Of Chicana Lesbian Terrorists and Lesberadas: Recuperating the Lesbian/Queer Roots of Chicana Feminism, 1970–2000

Abstract:This article is a project of historical recuperation and centering of the lesbian voices within Chicana feminism and Chicana Studies between 1980 and 2000. It argues that despite providing foundational theories critical to the development of Chicana feminist thought and Chicana Studies, public articulations of feminist discourse often reflected a heterocentric framing that invisibilized the lesbian roots of Chicana feminism. More than simply inserting lesbians into Chicana feminism, the author challenges lesbian erasure by naming the various articulations of lesbian feminism within Chicana feminist ideology and discourse. Employing a queer Chicana lens to read against the presumptive heteronormative grain, I examine the archival records of the National Association for Chicano and Chicana Studies [NACCS] to trace the trajectory of Chicana feminism's development and influence in the institutional space of Chicana/o Studies. Through this queer reading, in combination with oral histories from lesbian feminists involved in feminist activism within the association, I locate a lesbian imaginary within Chicana feminist thought and show that rather than existing in the background, lesbian feminism was fundamental to Chicana feminism, Chicana/o Studies, and NACCS.