Brainstorm Week 10: Grace Grotz

From the readings, there is a clear correlation between female community and activism. In Ovarian Psycos, women bike together to face the dangerous streets they likely would not face alone. In the girls’ camp, Chicas Rockeras, young girls can come together to create music and find confidence. In Schwartz’s “Si se puede!”, the musician and activist Alice Bag recalls how, early in her education, “the main purpose was to roll me up like a misshapen clay sculpture and reshape me into the appropriate model of what an American student should be” (47). Bag realized as she was forced to conform to American “norms”, she was losing both her culture and herself. At Chicas Rockeras, the camp leaders stress that the process of learning the music and embracing each girl’s individual interpretation of rock is most important. Through this, the community can celebrate culture rather than erasing it. 

In the article, “Chicas Rockeras” by Alison Wolfe, one camp organizer, Marin, observes how, “Girls are often made to feel small, to not be loud, to not take up space... some girls, they have a breakdown, but they also have a breakthrough” (4). Through the building of community, women are empowered. This convivencia and building of confidence allows women to make strides in areas where they are often overlooked as individuals. Male-dominated arenas like the rock industry, or biking, can be changed through large movements of women. Throughout this quarter, we have studied the often overlooked female catalysts of movements. Before taking this class, I had never heard of the Chicano Civil Rights Movement. Now, after studying it, I realize this was yet another aspect of history where the female role was ignored. It is the duty of women today to band together, speak out, and be empowered by the women of the past. On the OVAS mission statement, it states, “We will learn tactics, build strategy and in the process find our purpose...accepting that we may or may not ever heal” (5). Attaining a perfect world of equality often seems impossible, and it may be, but we can never stop searching and striving for that one goal.