1.
TALKIN’ SEX: CHICANAS AND MEXICANAS

2.
BEFORE WE START…
… I WOULD LIKE YOU TO THINK ABOUT THE ARTICLE WE READ
TITLED,
“TALKIN’ SEX: CHICANAS AND MEXICANAS”
AND START TO MAKE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THIS ARTICLE AND
THE MOVIE,
“LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE”
FOCUSING ON THE IDEAS ARE REPRESENTED BY THE CHARACTERS
IN THE MOVIE .

3.
THE PROJECT / INTERVIEWS (1983)
 17 women: 6 born in Mexico/11
Chicanas
 Meanings of silence and pleasure
 Tension in taking about sex
 Contradictions: acquiescence/
contestation
 Language used and body language

4.
PROJECT (2)
 Feminists critiqued the Mexican
culture:
Virgin-whore (Guadalupe vs.
Melinche)
Repressing women‟s sexual desires
Catholic Church role (marriage)
Practices to control women‟s bodies
(clothing)
By whom? And how?

5.
PROJECT (3)
Women breaking the silence
Consequences? “escándalo” (scandal)
Chicana lesbian theorists and creative writers
(resistance to silencing)
Metaphors: “juego and fuego” (play and fire)
Meanings of silence and pleasures

6.
HISTORY OF SEXUALITY AND MARITAL RELATIONS
First half of the 20th C: taboo topics
1930s and 1940s:
- The notions of virile macho men and self-
sacrificing
women were constructed in popular culture.
- Female chastity prior to marriage
Ritual „Robbing‟ (kidnapping)
-

7.
HISTORY (2)
1950s: - Urbanization
- Feminization of labor force
- Increasing migration to USA
- Expansion of popular culture
- Sexual liberation of women
Late 20th C: - Much regional variation in sexual
practices
- Globalization

8.
INTERESTING FACTS (SURVEY)
1. First had sexual intercourse by age 15
- 83% young men
- 13% women (??)
2. Use of condoms
3. Freedom of being openly affectionate with lover
4. Catholic Church influenced both Mexicans and
Chicanas
(different ways regarding abortion and
contraception)
5. “The New Mestiza” by Gloria Anzaldúa (La Frontera:
more
than a geographic division)

9.
INTERESTING FACTS (2)
6. Mothers warned about men not about
lesbianism
7. Differences between Mexicans and
Chicanas
regarding silence sexuality/shocking
experiences/ sex education…
8. Sanctions for sexual experimentation
- Cochina /dirty
- Grosera / crude

10.
INTERESTING FACTS (3)
9. Abuse (context of denial)
10. Masturbation (a bad thing)
11. Menstruation
12. Homosexuality (no education)
13. Virginity (body= map)
14. Chicanas (temptations offered
by USA popular culture and the
pressure of peers)
15. Reputation

11.
INTERESTING FACTS (4)
16. Women body (fat) Rosaura
17. Quinceañera
- Patriarcal control over women‟s
sexuality
- Similar to weddings
- Virgen de Guadalupe
- Ethnic identity
- Celebration of purity
- Expression of sexual pleasure

12.
LIST OF PROTAGONISTS
• Write whatever comes to your mind for each
character that is related to the article “Talkin’ Sex”.
• It can be one word, a sentence, an image, an idea…

13.
VAGINA MONOLOGUES
“DIFFERENT TYPES OF MOANS”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apsKJ1H1gy
g

14.
TYPES OF MOANS!!!
• Clit moan • Mountain moan
• Vagina moan • Baby moan
• Combo clit and vagina • Doggy moan
moan
• Inhibited militant bisexual moan
• Almost moan
• machine moan
• Right on it moan
• Torture Zen moan
• Elegant moan
• Diva moan
• Grace Slick moan
• College moan and
• 40 year old moan • Surprise triple orgasms
• Jewish moan
• African-American
• Irish moan

15.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Aldama, Frederick Luis. Brown on Brown.: Chicano/a representations of
gender sexuality and ethnicity. First edition. University of Texas. 2005.
Print
González, Juan. Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in
America. Revised edition.
González, Sylvia A. La Chicana: Guadalupe or Malinche. Comparative
Perspectives of Third World Women: The impact of race, sex and class.
1980. Pp 229-250. Print
Snook, Margaret L. Elena Poniatowska’s “La piel del cielo”: Mexican History
Written on the Female Body. American Association of Teachers of Spanish
and Portuguese. Bridgewater State College. Hispania Vol. 89, No 2, pp
259-267. Print
Winn, Peter. Americas: The Changing Face of Latin American and the
Caribbean. Third edition. University of California Press. 2006 Print