached him. Surprised, Portillo replied that she didn't believe he'd be open to her project, and that she didn't think she had the financial resources to pursue archives owned by the family. The urgency to produce this documentary was dictated by Portillo's decision to minimize costs, shooting on video format to avoid large budget fundraising for a celluloid production. Abraham Quintanilla responsed by asking Portillo to immediately return to Texas, offering and allowing her access to these valuable family materials. (Portillo told this information to an audience at a San Diego Latino Film Festival.) At this point in the production process, Portillo and Rosa Linda Fregoso, then Associate Producer of the movie, disagreed on the role and influence that Selena's father would have on this documentary. This can, once again, be seen as a gesture to maintain control by Abraham Quintanilla. At the same time, this can be viewed as a subversive act on Portillo's part to enter into a possibly dangerous situation to get the treasures that are needed to 322 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. make mujerista movies, much in the same way Morales courageously made a movida into PLAYBOY territory in order to produce LA LIMPIA. For further discussion of this conflict see Fregoso's commentary in Fregoso,, Rosa Linda, ed. LOURDES PORTILLO: The Devil Never Sleeps and Other Films. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001. 16 The "Intellectual" section is a roundtable discussion in CORPUS of feminists y lesbiana "heavyweights" such as Cherrie Moraga, Sandra Cisneros, Yvonne Yarbrough-Bejarano, and B. Ruby Rich. 17 For example, females are capable of having multiple orgasms as Alfred Kinsey's research confirmed. I have known this as I have seen many straight women for heard "testimonios") who were never sexually satisfied even with husbands to whom they had been married for many years. However, when they have experiences with a female it is more about really pleasing the female and learning/knowing the female body especially/including their own through the mirror image/being of themselves. I have always been surprised at the number of women I have met around the planet who really don't know their own bodies. The practice of lesbianism has allowed, encouraged and supported women to know and to love their own bodies. 323 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. BIBLIOGRAPHY Acuna, Rodolfo. Occupied America: A History of Chicanos. (Third Edition). New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1988. Adorno, Theodore and Horkheimer, Max. "The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception," in Dialectic of Enlightenment. New York: Seabury Press, 1972. Alarcon, Norma. "Chicana Feminism: In the Tracks of ’the7 Native Woman." Cultural Studies special issue, Rosa Linda Fregoso and Angie Chabram, eds. 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Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Morgan, Robin, ed. Sisterhood is Powerful. New York: Vintage Books, 1970. Morley, David. Family Television: Cultural Power and Domestic Leisure. London: Routledge, 1986. Mumford, Lewis. The Story of Utopias. New York Viking Press, 1922. Nichols, Bill. Representing Reality, Issues and Concepts in Documentary. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1991. . Blurred Boundaries: Questions of Meaning in Contemporary Culture. Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1994. NietoGomez, Anna. "Sexism in the Movement." La Gente Vol. 6, No. 4 (1976), 10. ."Heritage of la Hembra." In Female Psychology: The Emerging Self, ed. Sue Cox, 226-235. Chicago: Science Research Associates, Inc.197 6. NietoGomez, Anna and Corrine Sanchez, eds. New Directions in Education: Estudios femeniles de la chicana. Los Angeles: University of California, 1974. Niranjana, Tejaswini. Siting Translation: History, Post- Structuralism and the Colonial Context. 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Stam, Robert, Robert Burgoyne and Sandy Flitterman-Lewis, eds. New Vocabularies in Film Semiotics: Structuralism, Post-structuralism and Beyond. London: Routledge, 1992 Tagg, John. THE BURDEN OF REPRESENTATION: Essays on Photograhies and Histories. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, Ltd, 1988. Telling to Live: Latina Feminist Testimonios. The Latina Feminist Group, Durham: Duke University Press, 2001. Time, Los Angeles Bureau, "The Grapes of Wrath, 1969 Mexican-Americans on the March, The Little Strike that Grew to La Causa," Time, July 4, 1969. Trask, Haunani-Kay. Eros and Power: The Promise of Feminist Theory. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1986. . From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawai* i. Maine: Common Courage Press, 1993. Trevino, Jesus Salvador. Eyewitness: A Filmmaker's Memoir of the Chicano Movement. Houston: Arte Publico Press, 2001. Trujillo, Carla, ed. Chicana Lesbians: The Girls Our Mothers Warned Us About. 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New York: The Feminist Press, 1978. Wilson, William. LA Times Art Review "Chicana Artists Still Seeking Identification," Los Angeles Times, June 23, 1975, part IV, p. 5. Winston, Brian. Claiming the Real: The Documentary Film Revisited. London: British Film Institute, 1995. Wolf, Eric. Sons of the Shaking Earth. Urbana: University of Chicago Press, 1962. Yarbro-Bejarano, Yvonne, "Primer encuentro de lesbianas feministas latinoamerlcanas y caribenas." Third Woman: The Sexuality of Latinas. Ed. Norma Alarcon, Ana Castillo and Cherrie Moraga. Vol. IV (1989): 143-146. . "The Lesbian Body in Latin Cultural Production." In ?Entiendes? Queer Readings, Hispanic Writings, eds. Emile L. Bergmann and Paul Jullian Smith. London: Duke University Press, 1995. Ybarra-Frausto, Tomas. "Interview with Tomas Ybarra- Frausto: The Chicano Movement in a Multicultural/ Multinational Society." In Qn Edge: The Crisis of Contemporary Latin American Culture. Ed. George Yudice, Jean Franco and Juan Flores. 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Further reproduction prohibited without permission. APPENDIX INTERVIEW with SYLVIA MORALES September 6, 1998 - full moon Sunday Los Angeles, Califas, Aztlan By Osa Hidalgo-de la Riva c/s Given the continuing lack of representation of Chicana/os on both sides of the television screen and the current backlash against affirmative action unleashed by propositions 187 and 209, the television work of independent Chicana film and videomaker Sylvia Morales becomes all the more significant. For not only does her career span almost three decades (the 1970's through the 1990's) and move from the margins to mainstream media but she has continued to be a major influence on new generations of Chicana/o film and videomakers. Morales first emerged on the political scene in 1979 with CHICANA (1979), a film that traces the history of the Mexican indigenous woman from pre-columbian time to the present and that established her as one of the first Chicana filmmakers in the nation. Although she continued screenwriting for features with compelling films such as HEARTS ON FIRE (1987) and REAL MEN AND OTHER MIRACLES 342 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. (1998), her most important work may be in broadcast television, for this medium enabled her to reach a much larger audience. Sylvia Morales's works for television include not only prestigious, politically committed PBS documentaries such as, WORK AND FAMILY (1994) , a two-hour documentary she directed in the six-hour series, A CENTURY OF WOMEN (which was nominated for an Emmy); STRUGGLE IN THE FIELDS (1996), a 60-minute documentary she produced in the groundbreaking four hour series, CHICANO!: THE MEXICAN AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT; and TELL ME AGAIN...WHAT IS LOVE?, (1998), a half-hour documentary on teen-dating violence which she wrote and produced— but also, somewhat more surprisingly, erotic fictions for a PLAYBOY series aired on SHOWTIME, LA LIMPIA (THE CLEANSING, 1996) and ANGEL FROM THE SKY (1997). Besides making films and videos, Morales has published several essays and has taught film and video production at the USC School of Cinema-Television. Drawn from a much longer interview, the following excerpts focus primarily on her work in television and the way it deals with the representation of race and gender. ■ f c 'k -k 'k -k ~k -k 343 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. O: I'm proud to be able to do this interview since you've influenced me and so many other xxxxicana (Chicana) film/video makers. Where were you born, and when did you first start doing film and television? Si Phoenix, Arizona. That's where I was born, 1943, A war baby...I got involved in television I believe around 1971, when I started working for Channel 7 [ABC, California], a program called UNIDOS. Jose Luis Ruiz, (at that time he was "Luis Ruiz,') was the producer and I knew him from school, from UCLA. He called me up to do some camerawork because the guy he had quit on him. So he called me the night before the shoot and asked me if I'd jump in because he knew I knew how to do camerawork. So I said yeah, but what kind of camera are you using? And they had something that was called the Aracon, which was an old camera that weighs 50 pounds. So, I was young and strong and full of vim and vinegar, you know. So, I said sure, how much do you pay? He said $200 a day. 1971. I was really nervous, what if it didn't come out? And I said, if it doesn't come out - you don't have to pay me. And he said, no, no, I'll pay you. You know it's not his money it's ABC's money. So, I went and shot it, and it turned out parfait. And he 344 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. asked me to be his cameraperson then. I did thirteen half-hour documentaries there. 