‘Once you get the card you can do anything you want.’ Migrant Identities and Gender Transgression in Chicana Dramatic Literature

Abstract

Abstract: Issues of migration, frontiers and identity are recurrent in Chicano/a literature. In Real Women Have Curves the protagonists are conditioned by la migra as much as by race stereotyping and gender limits, living in a metaphoric frontera between clandestine existence and public acknowledgement; between curvy, dark-skinned beauty, and white, androgynous images of womanly perfection. The Hungry Woman is situated in a symbolic territory where Medea has been banished for being a lesbian. Both texts are constructed around ethnic and gender identities, and they both create worlds in which limits are broken and barriers transgressed with a clear Chicana feminist conscience.Resumen: Temas como migración, fronteras e identidad proliferan en la literatura chicana. En Real Women Have Curves las protagonistas están condicionadas por “la migra”, estereotipos de raza y límites de género, viviendo en una “frontera” entre la clandestinidad y el reconocimiento; entre una belleza oscura con curvas e imágenes de perfección blancas y andróginas. The Hungry Woman se sitúa en una “tierra de nadie” a donde Medea es desterrada por lesbiana. Ambos textos crecen alrededor de la identidad étnica y de género,y ambos crean mundos en los que se rompen barreras y se transgreden límites con una clara conciencia feminista.