Chicano Rap: Gender and Violence in the Postindustrial Barrio

7 CONFRONTING DOMINANCE AND CONSTRUCTING RELATIONSHIPS WITH YOUTH

Misogyny and violent hypermasculinity seem to be everywhere in the late capitalist period. The cultural field in the postindustrial United States is dominated by hyperviolent images and attitudes and hypersexualized and exploited bodies, especially female bodies. The capitalist cultural and economic order has commodified and devalued life, sexuality, and human relationships. The New World Cultural and Economic Order profits from exploitative, controlling images of women and criminalized hypermasculine representations of youth of color. The dominant cultural attitude in the United States views our youth as dangerous and as such devalues their lives. This attitude leads to legislation that erodes justice and community nurturing for our workingclass urban youth of color. This environment contributes to disfigured self-concepts among a large sector of our youth and a self-fulfilling prophecy in which young people assume the misogynist and violent traits attributed to them by the dominant culture. Cultural workers, teachers, activists, and parents can challenge the socialization and education emanating from the media, popular culture, advertising, and politics. Careful attention to youth culture and examples of democratic, anti-authoritarian, loving relationships and institutions can help youth overcome the patriarchal dominance paradigm and related damaging self-images. Community members, elders, and teachers can develop empowering and caring pedagogies utilizing the movies, literature, and criticism of Xicanistas and other feminists and the caring art of many Chicano rap artists. XICANISTA CHALLENGES TO THE DOMINANCE PARADIGM Few female voices exist in Chicano hip-hop culture to challenge the male-centered perspective. However, other elements of Chicana expressive culture present a Chicana feminist critique of female images and of the patriarchal dominance paradigm and new, complex CONFRONTING DOMINANCE AND CONSTRUCTING RELATIONSHIPS WITH YOUTH 134 CHICANO RAP discussions of gendered subjectivity and alternative institutional and interpersonal relationships. Xicanista (Chicana feminist) cultural production challenges racism and sexism and presents an alternative knowledge base that imagines and demonstrates the possibilities for racial, economic, environmental, and gender justice rooted in practices of collectivity, cooperation, and peace.1 Controlling images of Chicanas such as virgin/whore, mujer buena/ mujer mala, suffering mother, and sex object find fertile ground in postindustrial patriarchal Chicano cultural production. Most striking about the representations of women found throughout the Chicano rap lyrics I sampled is their one-dimensionality. These images fail to grasp or value women’s complexity and humanity. Rap lyrics focus on women as Other and sexual object to be conquered. Men highlight female bodies for the pleasure they can give and ignore other aspects of their beings. When Chicano rappers represent good women, they are mothers and girlfriends or wives valued for their service to men. Rarely do Chicana or other female characters have a voice or subjectivity within Chicano rap discourses. While few Chicanas in rap culture counter the force of controlling, one-dimensional images of women, Xicanista artists have been challenging patriarchal representation since at least the 1970s. Chicana authors, activists, and artists have developed an important critique of images stemming from the patriarchal dominance paradigm. Xicanistas challenge patriarchal images by showing women in myriad roles and refusing to relegate them to simplistic stereotypes. Xicanistas present complex female perspectives, characters, and images in their work.2 For example, early Chicana filmmakers challenged the malecentered perspective of Chicano movement art by placing women at the center of a broad historical narrative, as in Sylvia Morales’s Chicana (1979),orindepictingwomen’severydaylives,asinEsperanzaVásquez’s Agueda Martinez (1977). Both films center on Chicana power, creativity, and autonomy. Chicana counters the male-centered revisionist history created by scholars and cultural workers of the Chicano movement. Morales’ film examines five hundred years of ethnic Mexican history linking the various epochs by examining both the continuity and change in women’s struggles, home life, and culture. She reexamines important historical figures such as La Malinche and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz from a Xicanista perspective. She argues for a positive Chicana identity by uncovering a Chicana lineage (Fregoso 1993a, 18). Agueda Martinez contributes to the development of a new language and new stories by depicting the life of a Chicana elder in rural New Mexico. Vásquez represents Agueda Martinez in an unapologetic and dignified manner. She composes a metaphor for Chicana logic and CONFRONTING DOMINANCE AND CONSTRUCTING RELATIONSHIPS 135 power as she follows Martinez around her ranch filming her daily routine. Martinez describes her life and worldview, which can serve as a model of healthy Chicana self-identity and autonomy. V...