‘Once you get the card you can do anything you want.’ Migrant identities and gender transgression in chicana dramatic literature

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. 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