Mona Hatch
Cherrie Moraga
Cherrie Moraga was born in Los Angeles in 1952. She is of Chicana/Anglo descent which has influenced her experiences as a lesbian poet, playwright, essayist, editor, teacher, and activist.
A little bit about her upbringing
“La Guera” = fair-skinned
Chicana mother and Anglo father
Moraga’s mother did not speak formal English
Still, she did not pass her fluency in Spanish to her children
“passing” for “white” became a priority
“white privileges”
Separated her from her Chicana heritage
“From all this, I experience a huge disparity between what I was born into and what I grew to become."
After college, Moraga realized her homosexuality
Connected her to her Chicana heritage by bringing her closer to her mother
"When I finally lifted the lid to my lesbianism, a profound connection with my mother reawakened in me. It wasn't until I acknowledged and confronted my own lesbianism in the flesh, that my heartfelt identification with and empathy for my mother's oppression--due to being poor, uneducated, and Chicana--was realized," she said.
Detail about her criticism and the cause for which she artistically fights
“coming out” inspired Moraga to take her writing more seriously
In the 1980s, Moraga began publishing her works as one of the first Chicana/Lesbian writers
In addition to her books, Moraga took a liking to playwriting
Concentrate on feminist, ethnic, sexual, and gender-related themes
Awards
Recipient of the NEA Theatre Playwriting Fellowship Award
Watsonville won Fund For New American Plays Award
In 1981 Moraga wrote and co-edited This Bridge Called My Back with Gloria Anzalduá
Winner of the Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award
In 1983, Moraga co-founded the group "Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press”
A group that did not discriminate against homosexuality, class, or race.
She is the author of:
Loving in the War Years (1983) and The Last Generation (1993
Waiting in the Wings
Send Them Flying Home: A Geography of Remembrance
A Xicana Codex of Changing Consciousness: Writings for a New Century
In an interview with Maria-Antónia Oliver- Rotger for Voices from the Gaps, Moraga explains what inspired her to start writing drama in place of poetry and prose:
“After publishing Loving in the War Years (1983) which was very autobiographical, my own story had finally been told on the page. This allowed space within me for character (some one other than myself to enter) my unconscious. The character started speaking out loud. This was Corky from Giving Up the Ghost. It was oral. Thus, the beginnings of dramatic writing.”
Three volumes of drama:
Heroes and Saints and Other Plays (1994)
Watsonville/Circle in the Dirt (2002)
The Hungry Woman (2001).
Her perception of the differences between writing essays and dramas:
“Both my essays and plays attempt to explore a political question or contradiction through the mind or the heart. But the essay is fundamentally one-voiced perspective, my own. Theater allows for contradiction to reside among the characters. The audience receives many perspectives through divergent characters. And although the playwright may try to direct the audience to her own perspective, she cannot thoroughly enforce their perception of it. […] plays are fundamentally generated by metaphor and story. My plays always start with an image that reflects the heart of the story to be told.”
**see attached Curriculum Vitae for more detailed information about her work (obtained from www.CherrieMoraga.com)
Current Academic Station
Artist in Residence, Drama dept of Stanford University
Founding member of La Red Xicana Indígena
Technique
Use of space
“This juxtaposition is precisely what makes it theater for me. Theater is three-dimensional living art form requiring real live bodies. It originated from ritual. It is that marvelous place where the physical and metaphysical and the relationship between the two can be made manifest and interpreted by the playwright in collaboration with actor, director, designer, etc.”
Her artistic treatment of Catholicism
“All aspects of religion and religious law that endanger women’s lives, limit the full expression of our humanity (men and women) in terms of our sexuality, and that requires us to accept injustice in hopes of a just afterlife is not a spiritual practice, but a materialist oppressive practice that serves (in the case of the Catholic Church) Capitalist Patriarchy.”
Audience
State of American theater
“Reflects the world as that middle-American understands it, one which at its core, equates free enterprise with freedom.” Moraga points out that just enough “’darkies,’ a few commies and perverts may slip through the cracks” but this is only permitted in order to “pacify” the “growing discontent minority.”
