Living La Mala Vida

RM 216

This study examines how Spanish colonization and the imposition of institutions ranging from government agencies, cultural genocide and the development of regionalism in Mexico affected gendered ideologies. In order to identify the socio-political constructs by analyzing California ideologies of nationalism and gender within the use of conceptional framework being “Transgressive Femininity” to demonstrate how these women with the abbreviation “MV” challenged restrictive ideas. We used a historical and intersectional framework to analyze the Los Angeles Mexican padrones from 1836 and 1844. Under the legal occupation certain women had a “Mala Vida” imprinted. We were curious to see if the women created a new understanding for femininity within Mexican nationalism. Our research also identified emergence of Chicana culture authority feminism with collective challenges to sexism and male domination with differential consciousness that go beyond sanctioned historiographic fields which shapes subtle inter connections of Chicana stories under power, race and gender to redefine culture studies. The results of our research were that women with the “MV” created designated cultural combined female headed households to create a sense of community, which in tern indicated a restructured femininity. In conclusion, the Eurocentric gendered constructions are still underlining modern day gendered ideologies within our society and are relevant today. This work has contemporary relevance because it provides historical understanding of how Chicana sexuality and gender roles are perceived in present day South. This monumental Chicana research is a small portion of a larger project that is in progress while working with Dr. Yvette Saavedra.