0: So race and representation came in from the origins of your work? S: Well you know UNIDOS was back-to-back with another program, it was a Black program called I AM SOMEBODY. And we aired at 7:00 every other Sunday, because then they would every other Sunday also air, I AM SOMEBODY. UNIDOS was about the Latino community. Very specifically, about the Chicano community, in Los Angeles. So it was a local program which at a prime time, 7:00 on Sundays, that's a really good time. O: How was the response? S: Oh the community loved it! We went in there, we did interviews. We interviewed Alicia Escalante. We interviewed, I guess Dolores [Huerta]. I don't remember exactly right now. Well, because it was about the community and Alicia at that time worked with Welfare Rights, in Los Angeles. She's now in Sacramento or something like that. 0: Like socio-political, community issues? 345 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. S: Yes, it was all community, social, political issues. (hollers out) We were gonna change the world! (she laughs). That's what we wanted to do! 0: Do you think that spirit, that desire, is still there? Like have things have changed - jumping from your origins of production to the present? Was it more idealistic then? S: I think it's the idealism of every young person. I don't feel like I'm cynical now, twenty-thirty years later. I have my ideals, but I think more than anything I have my principles now and I have a moral center. At that time, we weren't thinking about principles, we were just thinking we were gonna change the world, by any means necessary. So, we were gonna do it with a camera. That was our way, by presenting to the public. Also the thing is that we weren't able to present everything we wanted. 0: Why? S: Because this is a public...this is a commercial statement. In fact, I think one of our shows was...it may have been Alicia who said something about this one broadcaster.-.I think it was David Putnam, I'm not sure. But she said something, not very nice, and we aired it. 346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. So, the guy wanted to sue us, the station! So...nothing ever happened. I guess because it was true. (we laugh) See, because they didn't tell us anything - we had pretty free rein there. At that time there was a lot of pressure on all of the television stations. But Channel 7 was the one that was the most open and allowed us to come in there, and do some work. 0: How does that situation compare to today? Do you think that it's more open, or less? S: Oh, I think it's more open. Definitely! You look at the credits on Channel 7, Channel 2, Channel 4, [the Los Angeles affiliate stations of ABC, CBS, and NBC respectively] you see alot of Latino names. We were the only Latino names at that time practically, except for our editor who had been there for a long time. 0: Do you think that there's a "Chicana aesthetic?" S: Well, there must be. I don't know that I have it, you know. When I do my work, I'm not thinking about doing a "Chicana aesthetic." It's kind of almost an academic thing, it seems to me. 0: Like for a dissertation, for academic writing? (we both laugh) S: Right...But I know some artists do consciously think of that kind of thing. I don't. I'm just thinking of 347 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. where I want to move something, how I want to shoot it. In fact, I'm still learning a lot about that. So as far as a "Chicana aesthetic," it would be "Sylvia's aesthetic." It would be my aesthetic. The only time that I could think of that is when I did something for SHOWTIME, part of an erotic series. And for the very first time, the lead was a white woman. And when she was cast, you know it was fine, because I wrote it that way. But when I saw it, I was real surprised. Even though in documentaries I had interviewed white people, Black people, Asian, all kinds of folks. But in a fictional piece...it was very interesting to see a white person as a part that I had written. So that was a little bit of an eye opener. And then it made me aware that I had been so used to doing fictional pieces about Chicanos. 0: What did you learn in the process of working with the PBS production of Chicano! You said you had classes or workshops that you went to, for dealing with issues such as Civil Rights. How did that work out? S: Oh...they called them "escuelitas." Because we were covering such a big part of the history, and we're each as an individual only involved in a little tiny part of 348 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. that history. So even though it was a general history we're doing, we didn't get to everything, all of the little pockets of interest. For instance, even though I knew about Cesar Chavez, my specific show and the Farmworkers [UFW] blueprint, I didn't know to the extent that I learned while working on it. So they had these "escuelitas" or sessions, where people who were historians of that particular history, or who actually participated in that history in a big way came to talk to us to give us more depth. So that was great! And at the same time it wasn't just about the farmworkers. We also learned about the educational part of the Chicano Movement. We learned about the quest for the land, which was crucial..., .All the producers participated in these "escuelitas," in Austin, Texas. They flew the people in to talk with us. I was there for seven months, but the "escuelita" was for about a month. 0: Could you talk about the relationship between gender and race...in that production? S: At "escuelita" one of the people who came to talk to us - his name was Taylor - participated in the Black Movement. And he's very knowledgeable, so he came to 349 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. give us his perspective, so we'd be receptive to everything. And he said, "Excuse me, but I didn't mean to comment on that fact that it seems like there's a lot of women here." There were two women producers, and two men producers, but a lot of the assistants were women, the associate producers were mostly all women, so he says, "Well I'm just wondering how come the men aren't more represented?" And I raised my hand and I said, "Well, if you notice, these are the lower echelons. You need not worry. The upper echelons, all the important decision making roles are taken by men. All the executive producers are men. All the things that come down to us are from men. And the series producer is a man..." 0: Did you feel encouraged, to do whatever you wanted to do in your work, specifically on issues of gender? S: You know what the problem is, I think...the men...think they're being very fair, and that they're being very open minded, and that they're bending over backwards to get the women in there. And that's fine, that's good that they' re doing that, I guess...but you know, they pat themselves on the back for doing that. 0: And they're still in those roles. 350 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. S: Well, a woman wasn't asked to be an executive producer... 0: Could you consciously control the representation of women within the piece you worked on? S: Well, I was very lucky. I wanted more women in there naturally, but it came with the territory that Dolores Huerta was going to have big part. The thing that was so great about this, is that in my talking to the farmworkers and everybody is that they all said, you know, Cesar...hef s a man from his time...he may have had his own sexist thing in his life. But as far as the Union is concerned, Cesar wanted bodies who wanted to work. He was non-exclusive. He was inclusive. Part of the success of that Union is because he went out to the students. He brought in white people. He brought in the whole world. Whoever wanted to come and help. Help us, we accept your work. Therefore, there were many women leaders within the Union. Now that doesn't mean that it sat well with other members of the Union, who felt that they should have been leaders, perhaps, but there were many roles for women that they did take up. And my understanding is that the women were very assertive. Because they were out there in the fields breaking their backs like the men were. 351 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. And their children were out there in the fields with them.... I wasn't out there in the fields, so I don't know. I can only accept what these folks were telling me. I don'' t think they' re going to be lying to me. I think for the most part, you know, the people that I interviewed in the show were very down to earth, very forthright. 