CHICANA AGENCY AND IDENTITY WITHIN THE MOVIMIENTO by ERIN CAROL ANASTASIA ...

262 Pages·2015·1.47 MB·English

FROM THE FIELDS TO THE STREETS TO THE STAGE: CHICANA AGENCY
AND IDENTITY WITHIN THE MOVIMIENTO

by

ERIN CAROL ANASTASIA MOBERG

A DISSERTATION

Presented to the Department of Romance Languages
and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy

December 2015
DISSERTATION APPROVAL PAGE

Student: Erin Carol Anastasia Moberg

Title: From the Fields to the Streets to the Stage: Chicana Agency and Identity Within the
Movimiento

This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Department of Romance
Languages by:

Analisa Taylor Chairperson
Amalia Gladhart Core Member
Evlyn Gould Core Member
Theresa May Institutional Representative

and

Scott L. Pratt Dean of the Graduate School

Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School.

Degree awarded December 2015.

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© 2015 Erin Carol Anastasia Moberg
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DISSERTATION ABSTRACT

Erin Carol Anastasia Moberg

Doctor of Philosophy

Department of Romance Languages

December 2015

Title: From the Fields to the Streets to the Stage: Chicana Agency and Identity Within the
Movimiento

The unionization of the United Farm Workers in 1962 precipitated the longest
labor movement in US history, which in turn inspired all sectors of Chicana/o activism
and artistic production. As the Movimiento gained support and recognition throughout
the 1960s, grassroots and activist theater and performance played fundamental roles in
representing its causes and goals. By the 1980s, however, the Movimiento was frequently
represented and understood as a reclaiming of Chicano identity through an assertion of
Chicano masculinity, a reality which rendered the participation and cultural production of
Chicanas even less visible within an already marginalized cultural and historical legacy.
In this dissertation, I seek to develop historically grounded answers to questions
around issues of male visibility and female and lesbian/gay/bisexual/queer invisibility
within the Movimiento and dominant Anglo culture. I work to bridge this critical gap in
the treatment of plays by Chicana/o dramatists in two ways: (1) by examining plays by
Chicanas without attributing or reducing their impact to their identities as women,
lesbians, and/or feminists but rather by considering the performative characteristics of
their works and (2) by engaging issues of gender and sexual biases and hierarchies across
several decades of Chicana/o cultural production.
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A primary goal of this project is to shift and expand the critical focus of
scholarship and discourse on Chicana/o theater and performance in order to consider the
lived experiences and creative contributions of the many participants in the Movimiento,
many of whom are not represented through the perspective, experience, and voice of the
heteropatriarchal Chicano subject. I maintain that we must take into account multiple and
often conflicting representations of the Movimiento and of Chicana/o identity in order to
more fully understand the history of Chicana/os in the US and to better confront the
mechanisms of exclusion toward Chicana/os that have continued into our present
moment. At stake is the equal treatment and inclusion of the contributions of Chicana
and lesbian/gay/bisexual/queer Chicana/o dramatists as well as a more profound and
nuanced understanding of the fight for the liberation of multiple and diverse Chicana/o
subjects that has continued into our present moment.
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CURRICULUM VITAE

NAME OF AUTHOR: Erin Carol Anastasia Moberg

GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED:

University of Oregon, Eugene, OR
Catholic University of America, Washington, DC
Hamilton College, Clinton, NY

DEGREES AWARDED:

Doctor of Philosophy, Romance Languages, 2015, University of Oregon
Master of Arts, Modern Languages and Literature, 2010, Catholic University of
America
Bachelor of Arts, Hispanic Studies, 2008, Hamilton College

AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST:

Chicana/o Cultural Production & History
Chicana/o, Latina/o, and Latin American Theater & Performance
Women, Gender, and Queer Studies

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

Graduate Teaching Fellow, Department of Romance Languages, University of
Oregon [UO], 2010-2015

Steward, Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation, [GTFF], UO, 2013-2014, 2015

PhD Representative, Romance Languages Graduate Student Association
[RLGSA], UO, 2012-2013, 2015

