Spiritual Mestizaje: Religion, Gender, Race, and Nation in Contemporary Chicana Narrative

Gloria Anzald繳a’s narrative innovations and theoretical contributions, particularly her concept of mestiza consciousness, have influenced thinking about colonialism, gender, history, language, religion, sexuality, spirituality, and subjectivity. Yet, as Theresa Delgadillo argues, in spite of this widespread attention, Anzald繳a’s theory of spiritual mestizaje has remained underexamined. Delgadillo contends that spiritual mestizaje was central to the queer feminist Chicana theorist’s life and thought, and that it provides a critical framework for interpreting contemporary Chicana narratives. First mentioned in Anzald繳a’s pioneering book Borderlands/La Frontera, spiritual mestizaje is a transformative process involving a radical, sustained critique of oppression, and the cultivation of a life engaged with the sacred. Delgadillo analyzes the concept in Anzald繳a’s work and in relation to other forms of spirituality and theories of oppression. Demonstrating how contemporary Chicana narratives build on Anzald繳a’s theories of spirituality, she interprets novels by Denise Ch獺vez, Demetria Mart穩nez, and Kathleen Alcal獺; Norma Cant繳’s memoir Can穩cula; and the documentaries Flowers for Guadalupe/Flores para Guadalupe and Se簽orita Extraviada. In these powerful cultural critiques, Chicanas offer alternative visions of spirituality as they challenge normative categories of gender, sexuality, nation, and race.

Latin America Otherwise
A Series Edited by Walter D. Mignolo, Irene Silverblatt, and Sonia Saldívar-Hull