Resisting “Chicana and Latina Syndrome”: Preserving Difference across Feminist Accounts of the Self

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Publication Date

Summer 2025

Digital Publisher

Digital Commons at St. Mary's University

Collection

McNair Scholars Symposium

Keywords

mestizaje, multiplicity, “world”-traveling, nepantla, hometactics

Description

This paper considers feminist Chicanx and Latinx philosophers’ theories of the self and takes up the call that we must resist the tendency to clump Chicanx and Latinx identity together. In this paper, I respond to the work of Latina feminist theorist, Carmen Lugo-Lugo, in which she addresses the dangers of homogenizing Chicanx and Latinx identity and insists that we must take seriously the differences between the two identities. While more attention has been given to Chicanx and Latinx work in recent philosophical literature, little has been done to track distinctions between Chicanx and Latinx theories of the self. I consult the works of Latinx and Chicanx feminist philosophers, including Mariana Ortega, María Lugones, Gloria Anzaldúa, Jacqueline Martinez, Norma Alarcón, and Linda M. Alcoff, in order to demonstrate the differences between their descriptions of lived experience and theories of the self. My account reveals that Chicanx and Latinx theories of the self-differ in three major ways: (1) in the history that gave rise to the term Chicanx, (2) in the differences between Latinx and Chicanx lived experience, and (3) in the worlds that Chicanxs and Latinxs belong to. This paper thus illustrates how, by failing to take seriously these differences, we risk further homogenization and/or erasure of multiply-marginalized selves.

Disciplines

Chicana/o Studies | Gender and Sexuality | Latina/o Studies | Race and Ethnicity | Women's Studies

Format

MOV

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Size or Duration

18 minutes 49 seconds

City

San Antonio, Texas

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Resisting “Chicana and Latina Syndrome”: Preserving Difference across Feminist Accounts of the Self

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