Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1998. [Vol. 5.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 25)

Studies - András Tarnóc: Voices From the Wild Zone: Three Versions of the Feminist Aesthetic in American Culture

Consequently, the Chicana aesthetic assigns the following role to the author: a promoter of psychological well-being, a teacher, a catalyst toward self-actualization, and a booster of ethnic pride and consciousness. While black feminism is overtly political, mostly associated with Marxism, Chicana feminism emphasizes the psychological and spiritual well-being of the community. According to Evangelina Vigil love is one of the most important forces that can save the Chicana community. Vigil and Hoyos emphasize spirituality based on Elihu Carranza's Chicanismo, promoting the harmony of the individual with his community, a moral duty "to make woman as he is with woman as he ought to be" (Treacy 87). Vigil, unlike the main trend of Chicana culture, is culturally nationalistic (Treacy 88) and centrifugal. She equates Mexicanness with femininity, as the latter includes nurturing and peopleorientedness based on the family and the cultural legacy of matriarchy (Treacy 89). Gloria Anzaldúa describes the Chicana condition with the Aztec term, nepantilism or being "torn between options" (Álarcon 99). The Chicana is a site of a cultural struggle in which the tenets of white culture debase and devalue Mexican culture, and both Chicano and Anglo culture confront native-American culture, placing the Chicana in the dilemma of the "mixed breed," demonstrated by the Malinche myth (Álarcon 98). The historical background of Chicana feminism is similar to black and white feminism as it stems from the same era, the 1960's. Chicana feminism's main nurturing force is black feminism as the "woman, life, and mestizaje affirming discourse" is a Chicana equivalent of womanism. In its overall objectives it appears to be centripetal, and similarly to womanism emphasizes the common participation of Mexican-American women and men in the fight against gender and racial oppression. Chicana feminism with such exceptions as Evangelina Vigil's cultural nationalism exerts a centripetal force in the macro-cultural context, striving to stay away from versus patterns. While white feminism is essentialist, black feminism is overtly political, Chicana feminism stays on the spiritual level. All three feminisms strive to promote the image of the new person, represented by Wittig's Amazon, Weems' Africana Woman and the reinterpretation of the Malinche myth. Whereas white feminism is primarily confronted with the concept of universal patriarchy, black