0: The comment about Dolores Huerta being a "Dragon woman," how did you interpret this? S: I think this was like a double-edged sword. It was said by one of the growers. He said, "Oh, that Dolores, she was a real Dragon Lady." The way he said it was, 'You don't fuck with her!' That's what he meant. She was tough that was his comment. See, I didn't take that negatively. At the time, he may not have admired her. She was really a pain in the butt to him. And Dolores said, "Yeah, sure, they didn't want me to be there, because every time they said something insulting, I'd say, HEY!" She called them on it! 0: One critic claimed that was your way to put in your own forcefulness. S: I think that most critics start to read into something too much. Sometimes it's just what's there. All I was doing was giving how people felt about certain 352 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. personalities, about what was going on, and trying, to give as rounded and as whole a picture as possible...I don'’ t speak down to my audience, I just lay it out there and let my audience decide what they think is going on. I'm not trying to lead them down a primrose lane, and I want you to think this way. Yes, I do have a point of view. I'm with the Farmworkers...however, I will not so much give a balance, because it's a question of "which balance?" The only thing that can be balanced is a picture that you make, that you compose. But balance is something I guess all of us are ultimately striving for in our lives, . . . t o be centered - that's what balance is. And in a documentary, the only balance, which PBS always demands, is that if you're making a movie about racists, then you pretty much want the racists to speak for themselves, and not so much defend themselves, but give their point of view. And if I'm going to be balanced, I will let them give their point of view. I'11 let you decide. 0: How do you feel after you've completed your work? If there is negative criticism, do you care about any of that? S: I make movies so people can see them and like them. Now if they criticize them, that's fine. Or if they 353 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. critique them, but if they're going to be destructive, I'm not going to listen to them. If they say something like "it would have been cool if you would have been able to do that," "oh yeah, wish I could have," you know, that sort of thing. But I'm not worried about any kind of critique from whatever community...because I can't live my life like that. You know they don't pay my rent. Nobody pays my rent except me. Nobody has to get up and look at my face in the mirror and...so, I can't worry about what other people say. But once it's done, I do worry because it's like your baby going out there in the wo rid... I worry are people going to accept it? But I never think, will it be accepted by the "Chicano" or by any racial group, or by women... I think...will they like it, will it entertain them? Will it mean something to them? 354 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. (Personal Interview #2 - July 14th, 1999) Si Here I am at the French Quarter [restaurant] where they don't serve French Vanilla [ice cream], and I'm about to be interviewed, righteously by this child who's having a cherry with whip cream and ice cream. 0: Your relationship, with arte? S: So, who in my family influenced me to be who I am today. Early on, I wanted to be a doctor. I can remember that at five years old I wanted to be a doctor. I don't know at what point but my mom shoved me a wood cut that my father did, and she said he was an artist and that he could draw really well. So, I kept that. I think she showed it to me because I showed an aptitude for drawing when I was a kid. And in school, my teachers encouraged me to draw. In junior high people would pay me to do drawings of their favorite movie stars, and I would charge 50 cents a picture. I was making a little bit of money when I was in the seventh grade. So, I naturally had an aptitude for drawing. My mom wanted me to be an interior designer, and had I done that I'd be real rich today, I think. And as far as my mama, we'd see her dancing. Not literally dancing with other people, but she'd put on a show for us. My mother loved 355 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. to dance. She'd put on bells on her ankles and do a little dance for us kids to entertain us. 0: Like teatro. S: My grandmother kept telling me, and I don't know why, everyone's favorite movie star at that time was Maria Felix - so they all wanted me to grow up and be Maria Felix. So, they would encourage me to act, my grandmother in particular. So I would sing, or dance, and they would love it and they'd clap for me. So, I think if anything, it was always there. I was never shy. I am shy. I think I'm shy. (she laughs) People laugh when I say I'm shy. Of course, it's laughable when you know me. I don't act shy when I know you. Shy people do not act shy when they know you. 0: So you were encouraged to perform and entertain. S: Yes, I was always encouraged to do that. I remember always trying out for the talent shows in elementary school. I remember that in the 5th grade I sang "Papa Loves MAMBO." So, I always sang, and also in junior high. I've always been in plays, always. I'm just a ham. 0: About education. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Si I graduated from Alexander Graham High School, which is on the Westside [of Los Angeles]. I actually went my senior year. But most of my life I went to Culver City schools. I went to Culver City Elementary School, Culver City Junior High, and Culver High School. It was when my mom and my stepfather divorced that we moved away to Tucson, Arizona, for a semester. Then we came back because I wanted to graduate from my high school with my friends because it was going to be my senior year. Because my mother didn't have a husband, she was looking for jobs here and there. So, we couldn't get back to Culver City because it was too expensive. So this was LA and that meant that I went to the closest school there. 357 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INTERVIEW with LOURDES PORTILLO October 6, 1998 - full moon San Francisco, Califas, Aztlan by Osa Hidalgo-de la Riva c/s 0: Can you say your whole name, when and where you born? L: My name is Maria de Lourdes Portillo, and I was born November 11, 1944, in Chihuahua, Mexico. 0: Oh, you're a Scorpio, and your birthday's coming up. Happy birthday! L: Thank you, thank you. 0: In the interview that you wanted me to review from the Stanford... L: The one that you filmed a long time ago, yes... 0: That really surprised me, because I had forgotten that we had done that. You kind of described that you were from a lower middle class familia from Mexico, and that the Mexican tradition you were raised with kind of rejected the indigena part, and as a Chicana, you were able to reclaim that part. Now, how many years have you been here in San Francisco? L: About thirty years. 358 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 0: So, how have you seen that whole process change, say your part as a Chicana.Joecause you used the word "enriched" in claiming Chicana identity? L: Well, I guess everybody comes to that point, that moment, right? Because it's not something that we were brought up with. So, I regained that watching my brothers and sisters go through it. (la consciencia chicanisma) You remember my brother Tony, so they kind of turned me on to it, and I felt really like closer. I felt like I had another identity that was more valid than being Mexican, because I no longer lived in Mexico. 0: So you're saying your immediate blood brother and sister that are older than you, had turned you on to Chicanismo? L: They're younger than me. 0: That's the only thing that Lola [my mother] wanted me to ask you about, was your relationship with Tony. Because she had worked with him and said, he was very political. She thought that's the way the process had gone. I had no clue. L: Yeah! 0: Before that were you dealing with other cultures? 359 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. L: No, no, no - I was very Mexican identified. You know, more traditional Mexican identified, because I was already thirteen when I came here, so I was formed. I was a Mexican. I didn't have any other identity. 