The Decolonial Imaginary: Writing Chicanas into History

Theories of Representation and Difference

by Emma Pérez

"The Decolonial Imaginary is a smart, challenging book that disrupts a great deal of what we think we know . . . it will certainly be read seriously in Chicano/a studies." ―Women's Review of Books

Emma Pérez discusses the historical methodology which has created Chicano history and argues that the historical narrative has often omitted gender. She poses a theory which rejects the colonizer's methodological assumptions and examines new tools for uncovering the hidden voices of Chicanas who have been relegated to silence.

Genres: History, Gender, Nonfiction, Feminism, Race, Latinx, Anthropology

208 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 1999

About the author

Emma Pérez, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Texas/El Paso, has written numerous essays in feminist theory and is author of the novel, Gulf Dreams.

Reviews

[Samhita]

Excellent, excellent foray into the art of feminist historiography. She problematizes how we understand the post-colonial and argues we are not in a post-colonial state, but must take ourselves with the process of decolonizing. She does this through archival research of Chicana women. Brilliant and probably one book that has had the most impact on my writing and research than any other.

[Nicolas Shump · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another important revisionist text. Perez is of the generation of third world feminists who want to be both feminists and members of their particular ethnic community (Chicana for Perez).
The idea of "decolonizing" history is part of a larger project occurring throughout academia and the larger world outside the ivory tower.

[Mona Kareem]

This is a great book on 'writing Chicanas into history' but also as a framework to think of history and the exclusion of women. The writer says, I paraphrase: voices of women survive, they are not silent, but they are just unheard.

[Oren Whightsel · Rating 5 out of 5]

provides valuable alternatives to hegemonic historiography

[Stephanie McClure]

chicana lesbian feminist!

[D'Argo Agathon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dense, but interesting. I read parts, then put it aside.

[Magally Miranda · Rating 3 out of 5]

A self-proclaimed historian with historical materialist proclivities, Emma Perez attempts to lay the groundwork for a methodology of writing Chicanas into history. Is she successful? In so far as she lays out four problematics for writing Chicanos into history, I think so. I hadn't until now read such a succinct review of the different ways of telling Chicano history--in that respect it was like reading myself in a book which is always a fantastic feeling! She articulates a concept of the "decolonial imaginary"--or interstitial spaces and applies it to the socialist (really, nationalist) movements of Yucatan, the PLM and Flores Magon's comrades, and the Tejanas. To me, in a not-so-convincing manner. I wanted to identify with her methodology more, but it does seem mired in an all-too-common discourse against bad leftist and nationalist politics in the 60's and 70's.