Discomfort of Aristotelian customs
“Corporate Amerika is not ready for a people of color theater that holds members of its audiences complicit in the oppression of its characters. Who would buy a ticket to see that? Audiences grow angry (although critics as their spokespeople may call it "criticism") when a work is not written for them, when they are not enlisted as a partner in the protagonists’ struggle, when they may be asked to engage through self-examination rather than identification, when they must question their own centrality.”
Under-representation of “minority” cultures in theater
She comments on the emergence of ethnic theater:
“How can s/he call something representative of American theater when his definition of "American" remains a colonial one, i.e. White America perceiving Blackness through the distorted mirror of its own historical slave-owner-segregationist racist paranoia and guilt, while all other people of color remain racially invisible.”
Oliver-Rotger, Maria-Antónia. An Interview with Cherríe Moraga. Voices From the Gap. January 2000.
Courtney Greenberg
Cherrie Moraga’s poetry is what released her secrets and fears, and is incredibly important to know and understand to gain any insight into her.
· Hearing “voices”
· Views in her writing group
“It Got Her Over” (1st stanza)
To touch
her skin, felt thick
like hide, not
like flesh
and blood
when an arm is raised
the blue veins shine
rivers running under-
ground with shadow
depth and tone.
· Importance of her poetry
· Voice to Chicano writing
· Editor of This Bridge Called my Back-influence of her poetry
“For the Color of My Mother”
Amy Bailey
“What is my responsibility to my roots-both white and brown, Spanish-speaking and English?” (La Guera, 34).
Cherrie Moraga, like many ethnic writers, is preoccupied with her place in the world or literature. Is she brown? She is homosexual. So, what role does she play in the world of feminist writers? She maintains a constant struggle for identity because of her mixed blood and her sexuality.
“La Guera”
I. Moraga identifies with many other authors who feel the pressure to be identified in one particular realm.
“No one ever told me this (that light was right), but I knew that being light was something valued in my family” (28).
Much like Richard Rodriguez, Moraga came from a Hispanic family that spoke mostly Spanish. Because her father was white, she had lighter skin and could pass as a Caucasian. This was an unspoken blessing to her family, as they understood through experience what the implications of dark skin were. Just by being lighter, Moraga had more opportunity than others in her family.
Hurston presented the same ideas of “light is right” in Janie’s characteristics. Because she was light-skinned, she was considered more attractive and given more attention. Her skin even assisted her when she was on trial for murder.
“My lesbianism is the avenue through which I have learned the most about silence and oppression, and it continues to be the most tactile reminder to me that we are not free human beings… Silence is like starvation…It is from starvation that other starvations can be recognized—if one is willing to take the risk of making the connection-if one is willing to be responsible to the result of the connection” (28-29).
It is here where the connection to Rodriguez is again brought to light. Aside from the obvious similarity due to his sexuality, he spent many of his early years in silence. He was uncomfortable in his skin, not comfortable speaking English-although he had to, and not comfortable with the fading connection at home.
Also, the starvation described is much like Hurston’s character in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Janie’s life was one that she was not able to have control over. She was expected to remain silent, unless given permission-she was being starved of her identity.
II. Moraga feels that she has lost a sense of her real culture-how it really feels to be Chicana in America because she never experienced the oppression based on skin color. She always identified her Chicano heritage with positive things, with family, love, support-never truly seeing what her mother went through—until she came out, and became comfortable calling herself a lesbian.
“I have had to confront the fact that much of what I value about being Chicana, about my family has been subverted by anglo-culture and my own cooperation with it” (30).
This is reminiscent of many of Rodriguez’s struggles with his identity. Because he became a partof the Anglo-American culture, he began to lose touch with his place in his Chicano culture. He has been criticized for this.
“…I realized that I had disowned the language that I knew best-ignored the words and rhythms that were closest to me” (31).