0: So, the whole feminist thing from the 60's, 70's, which was happening simultaneously...did that influence you? L: That wasn't really a big influence in my life. It came in dribbles here and there, you know, people that were close to us associated with feminists. You know I never really took it up as a banner. It was more in the atmosphere of being in the context with my friends. That's basically the way it came about. And I agreed with some things, and I actually disagreed with plenty of it, you know? 0: What parts stick out in your mind right now? L: Just a lot of that dilettantism that even exists today in like the leftover feminists, you know. (Osa laughs) Just not a way of looking at the human whole and a way of separating things that I don''t agreed with. 0: How about now, do you think that there's a different kind of feminism, or something that you would claim, like Chicanismo - or does that come in the sense of being a 360 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. "Chicana", with an " a " ending? You know, today, how do you see all of this. L: I see everything as being experiential. You know that that was an experiential thing. That according to my experience I have formed these opinions. You know, I don't have one big theory, or one big philosophy that I adhere to, I just kind of feel my way around. 0: So it changes? L: Yeah, it changes! 0; So you're open to change? L: Yeah, definitely! 0: I wanted to ask you about sexuality. How would you identify? Do you think that it's private, or do you think that it's also changing as part of the cultural dimension? Are you lesbian, bisexual, or straight? L: Myself? No, I'm not straight. I'm a lesbian. 0: Is that a word that works okay for you? L: Yeah, it's fine. It's okay. Yeah. 0; That's cool. I know in Mexico City you said in relationship to your work that hasn't been a key issue up to this point, L: In my work, no. I think that I've had other more pressing types of interests that have nothing to do with sexuality. I think sexuality comes into play in a lot of 361 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. my films. It's expressed and stuff, but it hasn't been the focus. The focus has been very political all along. You know, I'm concerned about the welfare of people more than I am about their sexual expressiveness. 0: You don? t think sexuality can be political? L: Yeah, I think it is political, but that's not what has been my concern. 0: You would say more class, race issues? Issues about immigration...? L: Yes, definitely. About belonging... 0: In AFTER THE EARTHQUAKE/DESPTJES DEL TERREMOTO, guess for some, or for me as a woman of color, I could interpret that even in your first film there was a strong feminist drive throughout the whole thing. L: Yeah, there always is. 0: Because she totally controls how things are run - sexuality, marriage, all of that with him. L: Yeah that’s true. That's true. 0: And even with her friend. I felt that there was a homoerotic element I want to focus more upon. But anyone can focus on anything and interpret anything however they want to, I know. I liked the way in the bedroom... L: The intimacy between the women, yeah.... 362 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Oi And I know that could also be interpreted as 'Latina' - real touchy, or physically close - but in the context of the whole film, in the narrative, the way that she deals with her man, or the guy - I guess I can push it a little further... So, I looked at all your work that way. I had conflict originally, that when I do this type of queer reading that it's not offensive to you, is it? L: No, no, not at all. That's okay. No, no, no, no. In fact, one of those women was a lesbian, but she was totally closeted. 0: Really? L: Yeah. But I wasn't a lesbian then. You know I was pregnant with the boy that you just saw. Yeah, that cute boy that went out. That's my Antonio. 0: Wow Lourdes, I didn't know that - he's beautiful, and he's totally grown! I may have met him once when he was real small. L: Yeah that's my son. He's a great great guy. 0: Well, let me go into this thing about fami11a, like the idea of community with familia. Do you think they're similar - because we've got blood familia, and extended familia? 363 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. L: Yeah, I think community is like a family, I really feel that strongly. You know the older I get the closer I feel to my people and the more separated I feel from other people. The more experiences that I have with other people, the more I feel kind of, you know, like there'' s not a lot of equal groundwork. 0: What includes "your people?" L: I think people of the Americas, people that have kind of the same philosophical, emotional ties with that have actually nothing to do with race. It has to do with the same kind of experience, you know. Another thing is having the same values. That's become very important in my life, as I'm older. You know, how important it is to surround yourself with people that have your values, otherwise you're just cruising for a bruising. I am, in any case. I mean I feel that way. I feel like I need to be around people that have the same ethical backbone. 0: Do you insist on this when you look for crewmembers? Or is it more open that you pay somebody to work with you because they're talented? L: No. I like people that are talented, but I need to surround myself with people that are loyal, that are honest, that are truthful, that are moral, you know. And 364 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. that they can work as hard as I can work, and don't think that they have to be the king or queen. 0: As a video artist that's why I love yours and Sylvia's work. You've encouraged me so much indirectly, and I've tried to put thanks in my end credits just as recognition of inspiration to you. L: Thank you. 0: Do you think as a Latina or leshiana or as a woman director that you've encountered opposition just because you belong to a...well, I don't want to say "minority" or oppressed group solely.... L: Marginalyzed people. Definitely. 0: Like have you experienced resistance to your lead by guys, because you're a woman? Or by Anglo people because you're a woman of color? L: No, I really haven't because I'm usually the boss you know. And I hire men that are fabulous, that I love and they respect me, and you know are good people. 0: If you experience or come across opposition in production, what do you do? L: I did an interview with a man in Mexico who was a would be candidate for President. And he was an arrogant person. 0: Cuauhtemoc? 365 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. L: No it wasn't him, although I did do an interview with him, but this was with another one. You know, this other guy gave me a hard time and I just said, "I'm the director, and I'm here to film you so you have to do what I say-" That's all. But no, you are right. Now in retrospect, I have had problems with some people. Like with men. I had a very big problem when I was doing a front line with someone...what was he...he was a correspondent for the New York Times and I had a very difficult clash with him. Yeah. What they were trying to do was demean me. 0: I'm asking this because as a woman, or filmmaker in general, there's that saying of either fight or flight. I might have a tendency that this or that happened and not say anything and just walk away. L: I have to fight. And it's devastating sometimes, but I have to do it. 0: I guess being a Scorpion, you might have some skills (laughing). L: You know I kind of escape from certain situations, and with others, I kind of confront them. 0: Oh, so it's like energy - what you feel like dealing with or not. L: Yes. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. O: You said in an interview that you've always done lots of research for your films, and stressed the importance of the historical, as you said "didactic obligation" that we have - including your personal voice, your poetry, nostalgia, memory, and stuff like that. I think that this blend, for example, in THE DEVIL HEVER SLEEPS that you'' re pushing this more - or maybe that you're playing with the boundaries of those two more. Now it seems as if you're mixing them more as opposed to the beginning of your work when the two worlds were more obviously...]/m trying to figure out how to call this. L: Yeah, they were very straight. Well I think it has to do with experimenting with form. And I think that when you experiment with form, then you experiment with meaning, and that's what I'm trying to do. I'm also trying to experiment with sentiment, with feelings. It's very important for me to create a piece that has an ultimate feeling. You know that I don't want to just create something that just gives you information. I want people to feel something at the end, I want them to feel like love, or like longing, or repulsion, or whatever. That's now where I'm going, and using documentary and documentary techniques and turning them on their head and 367 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. trying to get to a more kind of dramatic, emotional kind of place. 