One of the key points
brought up today by Professor Florinda Goldberg of the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem presented today in her lecture titled "MeXicanoMaternaLesbianBilingualism:
The Identity Crossroads in Writings of Cherrie L. Moraga," is the desire
to keep the tension required to be preserved between a person's multiple identities
such as racial and gender. Goldberg explains as per her research on Moraga,
that Moraga questions why one should choose any specific identity over another,
and warns not to abandon the previous identity even if embracing a new one. For
example, apparently Moraga considers being a mother as one identity, and being
a lesbian or Chicana as another, questioning why should she identifies herself
as only one of the three.
Goldberg also enlightens
that Moraga was pleased when Obama was elected yet drew attention to the centralization
of black-white racial discourse, leaving other racial issues such as
"brown" (Latino)-white discourse left out. Similarly, according to
Goldberg, Moraga acknowledges that gay marriage is a great conquest in Mexico,
yet the gay-couple-model is problematic since other models which do not fit the
couple-model are also left out unaccepted.
I am not familiar with Moraga's work
"Hungry Woman: A Mexican Medea" but it sounds intriguing and relevant
to our modern identity/individualism discourse.
Moraga is a writer who chose to expose her own sexual orientation
publicly (willingly) and so I would inquire further if she was she criticized for it (if
at all), and if so in what way. Goldberg emphasizes that Moraga could have
chosen to hide her sexuality and keep it private as many artists still choose
to do, yet Moraga decided it was part of her writing; therefore she had to be
open about it. I find it a bold decision and admirable, on Moraga's part, since
unfortunately even in our times the public and literary fans' reactions are
usually unexpected. There is a variety of fields of interest in which sadly is
still needed to hide one's sexual orientation whether if it is out of fears such as he/she will
be fired or lose their devoted fans, and this is despite the immense progress
already made (in many aspects) regarding the gay-straight issue
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