Chicano Studies 101

Whether Anders realizes it or not, we Chicanas are telling our own stories, in print, not in film. Our creative works reveal our own points of view, not sensationalized Hollywood versions.

Writers like Gloria Anzaldua, Sandra Cisneros, Cherrie Moraga, Helena Maria Viramontes, Lorna Dee Cervantes, Denise Chavez, Gloria Alvarez, Elba Sanchez and Lucha Corpi and comics like Monica Palacios and Marga Gomez have been telling the realities of Chicana life for the past decade or so.

We’re definitely out there--ask anyone who teaches ethnic studies and women’s studies. Hollywood just doesn’t know where to look for us--just as it doesn’t know where to find African-American, Asian-American, Native American and gay and lesbian writers either.

TERRI DE LA PENA

Santa Monica

De la Pena is the author of a novel, “Margins.”