0: Lola and I just went to Long Beach and were able to see your latest piece THIS IS YOUR DAY. Are you open to whatever new technologies that would come your way? L: Yeah, but unfortunately, I'm not very technical. 1 can't even get into my e-mail without Gorro [her assistant]. 0: Are you interested like in CD-ROMS and things like that? L: Oh yeah, but I don't understand it. You know what I mean? I always need someone to be there with me, a technician, because I'm very stupid about those things. But I love them, I'm always using new stuff. 0: THIS IS YOUR DAY takes it into a whole other medium. You know I had a hard time distinguishing between what was the emotional and what was the didactic in that one. L: The emotion that I wanted to be left with in that installation, which is harder because it was an installation, and it was done in a certain way. You don't have the span of time. You don't have the ability to create an emotion so it's more shocking. And it was not put together right, the way the screens were, it was 368 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. kind of a mess. But the emotion that I wanted to be left with, was what was missing from this equation was love. That's what it was questioning. 0: It came out! That was powerful to see that footage of the beatings so many times, and so many different ways. And then the way you put all the words and all the other images around that footage. I hadn't really seen that footage in its entirety. And that was the same day I heard about the death of Marsha Gomez. So, it moved me quite a lot. Then even going back to visit Long Beach with our own family history and my mom being there, it was all kind of emotionally heavy. I kind of sat in the middle of the room on the floor and went through the entire show about three times and let myself be absorbed by all of this. It was full of sensation too. And the guy astrologer... I thought at first that he was a female, but my mom said, no he's a man. I said no way. So, the play with astrology...! could go in many different ways about that... L: It's like chance. It's about chance you know. Nothing is literal. The date, everything was wrong. It was just a play you know. Just playing with the thing and it had to do with chance and how is it that these people were in this truck at that time. Sometimes you 369 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. listen to the astrologer and say, "Oh, this is my day. Today'' s a good day. I'm going to have this and that..." you know. But it turns out to be a real rotten day and the same for the policemen that beat them up you know. So, it's about that. 0: It wasn't like you believe in astrology or not. L: Not at all. It had nothing to do with that. It was more like portraying how people look at their day. 0: How did you construct that? Did you begin with a storyboard or a concept? L: I liked Walter Mercado because he's so flamboyant. I love watching him, he's so funny. What I did was capture the images from the television - and I stole them, and I bumped them up to beta, and we edited them and made two different channels and that's it. 0: What format do like working with the most? L: I love film. Film is my love. The quality of film, I love it. 0: Do you actually do the editing? L: No, I'm not a technician. I'm more of a conceptual artist. You know I conceive things and I see them, and I work with people that are really capable. I work in a community of people and I've worked with the same people for many years, we communicate in a very spiritual level, 370 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. you know in a very loving way. My cinematographer is a man from New York. You know, he's Irish, and I adore him. And my editor is a white woman from Santa Rosa, a lesbian with an herb farm. So you know, I just have these kind of friends that I work with that are like really my friends and my crew. 0: And when you have conflicts with them, how do you resolve it? L: We argue. We see who wins (Osa laughs). See because it's like a collective, it's no longer like I'm the god-director. It's like I have an idea and then we have to duke it out and well I say, "You know Vivian maybe we should put that there." And she says "No, it's not going to work. It doesn't look good." or "No, it's wrong." And then it's like "Okay you're the editor so you must know what works and what doesn't work that way." 0: Then you let it go? L: Oh, absolutely. I work in that way. There's no other way for me to work. 0: How about the writing of COLXJblBUS ON TRIAL with Culture Clash? I saw on the credits that there were a lot of writers, or bigger collaboration. Were there a 371 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. lot of people sitting around rapping, or coming up with ideas? L: It was more like drafts. They'd do a draft, I'd do a draft, and we'd go back and forth. 0: And how was it working with them, since they're so well known and all that. And you are also in a different way. L: I knew them when they were not so well known. So, we have a relationship that goes back a long way. And there are three of them against one - against me! (Osa laughs) You know, you use everything you have available to use to get these guys to do what you want them to do, and then they have some good ideas... PART II L: Just tell me my ex-girlfriend that god's gonna strike her dead. 0: You want that to happen? L: (laughs very loud) 0: I wish I could ask you the questions I'd really like to ask - but I don't know if that's appropriate. Maybe you can tell me "edit" it out some things or not. It 372 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. seems as though you've worked with people who have been your partners. Collaborations, no? L: Oh with Susana? Yeah, yeah. With Susana I did. 0: But that's not totally open. Like people ask me, "Do you know if Sylvia or Lourdes are gay?" And I always felt like I couldn't say anything..." L: Oh yeah, you could say it. But sometimes you see, in this culture it becomes a big thing, you know? 0: Like when people get shocked, they have to deal with their own stuff - about the coming out process. I mean you may have gone through that twenty years ago in your own life, but for the public or other people. As times change it does have different meanings, whether you' re emphasizing Chicana with two X's, or four X's, or "Ch" - you know what I mean, or the difference between Chicano and Chicana, I guess that all has different meanings. But collaborating with people that you are relating to in a different way, I would believe that has some influence on the creative piece itself, all the way through to completion. And maybe you agree or disagree. Maybe sometimes it's smoother and maybe sometimes it's more problematic. L: You're right. 373 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 0: I think this is somehow important on our collaborations. On the energies that take " famllia." to a different level. Whether it's your actual mother or your brother or a partner. And I don't know exactly how to frame this or how it comes out in a work. But maybe this something in the future that we can talk about at a later interview. Right now, do you think because what you're going through, breaking up from a long relationship, do you think you have something in mind for the future? Will that effect your emotional perspective? L: Yeah, I think I'm going to want to do something artistically that would portray the things that I'm going through personally, you know, and get my vengeance that way. (she laughs) 0: That's why I'm bringing this up. I know how this happens. In that larger picture, in world dynamics that usually you can see that these things are going on behind the scenes. There's all these "novelas" kind of, going on that doesn’t get spoken about. I'm wondering, is this something we keep quiet about? L: Yeah, I don't keep quiet about it. It feeds my heart. Yeah, I mean I'm doing a documentary, a lone documentary. The next documentary is going to be about 374 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. the disposability of Mexican women. And I think in the larger sense it's a metaphor for the disposability of myself in my relationship. The ways I was treated — like something that could be disposed of. That could be mined, used, and you know, disposed of. So, that'' s heavy. And I think that that's a prevalent view of how Mexican women are looked at even from other lesbians who claim to be really kind of feminist, and what have you. But they're in fact as exploitative as any guy is. 0: While as a Scorpion, you've already been out there with your work and maybe you can deal with it all more openly. How do you deal with all those stories, or those different politics that are very real? As an artist, I know that as an artist that feeds your whole emotional development. How about the new piece that you're doing on Selena? L: Oh that's done. It's finished and it's about innocence. In a certain way, all my films have to do with my personal life. I mean it's about Selena, it's about her fans, but it's about being innocent. It's about being unsophisticated and being all heart, and really not being very astute about the people that exist in the world, you know. It's a documentary and its 375 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. called CORPUS. Because it also deals with her body, and the meaning of her body. 0: When do we get to see that? L: In January. 