Needing more: chicana lesbian desire as intervention and offering

Abstract

Introducing the 1991 publication of Chicana Lesbians: The Girls Our Mothers Warned Us About, editor and visionary Carla Trujillo identifies the seed planted by Juanita Ramos’ 1987 anthology Compañeras: Latina Lesbians. Detailing her experiential arc from exuberant to unsettled, Trujillo explains: “Compañeras had only teased me. Not only did I want more, I needed more” (ix). Trujillo’s editorial recognition of a lack—of presence, voice, power, visibility—as well as the need to foster spaces for the nurturing of more Chicana lesbian voices and work engage two key components of what I identify as “needing more,” a critical engagement of Chicana lesbian desire as intervention and offering. Using analysis of queer, decolonial, and performance studies, I suggest that Chicana Lesbian desire as articulated in Trujillo’s anthology can be seen as a critical unsettling that posits both a critique of existing norms and structures as well as an active envisioning of new modes of self and queer familia. Shifting from theory to literature, I offer an application of “needing more” to two original contributions from Chicana Lesbians by Monica Palacios and Diane Alcalá. My analysis illuminates the three key elements of “needing more”—a recognition of lack, a conscious and ongoing envisioning of “more,” and an active renegotiation of familia within the context of queer desire and community. I close the essay with my letter testimonio in the spirit of Trujillo’s “needing more” and the collection’s enduring engagement with and impact on queer familia.