Chicana

Similar in style to the pivotal Chicano film, I am Joaquin, this all-Chicana production asserts a feminist corrective to Joaquin's overt male nationalism. A tribute to all the courageous and freedom-loving women in the history of the Mexican-Chicano people, this cinematic polemic opens with a challenge to the nurturing woman stereotype and proceeds to celebrate the matriarchies of Aztec and other pre-Columbian cultures violently supplanted by the 16th-century conquistadores' cult of machismo. In subsequent centuries, however, Mexicana/Chicana women combatted prevailing patriarchal structures by demanding the right to an education and by fighting alongside men in Mexico's battles for autonomy. With the turn-of-the-century's massive northern migrations, women workers joined with male counterparts in the labor movement's struggle against industrial exploitation and discrimination. Continuing the battle for bread and roses, Chicana women have been vital participants in the United Farmworkers union and have spear-headed social service centers in their communities. Sylvia Morales' 500-year overview is punctuated by the consciousness-raising masterworks of Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Juan O'Gorman, Jose Guadalupe Posada, Fermin Revueltas and Juan Cordero.