Acclaimed Chicana feminist Cherríe Moraga kicks off the Women of Color Speaker Series Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. tonight in the EMU Ballroom.
Hosted by the ASUO Women’s Center, the 2008-09 speaker series centers on the theme of “intersecting identities.” Moraga’s personal experience with various roles, including that of a poet, a teacher and a lesbian, make her an ideal first speaker.
“The theme of intersecting identities is an all-encompassing one,” said Hollie Putnam, ASUO Women’s Center spokesperson and University junior. “The emphasis on women of color intersects all communities and creates an interdependency that I feel is very important to recognize.”
The majority of Moraga’s work focuses on this concept of social identity. Currently the artist-in-residence for Stanford University’s department of drama and department of Spanish and Portuguese, Moraga’s poems, plays, and essays have won numerous awards including the Pen West Award for Drama.
The Women’s Center first thought to invite Moraga at the end of a previous year’s speaker series, when presenter Angela Davis cited Moraga as one of the major influences in her own life as an activist. Future speakers have yet to be confirmed, but as Veronica Barrera, Women’s Center diversity coordinator and University senior, explains, “all of them will explore how their multiple identities encompass a broader sense of self.”
“The importance of these speakers is that their presence will lead to a discussion of issues that are otherwise under the radar,” Barrera said. “UO has diversity, but the student body is still predominately white. By making women of color the primary focus of this series, a piece is filled that might otherwise be passed over.”
Before the speech Wednesday night, Moraga will visit professor Pedro Garcia-Caro’s class, U.S. Hispanic Literatures, From Aztlán to Borinquén. Garcia-Caro first became familiar with Moraga’s work during his own study of cultural connections between California, Mexico and Chile.
“I think these issues challenge students at many levels,” Garcia-Caro said. “To begin with, to think of Chicano and Chicana identity makes them ponder on the official history of the U.S. They have learned to look at the sacred monuments and narratives of this country in a very different, more critical light.”
Such questioning is an example of what the Women’s Center hopes to accomplish throughout the speaker series. Though the speech qualifies as an extracurricular activity that some may be unwilling to make time for, both Garcia-Caro and Barerra encourage students to take advantage of these opportunities.
“This kind of visit is what makes a university such a lively and life-changing space,” Garcia-Caro said. “To be able to first read Moraga’s essays such as ‘La Güera,’ one of her plays like ‘Giving Up the Ghost,’ and then have a chance to meet her personally or listen to her directly makes the learning experience for our students a deep and lived experience of cultural production.”
Reflecting upon her own such experiences, Barrera comments, “go with an open mind. Education outside of the classroom can be so impactful if you just open yourself up to it.”
Q&A with Cherrie Moraga
ODE: What were the biggest challenges you faced as a student, when you were emerging as a feminist and activist?
Moraga: I graduated from college in 1974 and it was just a different world back then. It wasn’t until after I graduated that all the issues I was a part of coalesced. Being Chicana, being a feminist, being lesbian – all of that came together and showed me how I was to proceed as an activist.
The obstacles I have faced, well, by the virtue of the three issues I’m involved in, I’m in a position where it’s hard to combine all at the same time. Explaining how all of this is interlocking, that’s my life’s practice.
ODE: How do you feel the decision on Nov. 4 will affect the feminist movement?
Moraga: Well, I mean, what I’m talking when I’m talking about feminism is a very specific definition of feminism. Really, I’m talking in terms of social justice and a support for all people who are impacted by social discrimination. (Feminism) is not a single-issue movement in any way. So, for example, when (Senator Barack) Obama ran against Senator Hillary Clinton, even as a feminist, I supported Obama before Clinton because, politically, I felt that he was somebody who would be more representative of a lot of disenfranchised people in this country.
You look at eight years of the Bush regime and you look at hundreds of thousands of deaths that he’s responsible for and trillions of dollars of debt because of the military and because of inappropriate greed that he’s allowed to have. Just when looking at those two sides, hopefully after Nov. 4 we’ll have an end to this war in Iraq and a much more equal distribution of the financial resources that this government has. I’m not fully convinced that’s going to happen but certainly Obama has made promises to that effect. Obviously, if those promises are true and there is a better distribution of resources, it’s going to have a positive impact for women of color and children, the working class and the poor.
ODE: What key issues do you feel are important in the feminist movement right now and which ones do you think you might address in your speech on Wednesday?
Moraga: The key issue is really, and I’m sorry if this is sounding repetitive, but you simply can’t, when you’re talking about feminism, have a single-sided definition. There is a very narrow definition of feminism nationally. That’s why (Gov.) Sarah Palin can appropriate the word feminism. That term and the women’s movement are being appropriated by Sarah Palin because feminism, at least in the public view, remains a very single-sided issue. Single-issued in the sense that it’s basically viewed as white women having equal access to what white men have. That kind of feminism is not feminism; it’s completely reactionary. What we’re really looking at is social justice.
From very early on, since the ’70s, I’ve always defined the kind of feminism that I understand as a feminism that is about looking at how government systems impart justice. All of the issues that are affecting women – rape, sexual assault, sterilization abuse, reproduction rights – all these kinds of issues that are affecting everyone across the board are more severely affecting women of color. So what we’re looking at here is trying to understand feminism in terms of race and class and how that all, in particular, impacts women. That’s the type of feminism I understand.
ODE: Do you plan on incorporating any of your personal work into the speech?
Moraga: Oh, my talks always include my work as I frame political analysis within the scope of my personal life. My talks are always about the roads I’ve walked and the roads I need to continue to walk. I write that way so as to bring people out of their heads and into their bodies. To really help people understand what political activism is about.
ODE: I know you’ve written the forward to two anthologies concerning the feminism of women of color. What about this topic keeps you intrigued?
Moraga: It’s not at all about being intrigued. It’s about political urgency. It’s really always about a political urgency in trying to hear the voice of a people who are largely barred from public access in terms of media and national visibility. Women of color are the least important on the political agenda so that’s what keeps me compelled to continue to do that work.
ODE: What overarching advice would you like to share with students?
Moraga: My mantra for young people as of late is to do one act of courage. One act of courage takes guts and good sense to do it, and from that more acts of courage will come. It just works that way. If you don’t act, even if it’s jus
t a small gesture, you become immobilized. Young people have the good bodies and fresh minds, and they’re the ones that should be out on the street.
[email protected]