Vice President of Political Education, GTFF, UO, 2014-2015

Vice President, RLGSA, UO, 2014-2015

Graduate Committee Graduate Student Representative, Department of Romance
Languages, UO, 2011-2012, 2013-2014

Resident Director, Oregon University System [OUS] Study Abroad Program,
Querétaro, México, 2012
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President, RLGSA, UO, 2011-2012

Co-Chair, Romance Languages Graduate Student Conference, “Resistance and
Occupation,” UO, 2011-2012

Co-Founder, RLGSA, UO, 2010-2011

Committee Chair, Romance Languages Graduate Student Conference,
“Displacing Boundaries in the Romance World,” UO, 2010

st
Supervisor, 1 -year Spanish, Department of Modern Languages and Literature,
Catholic University of America [CUA], 2009-2010

Teaching Assistant, Department of Modern Languages and Literature, CUA,
2008-2010

GRANTS, AWARDS, AND HONORS:

Dissertation Fellowship, Oregon Humanities Center, UO, 2014-2015

Stickles Scholarship, Department of Romance Languages, UO, 2014-2015

Charles A. Reed Graduate Fellowship, College of Arts & Sciences, UO, 2013-
2014

Stickles Scholarship, Department of Romance Languages, UO, 2012-2013

Risa Palm Graduate Fellowship, College of Arts & Sciences, UO, 2011-2012

Graduate Research Scholarship, Department of Romance Languages, UO, 2011-
2012

Beall Fellowship, Department of Romance Languages, UO, 2010-2011

Outstanding Instructor of the Year, CUA, 2008-2009

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The completion of this dissertation was supported in part by a Dissertation
Fellowship from the Oregon Humanities Center and by fellowships and scholarships
from the College of Arts & Sciences and the Department of Romance Languages at the
University of Oregon.
It was also supported by the generous and diverse Eugenians who employed me in
part-time work throughout my tenure as a graduate student, as a nanny, a
weeder/landscaper, a house/pet-sitter, a tutor, a restaurant worker, a translator, and a
personal assistant.
My five years as a doctoral student and graduate employee were supported from
beginning to end by Nat Brenner, my colleague, office-mate, and partner in all things
RLGSA/GTFF and in all endeavors to resist, revolutionize, and rebel against the
increasing corporatization of higher education. ¡Sí se puede!
My most recent revisions were influenced, in part, by conversations with my
students in SPAN 348, whose willingness to engage with challenging and intimate topics
through the study of Chicana/o cultural production reaffirmed for me the significance of
continued work in the fields of Chicana/o Studies and Chicana/o theater and
performance.
Much of this book was conceptualized, written, and rewritten in the company of
all of the Perk regulars and especially Logan Gowen, who afforded me countless
opportunities to talk through my writing process and allowed me to take up significant
table space for over a year.
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The final stages of writing and editing were supported by my colleague and
compañera Luz Romero, whose attentive eyes and thoughtful ears helped to prepare me
for my final dissertation defense. ¡Muchísimas gracias!
I am grateful to have found not only a mentor but also a friend, neighbor, and
like-spirited person in Analisa Taylor, the Chair of my Dissertation Committee and a
writer and thinker whose words and work always inspire in me—and others—necessary
and profound (self)reflection and (self)examination. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

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DEDICACIÓN

*
To my first love,

who repaired my spirit and made me conscious and loved me wholly
from the day we met,
and all the days afterward,
through adolescence,
our self-absorbed college years,
and more than a decade spent
intertwined and
working through our shit:

I remember all of it; I miss you still; I wrote this, in the end, without you.

*
To the people I once called parents,

who couldn’t love any of us
or even themselves,
who missed so many opportunities
to know me,
who lack substance and consciousness and honesty,
who always met my self-awareness with repression,
my intensity with violence,
my intellect with ridicule,
my love with terror,
my empathy with cruelty,
my wisdom with ignorance,
and my honesty with denial:

I remember enough to be sure; I miss you not at all; I wrote this, from the very beginning,
in spite of you.

*
To the grief that brought me deeper,

by (nearly) fracturing my insides and my optimism
and by rubbing me raw,
from the first flicker of doubt
to the agonizing hours and years spent waiting
until
I finally (nearly) believed
she was gone:

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