Chicana feminism is a movement that developed in response to the inability of the Chicano movement of the 1960s and 1970s and the Anglo  feminist movement to incorporate the specific experience and social justice issues confronting women of Mexican ancestry in the United States. The experience of Chicanas is rooted historically in the colonization of Mexico and subsequently in the attainment and annexation of most of what was northern Mexico in the 1800s by the United States. Additionally, the Chicana experience is deeply informed by continued neocolonialist economic migration and immigration of Mexicans, both temporarily and permanently, to live and work in the United States.

This colonialist past and neocolonialist present combine to create a complex matrix of religion, ethnicity, culture, race, class, sexuality, and gender that characterizes the hybrid and complicated nature of Chicana feminism. Although there has been a history of Mexican women feminists in various forms since colonial times, what sets apart the Chicana feminist who evolved in the 20th century is a focus on political praxis combined with the creation of what Chicana writer Cherríe Moraga calls a theory in the flesh—theory that is inherently political in drawing on the contradictions and real-life experiences of Chicana women.

Littlejohn, Stephen W and Karen A.Floss. (2009). Encyclopedia of Communication Theory.USA:SAGE.

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Gayes Mahestu
Edwina Ayu Kustiawan