Massacre of the Dreamers: Essays on Xicanisma. 20th Anniversary Updated Edition

287 Pages·2014·2.21 MB·English

by  Castillo

women k chicana and chicano
m a s s a c r e
This new edition of an immensely influential book gives voice to Mexic-Amerindian c
women silenced for hundreds of years by the dual censorship of being female and brown- a
skinned. Castillo introduced the term “Xicanisma” to replace “Chicana feminism,” s
including mestizas on both sides of the border. In history and myth, interviews, and t o f t h e
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ethnography, she explores all aspects of their identity. Her book remains a compelling
l d r e a m e r s
document, enhanced here with revisions throughout and a new afterword. l
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“It is easy to accept traditions as a jail called Destiny, but you need courage to conquer
your identity as a road to freedom. . . . Fighting for her past, fighting against her past, essays on xicanisma
Ana Castillo helps clear a collective way out. This is a book of footprints.” 20th anniversary updated edition
m
—eduardo galeano, author of the Memory of Fire Trilogy
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“Brilliant and powerfully written. . . . These essays are testimony and proof of a . . .
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revolutionary consciousness signaling change and real hope.” s
—ms. magazine a
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“Castillo goes after our hearts and minds, not territory or power.”
r
—village voice e

“What I admire about this book is its insistent demand for justice.” o
—matthew rothschild, The Progressive
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“At times brilliant, at times angry, at times poignant, but at all times riveting.”
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—maría herrera-sobek, coeditor of Chicana Creativity h
and Criticism: New Frontiers in American Literature e

d
ana castillo, a novelist and poet, is also the author of Give r
© It to Me, The Guardians, So Far From God, and Peel My Love Like e
na an Onion. In 2013 she received the Gloria E. Anzaldúa Award a
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M from the American Studies Association for her essay “The Real m
A.
obert athnids Tbrouoek .Meaning of Our Lady of Guadalupe,” the afterword to e ana c astillo
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s
Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award
foreword by clarissa pinkola estés
from the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights
ISBN 978-0-8263-5358-0
90000
university of new mexico press
unmpress.com • 800-249-7737 9 780826353580 >
m a s s a c r e o f t h e d r e a m e r s

m a s s a c r e
o f t h e
d r e a m e r s
essays on xicanisma
20th anniversary updated edition
a n a c a s t i l l o
foreword by clarissa pinkola estés
university of new mexico press • albuquerque
© 2014 by Ana Castillo
Foreword © 2014 by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés
All rights reserved. Published 2014
Printed in the United States of America
19 18 17 16 15 14 1 2 3 4 5 6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Castillo, Ana.
Massacre of the dreamers : essays on Xicanisma / Ana Castillo. — Twentieth
Anniversary updated edition.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-8263-5358-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8263-5359-7
(electronic)
1. Mexican American women. 2. Feminism—United States. I. Title.
E184.M5C369 2014
305.48’86872073—dc23
2014006361
cover photograph: Milky Way over Bromo by Abdul Azis,
courtesy of Getty Images
book design: Catherine Leonardo
Composed in ScalaOT Reg. 10.5/15
Display type is ScalaSansOT
For my ancestors and to the next seven generations
in Her Name, Nuestra Madre Diosa

Anyone dreaming anything about the end of the Empire was ordered to
the palace to tell of it. Night and day emissaries combed the city, and
Tenochtitlán paid tribute in dreams. . . .
But finding no good in the thousands offered, Moctezuma killed all
the offenders. It was the massacre of the dreamers, the most pathetic of
all. . . .
From that day there were no more forecasts, no more dreams, terror
weighed upon the spirit world.
—laurette sejourne, Burning Water:
Thought and Religion in Ancient Mexico
Queen Xochitl . . . legendary queen of the Toltecs. During her reign
women were called to war service. She headed the battalions and was
killed in battle; legend has it that as she died, blood streamed from her
wounds, foretelling the scattering of the Toltec nation.
—marta cotera, Profile on the Mexican American Woman
Perhaps the greatest harm patriarchy has done to us is to strife, co-opt,
and reform our powers of imagination. Moralisms, dualistic dogmas,
repressive prohibitions block our imagination at its sources, which is
the fusion of sexual and spiritual energies.
—monica sjöö and barbara mor,
The Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth
vii

contents
k
Foreword by Clarissa Pinkola Estés xi
Acknowledgments xix
Introduction 1
chapter one
A Countryless Woman: The Early Feminista 17
chapter two
The 1986 Watsonville Women’s Strike:
A Case of Mexicana/Chicana Activism 39
chapter three
The Ancient Roots of Machismo 65
chapter four
Saintly Mother and Soldier’s Whore:
The Leftist/Catholic Paradigm 91
chapter five
In the Beginning There Was Eva 113
chapter six
La Macha: Toward an Erotic Whole Self 131
chapter seven
Brujas and Curanderas: A Lived Spirituality 153
ix