III. Connection to the world of homosexual intellectuals
Moraga is often compared to Gloria Anzaldua. One for their similar sexual orientation, and two because they understood the way in which colored-homosexual writers become marginalized, and this is seen in the analysis of their work. In her essay, “To(o) Queer the Writer” Anzaldua states:
“Position is point of view. And whatever position we may occupy, we are getting only one point of view: white middle class. Theory serves those that create it. White middle-class lesbians and gays are certainly not speaking for me. Inevitably we colored dykes fall into a reactive mode, counter their terms and theories… We focus on the cultural abuse of colored by white and thus fall into the trap of the colonized reader and writer forever reacting against the dominant (252).
In a predominately Anglo culture, the colored writer has more difficulty being revealed. Just as Moraga, Anzaldua’s sexuality further complicates the situation.
Cherrie Moraga
Curriculum Vitae
New Works
Books/Publications
A Xicana Codex of Changing Consciousness: Essays for a New Century (Stuart Bernstein Representation, NYC. )
Send Them Flying Home: A Geography of Remembrance (memoir). (Stuart Bernstein Representation, NYC. )
Warriors of the Spirit: Children's Plays of Protest and Promise. (Forthcoming 2009.) (Original works by the playwright, produced in collaboration with the students of Oakland Unified School District, Sequoia Theater.)
Plays
"The Mathematics of Love."
Originally commissioned as a collaboration with other playwrights by The Latino Theater Initiative of The Center Theater Group, Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles. under the title "Amor Eterno."
Staged reading. El Teatro Campesino, San Juan Bautista, CA. Directed by Diane Rodriguez. January 2005.
Staged reading. Ricardo Montalban Theater. Hollywood, CA. Directed by Laurie Woolery. June 2004.
"Who Killed Yolanda Salivar?
Workshop production scheduled for Fall 2008, Los Angeles, directed by Adelina Anthony. (Originally presented in an earlier version at the "Lesbian Playwrights' Festival" at The Magic Theatre, 2000.)
Earlier Works
Publications/Books*
Watsonville: Some Place Not Here/Circle in the Dirt: El Pueblo de East Palo Alto (plays). Albuquerque, NM: West End Press, 2002.
The Hungry Woman: A Mexican Medea/ The Heart of the Earth: A Popol Vuh Story. (plays) Albuquerque, NM: West End Press, 2001.
Waiting in the Wings: Portrait of a Queer Motherhood. (Non-fiction) Ithaca, NY: Firebrand Press, 1997.
Heroes & Saints and Other Plays. Albuquerque, NM: West End Press, 1994.
The Last Generation (poetry, fiction and non-fiction). Boston: South End Press, 1993.
Giving Up the Ghost (play). Albuquerque, NM: West End Press, 1986.
Loving in the War Years - Lo que nunca pasó por sus labios (poetry/non-fiction). Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 1983; (Expanded Second Edition, Non-fiction), 2000.
The Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (poetry/non-fiction anthology), co-edited with Gloria Anzaldúa. New York: Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, 1981/3. (Re-issued Berkeley, CA: Third Woman Press, 2002)
Theatre Productions
"The Hungry Woman: A Mexican Medea" -- Commissioned by Berkeley Repertory Theater.
* Presented by University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Department of Theater. The Curtain Theater. May 1-10, 2008. Directed by Dora Arreola.
* Presented by Brown University, Department of Theater. Leeds Theater, April 13-23, 2006.
* Presented by Stanford University, Department of Drama. Pigott Theater, May 11- May 22, 2005. Directed by Adelina Anthony and the playwright.
"Watsonville: Some Place Not Here"-- 1995 Fund for New American Plays Award.
* Commissioned by Brava Theater Center, with support from the Rockefeller Foundation; world premiere at Brava Theater Center of San Francisco. May 25, 1996.
* Staged Reading at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. February 19, 1996.
"Heart of the Earth: A Popol Vuh Story" -- Commissioned by INTAR Theater, NYC.
