Communal Feminisms: Chicanas, Chilenas, and Cultural Exile. Theorizing the Space of Exile, Class, and Identity (review)

This book explores the concepts of exile, class and identity from three different points of view: theoretical, ethnographic and literary. The Introduction gives a summary of the theoretical intentions of the book and a brief biography of the authors studied. One quickly comes to realize that the Chilean women studied are not living in the United States like the Chicanas. Instead, their writings were produced during the Pinochet years in Chile, while they were in "cultural exile" within their own national boundaries. The reason for their inclusion was to create a "transnational" project that united what Gutiérrez y Muhs calls the "Naftawriters" (p. xxv)—a not very well-defined neologism—within their experience of "cultural exile."

The sample choice is the only aspect of the book that this reviewer finds as problematic. The "cultural exile" of the Chilean women authors living in Chile during the Pinochet years was indeed very different from the experience of the Chicanas living in the United States. Those who lived in "insilio"— living in "cultural exile" within the boundaries of a repressive regime—also experienced persecution and fear. The experience of the persecuted intellectual, despite its similitude, does not equate with the experience of the exile. The insilio is indeed very different and so is the literature he/she produced. Political persecution produces a "masked" literature that adds yet another dimension.

Instead of comparing such different experiences it would have been more productive to make a comparison between Chicanas and other Latin American nationalities exiled in the United States, such as the example of the Argentine exile included in the volume. While the intention of the comparison is very commendable—the idea being to create a "communal feminism" in the Americas, transcending frontiers and providing a model for North American feminists—one feels that the comparison is not firmly anchored. Having said that, the ethnographical section that contains the interviews is very inspiring and constitutes the best part of the book. It is through these dialogues that the author really examines the question of identity and exile. Gutiérrez y Muhs is a fine interviewer who allows not only the interviewee but also the reader to actively participate in the analysis.

The literary part contains a collection of unpublished original writings from the interviewed authors. The inclusion of the original Spanish text of the Foreword, the interviews and some of the creative writings demonstrates the author's concern with preserving the authenticity of the original texts, and provides the reader with a richer cultural understanding of these texts. However, it also leaves one to believe that Gutiérrez y Muhs could have been truly original by publishing the entire book in a bilingual format, thus allowing greater accessibility to both Spanish and English readers. By making her book more inclusive she would have been actively practicing that "communal feminism" the she tries to promote. A bilingual format would have been very coherent with her quotation from Gloria Anzaldúa—"I am my language"—and her praise of bilingual publications as transgressors of societal expectations.

The book contains a good bibliography and a well thought out index that facilitates its accessibility. I would recommend it to any serious researcher of women's identity and exile, because it constitutes by itself a sample of what Gutiérrez y Muhs is analyzing. To this reviewer, the book shines when the author expresses herself through her own memories of "communal feminism" back in Mexico and through her childhood metaphors. The image of the chinampas (Mexican floating gardens) as vessels of identity, drifting in the water until they eventually find a place to anchor themselves, is certainly one of the strongest poetic images that one carries away from this work, together with the magnificent photo of the author's mother and her "communal feminists."