0: I like the thing that you said about connecting humans via machine. First, you said it was a problem and then you said, no, itfs more like a game. And I like that idea that you are aware that there is a machine between you and the other human beings. You go out and you want to get a message across? Are you real driven like that? L: Yeah, I am. Yeah, I am very driven to do that. You know, to get the message across, to say what I need to say because I think it's real important. 0: In that way you said in Mexico City, I like that, that you've almost taken a vow of poverty because as an independent filmmaker that's part of the sacrifice. L: Yeah, you're not going to make a lot of money. You might make a little bit of money to pay the rent. But no, you're not going to make money. There's no way to make money. I don't have the skills to create a big chunk of cash coming my way. I have the skills to create art, and to make films. And you know, to make them, to 376 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. live during that time while I'm making it, and then get it out there. 0: I'11 go back to my dissertation for a second. In the first chapter I want to talk a little about the formative influences that you've had: your family background, your education, and how the Chicano Art Movement personally touched them. Maybe we can talk a bit about this. L: Okay. My formation was not that extraordinary at all. I was educated in Catholic schools. I didn't have any real kind of art formation until I was much older. I always had a tendency to relate to everything visual more than anything intellectual. I think I became aware of art when I was in high school, and then it just became a bigger interest. (She laughs..."What was the rest of the question? I just keep on thinking about my situation, I can't help it." She laughs again) 0: Well hopefully that's going to make a great piece too, since we all need to deal with that subject, with the emotional level. And describing how do women deal with all that, also as Latinas) L: Do you think that happens often, or what? 377 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 0: Well yes, and then there's that whole play on the folks that are political or progressive and the way they treat different women in a personal way. L: Really? So, that's a common thing? 0: Well that's what I've seen around the planet. L: Really Osa? 0: Yeah, especially ones that are leaders or are outspoken sometimes. Or folks that have had, you know, there own reputations; they can be pretty vicious. (Laughing) Well that's a whole different dynamics. Like especially folks who are leaders of groups. You see all the interconnections, and then when it's time to severe their relationships with other women in the groups. I was thinking of the ways in which women (as you say) can be vicious. Well not totally, you know, any people could. L: The Mexicans are the first ones to go. 0: I think partly especially women that have been very women identified, or real independent, that there's even a harder stance because they're trying to survive, and it gets real messy, and people get really rude, you know. They're used to being so hard in trying to survive, and defend themselves, their perspectives, and their morals 378 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and values. And then when you get a few folks together like that (laugh) it's not mellow. L: (laughs) It"s not mellow. 0: The other part of that, in which you somewhat addressed in the Stanford University interview was the idea on how you were personally influenced by the Chicano Art Movement at that time. Were your works reflective, or were they a response out of, or did it even affect you, say in the 1970''s? L: I thought it was very very dynamic at that time. You know there's a lot of political kind of "purpose" to it, and it was really beautiful. I mean it wasn't sophisticated in any way, but it was very emotional and it was very responsive. It was very engaged, and it was passionate. It was all the things you want in a person. A real kind of human aspect to this art. And that encouraged me a lot. I felt that I was encouraged by it, and at the same time it's lack of sophistication made me want to do something finer. To refine that, to be more subtle, and to be more oblique in a way, because I like subtle things in a way. I love subtlety. 0; Lourdes, I was around here in the Mission [District] when you were doing AFTESR THE EARTHQUAKE, and I remember there were people around here in the community in the 379 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Mission waiting for the piece to come out, like the Selena piece now. So there's talk, "Oh you hear Lourdes is doing a piece? Or "She asked this person to be in it, or this person to help out." I remember just in a basic way there was already that excitement while you were making your piece. A certain community starts stirring up already. And the idea of you as a women, as a Latina doing this, and then the issues you always cover...well I don't like the idea of "following" but more so, your audience I think is pretty defined. Do you think of them at all, or an audience when you're working, or criticism? L: No, I don't think about an audience a lot. No, I don't think about criticism. That even lease. I think critics are bottom feeders. They're like catfish and pigs, you know? They eat the leftovers. They kind of cannibalize anything that's made, so I'm not very kind to them, I don't like them that much. 0: So you're going to be mean on this interview? (we both laugh) I guess I'm a catfish too. It's hard. L: Yes, it's hard. You have to be very talented. Also, there's one thing about critics that they think their opinion is really the right opinion about a certain thing. And they may be completely misreading it. But all they really have access to is their ability to put 380 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. these words together and to convince and audience that that's the way it is. And that' s my experience with critics. Some of them are not as narcissistic as that and are more objective, and do have a clear view of what the filmmakers intentions were, not a mirroring of their own ideas. 0: Like Rosa Linda and Chon, they've written about your work. (Lourdes laughs very loud). Do you think they've been pretty just? Are there parts you think that I could address that they haven't that might be apparent to you at this time? L: Well I think in terms of Rosa Linda, I think she has been really really, how can I say the word, very concerned about certain issues that are intellectual issues that she can expound/expand about in my work that don't have to d o . . . I think of a critic sometimes, because of my own experience as a narcissistic person. In terms of Rosa Linda, I don't see Rosa Linda as a narcissist. Rosa Linda is a scholar. Rosa Linda is a studious person who's trying to decipher work. It's different. It's a very different thing. So, I really admire Rosa Linda for that. And I think she's right on a lot of the times. But sometimes I think they do project certain things are maybe not intended. 381 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 0: Well you've given me a lot to think about. Lourdes, you know in respect to the Chicano Art Movement, do you think because of feminism, or gay, or all the different movements, that nujeres, or women are taking lead of the movement now? It seems like . . . (to be continued) PART THREE... L: I don't know. I think that sometimes women are leading. But I don't' think all the time. You know. 0: Like the women of color, or anything. L: Yeah. No. I don't think so. 0: As opposed to the male dominated nationalist movement. L: I think more women have come up. Do you feel that they are leading? 0: Maybe it's a fantasy of mine. Well the reason why that's kind of interesting, it would change what Chicano art is. Like maybe, there's specifically a Chicana aesthetic? You know. That could be pretty much defined. People have said there's a Chicano aesthetic. This is Chicano art. I do see the woman of color thing has kind of changed a bit. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. L: Huh, I don't think I've paid too much attention to that. 0: Now, where I think we are at now, in the immediate future, it's just all so mixed, the hybrid, the mastizaje, its just everything. It could now be male, transgendered femme or butch identified. Everything is so mixed. It could be a female. I mean, all those labels and categories are changing. Even what Chicano is. L: Yeah, it's true. So, we go back to the whole notion of being a humanist. This is where we should be at. 0: And some people say that's "la la land." That’s fantasyland. L: Sure, it is. 0: But do you think we should stay there. Or teach the children. I know I've tried to be there little bit. Even if it's in fantasy. L: Yeah, I think that's a good place to be. To be a good moral humane person. Regardless of race, sex, or whatever. 