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A Short Summary Of Moraga's La G?�era

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In her piece, “La güera,” Moraga takes the reader along on her journey to consciousness and explains why that consciousness is so vital. The essay explores the disconnect Moraga felt between her own experiences and those of her mother from childhood until she had the epiphany that prompted her to analyse her privilege and oppression. Upon analysis of both her privilege and oppression, Moraga found her true identity, gained an understanding of oppression, and confronted what she had abandoned. In this paper I will develop the concept of rejecting one’s identity in an effort to reap the ‘benefits’ of privilege, what that rejection means in terms of oppression and self identity, and the loss associated with this form of rejection.
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Moraga writes, “It is from this starvation that other starvations can be recognized,” meaning, being oppressed allows one an avenue through which to understand and empathize with other oppressions (Moraga, 29). In Moraga’s case, she gained an understanding and empathy for her mother, and she had to acknowledge her chicana side because it defined her as a person, in relation to her lesbianism.
Moreover, it is important to address the idea of loss as it relates to Moraga and her identity. Moraga deduces that she had been denying herself, her heritage, her mother, and her mother’s experiences in her poetry. She came to the realization that everything she knew and valued had been, as she writes, “subverted by anglo culture and [her] own cooperation with it” (Moraga, 30). Through rejecting her identity, Moraga managed to unknowingly cut out pieces of herself, thus, silencing her voice and hindering her means of communication. This realization revealed to Moraga that she remembered things about her heritage and her roots, which in turn made her further aware of the oppressive nature of rejecting parts of one’s identity because to do so is to reject histories, heritage, and entire groups of people.
Furthermore, Moraga addresses the connection of oppression and fear. Those who remain ‘unconscious’,willingly, fear that they will, as Moraga puts it, be forced to “[give] up whatever

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