Toward a Chicana/o Latina/o Transnational Activist Rhetoric

Thesis (Ph.D.), Department of English, Washington State UniversityIn this dissertation I provide a history of the early Chicano Movement where I claim that chicanismo of the 1960s and 70s needs to be (re)articulated because there are unresolved issues that have not yet being entirely addressed; namely, gender, gay, lesbian, and neoliberal economic politics. Because these issues are still unresolved, early and post-movement generations still face institutional racism, class inequality, language discrimination, sexism, and heterosexism. In doing so, I call for moving Toward a Chicana/o Latina/o Transnational Activist Rhetoric that will put forward a critical rhetoric that arranges, produces, and restructures meaning for the (re)stablishment of transnational Mexicanas/os' and Latinas/os' human relationships within neoliberal institutions. These human relationships are embedded in the systemic, a hegemony of power of and domination. Finally, I conclude that a more current Chicano Movement might tie itself to Zapatismo, a transnational movement, with a transnational discourse that engages communities across the globe to question and reject human disposability by neoliberal projects of globalization such as NAFTA.Department of Ethnic Studies, Washington State Universit