0: So where does the place of nation come. Is that still necessary. L: I'm not even concerned about that. In my estimation, nation is not an important thing. 383 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 0: The difference between community and nation. Would you say community building or nation building? L: Well, I would say probably community building, you know, like world communities. I don't know, I don't know anything about that stuff. But nation is always a negative connotation for me. Like nationalism, that sort of thing. 0: Ok that’s more exclusive in a way. And your being more inclusive, which I love that. So it's ok to have a dream of utopia in Aztlan, in occupied Aztlan. Because there's a duality happening, at least in the old prophecies. L: Yeah. 0: Do you think any of your work is informed by the QUINTO SOL stuff? Because that's been replaying. You mentioned that on the interview at Stanford. L: What did I say? 0: In the Stanford interview, you looked at the camera, which was really cool., and you said, none of that is really true, except for some of the old stone ancient pieces. The whole fantasy with the Olmecs that I've had too. That's all fantasy. You've made 384 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. feel it's ok to be there, in that world too, that we can reclaim. People can get critical because they say that's not being didactic, that's not being political, and that's not being in the material world today. So, there are the two sides. The whole QUINTO SOL thing, people would say, is that like a made up Indian? Like the neo-indigenous perspective. Is it valid? How would you deal with that? How would you talk about that? Does it matter to you right now? L: I really don't know how to talk about it, really. I think of myself in a very constructed self. One that has all this history and wants to be a modern person is a way, and wants to be all encompassing. Trying to get all this like, also the indigenous. I'm the indigenous. It is not outside of me in a way. I really don't even know how to describe it. I don't have words. I've never really talked about it much. I've never deciphered it for myself. 0: Because you brought it up in the Stanford interview. L: Mm, hmm.. that's when I was working on a, some, some script about an animated film, I'm sure. That's what I was doing. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 0: And then even on COLUMBUS ON TRIAL, I think that could be argued that was neo-indigenous fantasy, in a way. L: Yeah, there’s a way I also make fun of people that are very serious. I just feel that we take ourselves too seriously. A case in point, my brother, Tony. You know Tony? 0: A little bit. My brother and mom knew him more. They worked with him more. L: Yeah. 0: But, I mean, I know Tony a bit. L: The thing about Tony is that I also, find a little offensive that's it's so exclusive. You know we are not exclusive either. We are also a mixture of things. So, we have to be a more embracing of difference. And I don't agree with anything that's exclusive in any way, you know. Because I think that we live in a world all together, I just wanna, you know, have that feeling. I live in San Francisco and I'm surrounded by Asians. It's like a different thing. I don't know if I'm answering your question. 0: No, you totally are. You're making me think, I'm trying not to interrupt. It's making me think of so 386 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. many things. At times, it's important to be exclusive. Let's say, like I think the battered women's movement. Where there's a time where Alice Walker talks about there's a healthy time to be separatist. Your healing, you®re going through a step in the process, where you have to disengage from whatever is the other. So in that part it's ok, it's not forever, not as a way of life, or as a set of politics. I totally agree, and I love what you’re saying. I don't know why and I of want to bring this, it's kind of going back a step. That character, the women who I said was dressed in drag, who actually ends up saving the day with all the guys crying. I thought that was totally, but for me out of the whole piece, that, I really like that. That was the best. I was wondering how did that come up. Was that part of their script that was there. Because I've never seen Culture Clash perform. So was that part of a routine that they had, or how did she come up and why is she dressed. L: Is this in Columbus? 0: This sister or the partner. I didn't know who she was? The guy that's the lawyer, the native lawyer. L: Yeah. 387 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 0: Well, at the end, his sister or lover? I couldn't get who that was. L: Oh, that's Rosa Linda’s daughter. 0: No way, really! (laughing) L: Yeah! Xochitl! 0: The one that had the suspenders on? L: The one that kills the robbers. Yeah! 0: Well, you know she had her brim hat on, you know, and her suspenders. So, to me I was like for a female that's..., L: Butch! ? 0: Yeah, so she was totally blatantly out there! She's like 'let me take care of this,' you know. So, that for me was one of the best moment that I liked in all the work. (laughing) L: (laughing) 0: Uh, huh. I thought it was kind of out there. L: Yeah. 0: And another part. You say that butch, was that. I had some questions for you about that. Uh, like in The Devil Never Sleeps, you portray yourself, or persona, also. How do you see your self-image. You're definitely not the traditional Mexicans. I 388 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. mean, you don't say your Chicana there, but it' s assumed, I guess, or people that know you. That fills some of the identity, 'cuz we know you. We see you, the way you put yourself in. The glasses and all of that. How were you playing with that? L: Uh, huh. I think what I am trying to do, in The Devil Never Sleeps, is never to call anyone names and to just show where they are. In terms of always migrating from one place to the other, speaking English, changing codes. You know that kind of thing. Urn, that's like really important not to categorize. Because, otherwise, once you start categorizing in a film, and this film really went out to the entire nation. You start giving people preconceived notions. 0: Hmm.. L: This is a Chicano-Chicana who does this. I am who I am. These people are who they are, and this is what happens. The drama goes beyond identity, you know. So, that's what I wanted to do, that was a conscious thing that I wanted to do. How do I see myself? 0: Mm, hmm. L: I see myself as a Chicana filmmaker. That's how I Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. see myself. I see myself as a mother of three sons, and I see myself as a lesbian. 0: Cool. L: You know. 0: So on the visuals. Do you think that people can think that you are lesbian from the visual representation. L: I don't think in that film you could. I don*'t know if you could say if I was a lesbian. You could, if you're a lesbian, you could tell that I was a lesbian. 0: And it wouldn't be offensive. L: No! 0: To say that.... L: No. 0: There could be some pride in that? L: Right! I mean, I'm not trying to look like a lesbian, but I am a lesbian. 0: (laughing) Ok, uh huh. L: You know, you know what I'm saying. 0: And that could all be beautiful. L: Yeah! 0: You know, and, so people could read it, uh, which maybe as a whole the audience would think, oh this 390 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. is not the way women are supposed to look. Or, you know what I mean? Or, uh, you know what I mean? Of "other". People criticize you for whatever. L: Yes. 0: People are always doing that. So, the visual is just your first reading of people. L: Yeah. 0: Um, I want to play with that a lot in the writing. L: That'’ s great. 0: Just you there with your glasses, your shades, that whole play on your visuals. And then that one character in Culture Clash. The thing, I didn't choose her so much, because I wasn't sure if that was suppose to be her kids1 lover. L: It was suppose to be the sister. 0: The actual...sister, like.... L: Yeah, it was suppose to be the sister. 0: Cuz, he says's little sister. L: Yeah. 0: That could mean...and I didn't know i f . . . . L: Yeah, no there was a little sister, yeah, mm, hmm. 0: Okay, thatf11 help. And, well, Lourdes, let me say, you could censor this out or say no. 391 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. L; Sure . 