Shadow Men and Real Women: Shifting the Paradigms of the Chicana/o Family in Cherríe Moraga’s Shadow of a Man and Josefina López’s Real Women Have Curves

Abstract

Abstract The works studied here illuminate the repression of Chicana/o women through their focus on family gender divisions. Hailed by Chicano writers as the bedrock of Chicana/o society and a refuge from the racism of US society, the family is re-imagined in these works and in the film based on López’s play. Although these works received very different critical analyses, I argue that they have much in common. I propose that rather than rejecting the family, they offer new role models to Chicanas that allow for fluid sexual identities and the pursuit of goals that do not accord with Mexican tradition.