Por Mis Propias Condiciones

…anticipation burning like a cigarette from her lips, sliding her shoulders to the ahhhh ahhhhh, and pouting her lips until the song ends. And [she] likes her mother that way.

Come and take a look at this double-edged sword, this paradox that makes me who I am.

Did you ever notice...how nothing around here is named after a woman? Really. Unless she’s the Virgin. I guess you’re only famous if you’re a virgin.

They're telling me that I’m both a virgin AND a whore.

With these standards, silence could not remain. Their voices had to be re-made.

Choosing to be conscious transmitters of literacy expressions, we have become excavators of our own common culture, mining legends, folklore, and myths for our own metaphors

La Adelita challenges traditional gender roles and yet her representation is problematic because her actions –and entire existence– revolve around a man.

As a mestiza I have no country, my homeland cast me out; yet all countries are mine because I am every woman’s sister or potential lover. As a lesbian I have no race, my own people disclaim me; but I am all races because there is the queer of me in all races.

So it is left to the Mexicana-Chicana to restore la Malinche’s good name and to reveal to the world the truth about this important woman in history, for only in so doing can today’s woman arrive at the truth about herself.

With these verses, the way of the Chicana word is being paved so that this and future generations of mujeres can continue to grow as artists and women with the freedom to speak their own language of truth.

...there are those few who do find a resolution to the sexual dichotomy through humor, lyricism, or defiance of convention. In so doing, they create the new Eve from the new woman proud of her self-defined sexuality, frankly expressing it on her own terms.