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I am a single black parent of three girls. I love my girls and wanted to make sure they had a strong foundation. oldest 2 have graduated from college. My youngest is a sophomore in college. If you have children, have considered having children, or have decided not to have children, what experiences or beliefs do you think influenced your ideas about parenthood? In what ways do you feel the processes you went through before arriving at that decision are similar to or different from those described in Mezey’s articles? To what might you ascribe these differences or similarities? Cite from the readings to support your response.
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“
Cherrie
Moraga
I am the welder.
I understand the capacity of heat
to change the shape of things.
I am suited to work
within the realm of sparks
out of control. I am the welder.
I am taking the power
into my own hands.
”
— This Bridge Called My Back
Biography
Cherrie Moraga was born in Los Angeles in 1952. She is of Chicana/
Anglo descent which has influenced her experiences as a lesbian poet,
playwright, essayist, editor, teacher, and activist.
Moraga describes herself as “La Guera,” which means fair-skinned. She
was born with the features of her Chicana mother and the skin of her
Anglo father. The history of her family has been a large influence on
Moraga’s writing. Her respect for her mother comes from the hardships
and struggles that she endured throughout her childhood. At a young age
her mother became the main support of her own family after her father
left. She worked to survive and had little opportunity to get an education.
Without a formal education in English, Moraga’s mother was considered
illiterate in this country. Her fluency in Spanish was not passed on to
Moraga or her siblings in the hope that they may be able to pass more
effectively in “white” society.
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The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer.
Quick Facts
* Born in 1952
* Her Chicana/
Anglo ancestry
influences her
written work,
teaching, and
activism
* An openly
lesbian Chicana
writer
This page was researched
and submitted by: Merideth R.
Cleary and Erin E. Fergusson on
12/6/96.
Cherrie
Moraga
Biography continued
Because Moraga was fair-skinned, “passing” became a part of daily life that made it easier for her to succeed in the United States. Moraga realized the advantages of having “white privilege” (a term that refers
to the privileges of being white and therefore having more advantages in life). This had a counter-affect
on Moraga’s ability to connect fully with her Chicana background, pulling her further from her mother
and the knowledge of who she really was. Moraga explains, “From all this, I experience a huge disparity
between what I was born into and what I grew to become.”
After her college years Moraga made a realization that led to a new found connection with her mother. She
acknowledged her own lesbianism after years of hiding it, from not only others, but herself. The acceptance of her homosexuality became a link to the heart of her Chicana heritage and opened new doors for an
understanding of herself and her family. “When I finally lifted the lid to my lesbianism, a profound connection with my mother reawakened in me. It wasn’t until I acknowledged and confronted my own lesbianism
in the flesh, that my heartfelt identification with and empathy for my mother’s oppression–due to being
poor, uneducated, and Chicana–was realized,” she said.
Her involvement in writing began early in her life, but her serious works emerged after her “coming out”
as a lesbian. She began to grow more as a feminist and her writing became more than a means of expression, it became a way of life. Her lesbianism became an avenue to her success in writing from her heart
and her mind, together. This was an important turning point in her relation to writing and where it would
lead her.
Moraga began publishing her works in the 1980s. She is one of the first and few Chicana/Lesbian writers
of our times, setting the stage for younger generations of other minority writers and activists.
Along with her books Moraga dove into writing plays. The plays deal with the themes surrounding
feminism, ethnicity, sexuality, and other gender-related issues. Her work in the theatre has contributed
to the growth of the Chicano Theatre. Moraga is currently a member of a Theatre Communications
Group and was the recipient of the NEA Theatre Playwriting Fellowship Award. Her most recent play,
Watsonville: Some Place Not Here, won the Fund For New American Plays Award, from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The play was performed at the Brava Theatre Company of San
Francisco in May of 1996.
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© 2009 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.
The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer.
Cherrie
Moraga
Biography continued
Around the same time that she published her second book in 1983,
Moraga co-founded the group “Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press,”
a group that did not discriminate against homosexuality, class, or race.
Moraga involved herself as well in organizing women-of-color groups
against violence.
In 1981 Moraga wrote and co-edited This Bridge Called My Back with
Gloria Anzalduá, with whom Moraga often collaborated. Perhaps her
most successful and attention-gaining book, it was the winner of the
Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award in 1986.
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© 2009 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.
The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer.
Cherrie
Moraga
Selected Bibliography
Works by the author
Waiting in the Wings: Portrait of a Queer Motherhood (1997)
Art in America Con Acento (1994)
Heroes and Saints & Other Plays (1994)
Sexuality of Latinas (1993) (edited by Moraga, Norma Alarcon, and Ana Castillo)
The Last Generation (1993)
Shadow of a Man (1992)
Cuentos: Stories By Latinas (1983) (edited by Moraga, Alma Gomez, and Mariana
Romo-Carmona)
Giving Up The Ghost (1986)
This Bridge Called My Back (1981) (edited by Moraga and Gloria Anzalduá)
Works about the author
Brandt, Kate, ed. Happy Endings (Naiad Press, Inc., 1993).
Case, Sue Ellen. “Seduced and Abandoned: Chincanas and Lesbians in Representation” in
Negotiating Performance: Gender, Sexuality, and Theatricality in Latino America, ed. Diane
Taylor and Juan Villegas (Duke University Press, 1994).
Huerta, Jorge. “Cherrie Moraga’s ‘Heroes and Saints,’ Chicano Theatre for our Times”
(THEATREFORUM (UCSD), 1992).
Sternbach, Nancy Saporta. “‘A Deep Racial Memory of Love’: The Chicana Feminism of
Cherrie Moraga” in Breaking Boundaries: Latina Writing and Critical Readings, ed. Asuncion
Horno-Delgado, Eliana Ortega, Nina M. Scott, and Nancy Saporta Sternbach (Massachusetts
University Press, 1989).
Yarbro-Bejarnano, Yvonne. “Cherrie Moraga” in Chicano Writers: First Series, ed. Francisco A.
Lomeli and Carl R. Shirley (Gale Research, 1989).
Yarbro-Bejarnano, Yvonne. “Chicana Literature from a Chicana Feminist Perspective” in
Chicana Creativity and Criticism: Charting New Frontiers in American Literature, ed. Maria
Herrera-Sobek and Helena Maria Viramontes (Mexico/Chicano Program, University of
California, 1988).
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© 2009 Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.
The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer.
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