0: I thought maybe that I'd get to this. Do you think its coincidence? Or, how would you explain? I identify as a femme. A lesbian, that's the way I've been my whole life, even though I ride a motorcycle, whatever, I wear boots, or whatever. I'd still feel that I woulcL.and yet in one way it's not even important to have those roles. They get you trouble and I know all that kind of stuff. It changes. That doesn't only mean this or that. But following in that butch-femme thing, like Chicano or Chicana, any other labels of community, that there's a butch element to that I feel that, like Audre Lorde, and maybe Cherrie has identified, Ester Hernandez, you know, maybe even Sylvia, when you look at the partners. And this is where it's leading, its personal stuff, in a way. But I feel that there is Emma Perez. That there is almost, it seems like, uh, more of a movement of butch women that make it out there before femme identified women. Overall... L: I think because overall...I mean... 0: Alicia Gaspar de Alba compared to Deena, or whatever. L: Don't you think it has to do with us being 392 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. aggressive? 0: I couldn't understand it. And I thought, well, is that what it is? Is it that you're better in dealing in the patriarchal world? Or is it just a general.... L: No that you're willing to penetrate! 0: (slightly chuckles) Uh, huh. L: You're willing to go into the world and do your thing. And you know, if you identify as a femme, it seems to me, and I don't know much about this, because I always, I hate it. 0: Yeah, no, no. L: I just hate it. 0: I know, I know, I know. L: Like you know, being femme is like more the recipient, kind of the laid back, kind of the background, all that sort of thing. You know. 0: So that would be like an oppression of an oppression of an oppression, and in one way if, you * re following more of an feminist perspective or something. So, I'm just trying to understand it. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. APPENDIX B There is a listing in chronological order of the major film/video works of Sylvia Morales's and Lourdes Portillo’s in APPENDIX B. Included are the dates of production, including the major roles Portillo specifically had in these productions. When possible, the running times are mentioned, although various editions have caused slight variations in their actual running times in different venues. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. SYLVAN PRODUCTIONS — Sylvia Morales UNIDOS (1972-73) Half-hour bi-weekly Documentaries Series of thirteen shows for KABC-TV, Los Angeles Sylvia Morales - Cinematographer-Director, Writer, Assoc. Producer SESAME S TR E ET (1973) Segment for Cinco de Mayo program Sylvia Morales - Director CAKEERWAYS (1977-78) Educational series for KLCS-TV 58, Los Angeles Sylvia Morales - Writer AS WE SEE IT (1978) Educational series - PBS Sylvia Morales - Production Coordinator CHICANA (1979) 23 minute Documentary Sylvia Morales - Director, Producer and Editor; Ana Nieto- Gomez - Writer EL ESPEJO (1979) Cultural series for KLCS-TV 58, Los Angeles Sylvia Morales - Director, Writer, Producer, Editor "SARA" and "PRIMO" - Teleplays for LA HISTORIA (1980) Dramatic series for PBS Sylvia Morales - Writer SEGUIN (1981) American Playhouse production of movie for PBS Sylvia Morales - Script Supervisor MYTHS AND VISIONS IN FILM (1982) Half-hour Documentary for PBS Sylvia Morales - Producer MALDEF (1983) Half-hour Documentary for PBS Sylvia Morales - Producer 395 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. THE ART AND MAGIC of RUFZNO TAMAYO (1983) Documentary for PBS Sylvia Morales - Producer LOS LOBOS...AM) A TIME TO DANCE (1984) Half-hour Documentary for PBS Sylvia Morales - Director, Producer, Editor AN INTERVIEW WITH.. (1985) Latino Consortium Talk Show for PBS Sylvia Morales - Producer ESPERANZA (1985) Dramatic Video Sylvia Morales - Director, Executive Producer, Writer, Editor VAYAN CON DIOS (1985) One hour Documentary, KCET for PBS Sylvia Morales - Director, Producer, Editor HEARTS ON FIRE (1986-87) Feature length script Sylvia Morales - Writer SIDA IS AIDS (1988) One hour Documentary for PBS and UNIVISION Sylvia Morales - Director, Producer, Writer, Editor VALUES, SEXUALITY AND THE FAMILY (1989) Half-hour Documentary for PBS and UNIVISION Sylvia Morales - Director, Producer, Writer, Editor FAITH EVEN TO THE FIRE (1990-91) One hour Documentary for PBS Sylvia Morales - Producer, Writer, Editor LIFE AND TIMES (1992) Half Hour Documentary for KCET-28, Los Angeles Sylvia Morales - Producer "WORK AND FAMILY" in the series CENTURY OF WOMEN (1994) Two-hour Documentary Sylvia Morales - Director 396 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. "STRUGGLE in the FIELDS" (1994-96) Episode #2 of CHICANO! The Mexican-American Civil Rights Movement One hour Documentary Sylvia Morales - Producer KNOW YOUR PLACE (1995) One-woman play Sylvia Morales - Director, Rose Portillo - Writer, Actor LA i m P IA (1996) 25 minutes Narrative Sylvia Morales - Director and Writer ANGEL m m THE SKY (1997) 25 minute Narrative Sylvia Morales - Director and Writer REAL M W AND OTHER MIRACLES (1998) Feature Narrative Sylvia Morales - Director, Co-writer; Carmen Tafolla - Co writer WOMEN WORKING FOR SOLIDARITY (1998) 16 minute Documentary Sylvia Morales - Producer, Editor TELL ME AGAIN...WHAT IS LOVE? (1998) Half hour Documentary Sylvia Morales - Producer, Writer RESURRECTION BOULEVARD (1999-2001) Several TV episodes Sylvia Morales - Director 397 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. XOCHITL PRODUCTIONS - Lourdes Portillo AFTER THE EARTHQUAFE/DESPUES DEI 2ERRIM5TO (1979) 20 minute b/w Narrative Lourdes Portillo - Producer, Co-Director, Co-Writer IAS MADRES: The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo (1986) 64 minute Documentary Lourdes Portillo and Susana Munoz - Co-Producers, Co- Directors, Co-Writers LA QFRENDA: The Days of the Dead (1988) 60 minute Documentary Lourdes Portillo and Susana Munoz - Co-Directors; Portillo - Producer, Writer VIDA (1989) Short Lourdes Portillo - Director; John Hoffman - Producer COLUMBUS cm TRIAL (1992) 18 minute Experimental Video Lourdes Portillo - Producer and Director MIRRORS OF THE HEART (1993) 60 minute Documentary Lourdes Portillo - Producer, Director, and Writer THE DEVIL NEVER SLEEPS: El diablo nxmca duerme (1995) 82 minute Documentary Lourdes Portillo - Producer and Director SCMETIMeS MY FEET GO MMS (1997) Performance Video Lourdes Portillo - Producer and Director 13 DAYS (1997) Play for the San Francisco Mime Troupe Lourdes Portillo - Multimedia Director THIS IS YOUR DAY (1998) Video Installation Lourdes Portillo - Director 398 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CORPUS: A Home Movie for Selena (1999) 49 minute Documentary Lourdes Portillo - Producer, Director, and Writer SENOBITA EXTRAVIADA - MISSING YOUNG WOMAN (2001) 75 minute Documentary Lourdes Portillo - Producer and Director Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ROYAL EAGLE BEAR PRODUCTIONS - Osa T. Hidalgo-de la Riva AMOR EN AZTLAN: A Ten-Day Acrosscultural Fiesta (1990) 5 minutes, musical montage documentary of a 10-day conference in Santa Cruz, California MUJERIA I: The Olmeca Rap (1991) 4 minutes, animated music video reimagining what the ancient Olmeca monolithic stone heads may have looked like had they been female. MUJERIA II: Primitive and Proud (1992) 17 minutes, animated narrative of one Olmeca who accidentally gets transported across 3000 years, and 3000 miles and is reborn into the spirit of Royal Eagle Bear. TWO SPIRITS: Native Lesbians and Gays (1992) 26 minutes, experimental compilation documentary produced for Deep Dish TV's Quincentennial "Rock the Boat” series. ZONE-4: A Prison Poem (1998) 4 minutes, video poem representing various types of incarcerated women and their respective postures of resistance. MARGINAL-EYES or MUJERIA FANTASIA #1 (2004) 20 minutes, (work-in-progress), dream making and myth making in the context of women's desire. A xxicana lesbiana archaeologist unearths an ancient matrilinear tribe and is rewarded by xxicana lesbianas — the mayor of Los Angeles, and the governor of California. ME AND MR. MAURI (2005) 100 minutes, (work-in-progress), a musical documentary of a friendship between a gay Latino with SZDA/AIDS, and a Chicana lesbiana cancer survivor. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

Asset Metadata

Creator Hidalgo-de la Riva, Teresa (Osa) (author)

Core Title Mujerista moviemaking: Chicana filmmakers Sylvia Morales and Lourdes Portillo

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Critical Studies

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Biography,cinema,OAI-PMH Harvest,sociology, ethnic and racial studies,women's studies

Language English

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c16-404191

Unique identifier UC11335758

Identifier 3145209.pdf (filename),usctheses-c16-404191 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier 3145209.pdf

Dmrecord 404191

Document Type Dissertation

Rights Hidalgo-de la Riva, Teresa (Osa)

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA