How to be a Chicana Role Model, or How to be a 21st century Chicana

Abstract

The Chicano Movement founded its origins on the basis of the existence of a clear-cut borderline between what was considered center/periphery. Nonetheless, said Movement, of an extremely inherent patriarchal character, promoted the maintenance of an internal hierarchical division based on gender and sexuality. The Literature produced by Chicanas, hence, fiercely fought to dismantle such breaking line, paving the way for the publication of the notion of "Chicana identity" from a completely Chicana feminist perspective, and consequently, created role models and categories that became central for the Chicana plight.The main objective of this essay is to observe the way the new sociocultural situation of the US society in general, and the Chicano/a community in particular, have contributed to the inevitable revision of categories and labels which became central within the group during the previous decades and depict the revision of said categories in the work of a young, contemporary Chicana writer, Michele Serros.