Building with Our Hands

This is the first interdisciplinary collection of articles addressing the unique history of Chicana women. From a diverse range of perspectives, a new generation of Chicana scholars here chronicles the previously undocumented rich tapestry of Chicanas' lives over the last three centuries. Focusing on how women have grappled with political subordination and sexual exploitation, the contributors confront the complex intersection of class, race, ethnicity, and gender that defines the Chicana experience in America.

The book analyzes the ways that oppressive power relations and resistance to domination have shaped Chicana history, exploring subjects as diverse as sexual violence against Amerindian women during the Spanish conquest of California to contemporary Chicanas' efforts to construct feminist cultural discourses.

The volume ends with a provocative dialogue among the contributors about the challenges, frustrations, and obstacles that face Chicana scholars, and the voices heard here testify to the vibrant state of Chicano scholarship.

Trenchant and wide-ranging, this collection is essential reading for understanding the dynamics of feminism and multiculturalism.

Adela de la Torre is Chair of Mexican-American Studies and Associate Professor of Health Care Administration at California State University, Long Beach. Beatriz Pesquera is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Davis.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
CONTRIBUTORS
A NOTE ON ETHNIC LABELS

I. Introduction
Beatriz M. Pesquera and Adela de la Torre

PART ONE • Acts of Domination I Acts of Resistance
2. Sexual Violence in the Politics and Policies of Conquest:
Amerindian Women and the Spanish Conquest of Alta California
Antonia I. Castafieda
3. And, Yes .. . The Earth Did Part: On the Splitting of
Chicanafo Subjectivity
Angie Chabram Dernersesian
4. Speaking from the Margin: Uninvited Discourse on Sexuality and Power
Emma Perez

PART TWO • Cultural Representations I Cultural Presentations
5. La Tules of Image and Reality: Euro-American Attitudes and
Legend Formation on a Spanish-Mexican Frontier
Deena]. Gonzalez
6. "It Is My Last Wish That .. . ":A Look at Colonial
Nuevo Mexicanas through Their Testaments
Angelina F Vryna
7. "Star Struck": Acculturation, Adolescence, and the
Mexican American Woman, 1920- 1950
Vicki L. Ruiz
8. The Mother Motif in La Bamba and Boulevard Nights
Rosa Linda Fregoso

PART THREE • Contested Domains: Economy and Family
9. Gender, Class, and Households: Migration Patterns in
Aguascalientes, Mexico
Maria de los Angeles Crummett
I0. Hard Choices and Changing Roles among Mexican Migrant Campesinas
Adela de la Torre
II. "In the Beginning He Wouldn't Lift Even a Spoon":
The Division of Household Labor
Beatriz M. Pesquera

PART FOUR • Social Reproduction: Institutional and
"Uninstitutional" Lives
12. Slipping through the Cracks: Dilemmas in Chicana Education
Denise A. Segura
13. Gender and the Life Course: A Case Study of Chicana Elderly
Elisa Facio
14. Conclusion
Adela de la Torre and Beatriz M. Pesquera

INDEX