* Premiered at the Public Theater in New York, September 14, 1994. Directed by Ralph Lee. A collaboration with composer, Glen Velez and visuals by Ralph Lee.
* Opened at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in January 1997.
"Heroes and Saints" -- Commissioned by the Los Angeles Theater Center. Winner of the Pen West Drama Award and the Will Glickman Prize.
* Premiered at The Mission Theater in San Francisco. Produced by Brava Theater Center. April 4 - May 17, 1992. Directed by Albert Takazauckas.
"Shadow of a Man" -- 1991 Fund for New American Plays Award.
* Premiered at The Eureka Theater in San Francisco. A co-production with Brava! For Women in the Arts. November 10 - December 9, 1990. Directed by María Irene Fornes.
Academic & Other Teaching Positions
* Artist-in-Residence: Instructor in Chicano/Native American Theater, Playwriting, Creative Writing, U.S. Latino/a Literature and Xicana Indigenous Performance. Department of Drama and (since 2007-8) Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity. 1996 to the Present.
* Visiting Professor: Instructor in Creative Writing and Chicano Theater. Chicano Studies Department. University of California at Berkeley. Fall Semester, 1999-2001.
* Guest Faculty: Instructor in Playwriting. MFA program, Creative Writing Department. St. Mary's College, Moraga, California. Fall 1997 & Fall 1999.
* Playwright-in-Residence. Theater Communications Group (TCG) National Theater Artist Residency Program. Brava Theater Center in San Francisco. 1996-7.
* Regents Professor, Instructor in Literature and Playwriting. Department of English, The University of California at Los Angeles. Winter 1996.
* Artist in Residence, Instructor in Creative Writing and Theater. California Arts Council Residency Program. Brava Theater Center in San Francisco. 1991 to 1995.
Major Keynote Addresses, Artist Residencies, and Distinguished Lectures.
* Keynote. Stockholm Europride @ Stockholm Pride House, Sweden. July 29-30, 2008
* Plenary Keynote. « Signatures of the Past: Cultural Memory in Contemporary Anglophone North American Drama;" The Center for Canadian Studies and the Modern Languages and Literatures Department. University of Brussels. 2007.
* Writer's Residency. VONA (Voices of Our Nations Arts) Foundation. The Voices Summer Writing Workshop for Writers of Color. University of San Francisco, 2006.
* Keynote. MELUS (Society for the Study of Multi Ethnic Literature of the U.S.) Conference and The Brackenridge Distinguished Visiting Professor Lecture. University of Texas, San Antonio, 2004.
* Keynote. American Theater in Higher Education (ATHE) Conference, San Diego, 2002.
* Keynote. III Congreso Internacional de literature chicana. Málaga, Spain. 2002.
Awards
United States Artists Rockefeller Fellowship in Literature (2007); Yaddo Artist Residency (2008); American Studies Association Lifetime Achievement Award (2002); National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies Distinguished Scholars Award (2001); David R. Kessler Award, the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies, CUNY (2000); the National Endowment for the Arts Theater Playwrights' Fellowship (1993); the Critics' Circle Award for Best Original Script (1992); the Drama-logue Award for Playwriting (1992); the American Book Award, Before Columbus Foundation (1986); the Creative Arts Public Service (CAPS) Grant for Poetry, New York State (1983); and, the Mac Dowell Colony Fellowship for Poetry, New Hampshire (1982).
Education & Other Resources
* Master of Arts in Literature (Feminist Studies), California State University, San Francisco, 1980; Bachelor of Arts in English. Immaculate Heart College, Los Angeles, 1974.
* Voices of Feminism Oral History Project. Sophia Smith Collection. Smiith College, 2006.
* The Cherríe Moraga Papers (1970 -1996). The Mexican American Special Collections of the Stanford University Libraries.
* The Wounded Heart: Writing on Cherríe Moraga by Professor Yvonne Yarbro-Bejarano (Stanford University, Department of Spanish/Portuguese). University of Texas Press, 2001.
* This listing and all credits noted in this resume reflect a selected and abbreviated list.