Week 10 Brainstorm - Zahra McKee

I thought both of these organizations, the Ovarian Psycos and Chicas Rockeras, were really inspiring because they are examples of women of color organizing for themselves and their communities. Particularly, Chicas Rockeras really stood out to me, as the creator Marin says in the Podcast episode Chicas Rockeras: Empowering Girls in Southeast Los Angeles Through Music, that she wishes she had something like it in Southeast Los Angeles when she was growing up. She continues saying “I was just thinking of all the other kids that I knew. I was thinking of my nieces, of all the other working class families where [other camps are] just not accessible for them” (0:46). This community-focused mindset not only helps these young girls learn music, but imagines and helps create a new future where young Chicana girls are encouraged to be bold, loud, and strong. As Jessica Schwartz puts it in Si se puede!: Chicas Rockeras and punk music education in South East Los Angeles, “Chicas Rockeras utilizes punk feminist pedagogy, with a mestiza consciousness, to remind students of their past and present power, and also give them a space for their affective empowerment musically” (1). The camp is also tailored specifically to these girls to help them see positive images of themselves through things like the bilingual theme song, affordable tuition, and little references to Chicana culture like the group names of “bidi bidis” and “bom boms”. The mission of the volunteers and employees of Chicas Rockeras is so pure and powerful. On the Chicas Rockeras website they say “eventually, we met that one family member, that one teacher, that one mentor, that one person that kept that spark alive. Now it’s our turn to be that cool tia, to share and encourage your voice through music” (About Us Page). These women embody Chicanafuturism by reimaging an alternative past for themselves and projecting it onto these girls to help them get ahead. 

Ovarian Psycos too, is women organizing for themselves and for a better future. The group gets women in East LA together to ride bikes, but in doing so they speak out against issues in their community like stereotyping, domestic abuse, and sexual abuse. The group also provides a judgment-free zone for women to practice leadership. In the documentary, Andi Xoch, a founding member of the group,  says “we could be leaders without feeling like we were bossy b*tches” (9:16). Additionally, the group practices Chela Sandoval’s resiliency ideas of redefining objects by reclaiming ovaries and other female anatomy parts as signs of power. In the documentary, Maylei Blackwell discusses the group, saying “What women are shamed by, or what they are often the victims of violence over, they claim as their own and put it upfront” (33:53). Additionally, the act of convivencia by bringing all these women together is itself a resiliency practice.