Readings of a ‘Hungry Woman’

Readings of a ‘Hungry Woman’

Writer captivates audience during discussion, signing

By Roxane Márquez

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

There’s no doubt about it – Cherríe Moraga is indeed a
crowd pleaser.

That is, at least, to most of the individuals present at the
Faculty Center’s California Room last Thursday evening. For
although some of the silver-haired Friends of English trickled
quietly out the door a half-hour into her dramatic reading titled
"The Hungry Woman: A Portrait of Queer Motherhood," Moraga
captivated the rest of her predominantly Chicana/o, Latina/o
audience for more than two hours.

But whether recounting her childhood experiences growing up in
Los Angeles or acting out a scene between a lesbian couple in her
upcoming play, Moraga’s call for a socio-political revolution
resonated throughout the very room that, less than three years ago,
had functioned as the LAPD’s detention center for students awaiting
arrest following a volatile protest for a Chicana/o Studies
department.

"There is revolutionary potential in a story and in the
storyteller," Moraga said early into the reading. "The question is,
how do we breed a revolutionary generation of Latinos?"

Her forthright proclamation for political insurgency was nothing
new to those familiar with her work. Fifteen years ago, Moraga made
her political leanings public via her co-editorship of a feminist
compilation titled "This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical
Women of Color."

This anthology symbolized an insurrection within the women’s
liberation movement, explained Sonia Saldívar-Hull, an
English, Chicana/o Studies and women’s studies professor.

Moraga "links Chicana feminism with Third World feminism,"
Saldívar-Hull continued. "Throughout her prodigious work in
the decade of the 1980s, the Chicana feminism that Moraga theorizes
is a global theory of power for women."

Moraga’s socio-political opinions later emerged through further
publication of poetry, prose and more recently, plays. As a result,
Moraga has been the recipient of numerous awards and invitations to
teach on a university level.

One such request included the UC Regents’ professorship, a post
that Moraga accepted. This quarter Moraga is teaching a playwriting
and an English seminar.

"The graduate seminar is particularly enjoyable; I’m meeting
people who are as smart as I am," Moraga joked during the
reading.

Standing stoutly underneath a row of stage lights, Moraga
maintained her characteristic no-holds-barred frankness. Her voice
and mannerisms alternated from gentle poignancy to down-to-earth
brusqueness depending on her subject matter.

"I am looking for the insatiable woman," Moraga proclaimed as
she clutched the microphone stand and explained the riveting power
of the familiar Mexican folk tale of "La Llorona," in which a
broken-hearted woman drowns her children and then wails incessantly
for them afterward.

"We have never had the power to do our own defining … we
remember (this) in spite of society’s attempts to try to make us
forget," she argued. "If I can get to the heart of ‘La Llorona,’ I
can get to the heart of the Mexican prison and name us, free
us."

Yet Moraga’s opinions transcended the typical rhetoric of
Chicano nationalism that many have argued focuses on oppression by
race while ignoring issues of gender and sexual orientation.

"A successful revolution will have to be material and
metaphysical, sexual and spiritual," Moraga thundered. "I’m a
nationalist, but brothers, you’ve got to get back with this one
issue stuff, that ain’t gonna go nowhere.

"You’ve got some real chingones here," she continued referring
to the younger generation of Chicano activists. "But if you’re
going to leave any of those components out, you’re going to have a
failed movement. That’s what happened in the ’60s and ’70s."

This synthesis of issues served as the core of her message
Thursday night, as Moraga juxtaposed the ongoing fight against
racism and sexism with the experience of lesbian motherhood.

"He’s blessed," Moraga said with regard to her son Rafael Angel.
"He is surrounded by such fabulous Mexican womanhood, and the men,
they’re a very different breed of men.

"(Rafael) is already a little machito," she added. "It’s in his
nature. He’s very boy – he probably takes after his mother," she
chuckled.

Following the reading, Moraga’s students lined up for a brief
book signing. Praise for Moraga dominated the conversation.

"She is a rarity," exclaimed Jerry Simon, a self-described UCLA
aficionado. "So many writers today have façades. She was
always very honest with her lifestyle."

Those close to Moraga said candor has always been a component of
her personality.

"More than anything else, Cherríe always was who she was,"
according to Moraga’s sister JoAnne Lawrence. "She’d get in trouble
for her life."

And for many, Moraga’s sincerity has made a lasting mark on the
continual struggle for Chicano empowerment.

"She is reconstructing mexicanidad," explained art Professor
Judy Baca, a muralist and an acquaintance of Moraga’s for the past
15 years. "She’s claimed for herself a Chicana sensibility … that
we are more complex than the whore, the mother and the virgin.

"Cherríe’s created this range of female … she’s looked at
her male self, her mother self," Baca concluded. "It’s marvelous to
see her deepen."

SUSIE CHU/Daily Bruin

Author Cherríe Moraga signs "Loving in the War Years"
Thursday night at the Faculty Center after her dramatic reading
titled "The Hungry Woman: A Portrait of Queer Motherhood."

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