The following works are an exploration of the histories of colonization that Indigenous people experienced in North America and how the settler colonial phenomenon continues to exist in the contemporary United States. In this project I am placing “official” history alongside personal narrative in order to represent the overlooked experiences of those impacted by the colonial project in the southwest. Old English Modern Mestizaje acts to deconstruct the ideologies that create common sense notions of Mexico, Mexican American, Xicana/o/x and Mestizaje. With this project I am working to explore the impact of racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, capitalism and hetero patriarchy, as they affect the material realities of people whose lives are determined by their relationship to the border. Through the use of sculpture, experimental video, documentary photography, urban sculpture, earthenware, and performance this series means to draw our attention to the ways we uphold and reconstruct institutions of power. I am most compelled by the places where evidence of resistance and survival is made manifest. With Old English Modern Mestizaje my desire is to generate alternative empathies that open paths for a new consciousness.

This thesis examines the ways in which popular media forms explore ideas of national identity, citizenship, and the politics of representation with regards to queer Xicana women, especially those residing in Los Angeles. Specifically, through an analysis of the television show The L Word, Cherrie Moraga’s play The Hungry Woman and Aurora Guerrero’s film Mosquita y Mari, this thesis argues that the queer Xicana experience is best represented in popular culture by queer Xicanas themselves.

In this dissertation, I examine the Sonoran Desert trilogy by Kathleen Alcalá through the lens of post-oppositional theory as developed by AnaLouise Keating. Moving beyond the use of post-oppositional theory to analyze non-fiction works, I apply this theory instead to the fiction of Kathleen Alcalá—whose work appears in such anthologies as The Norton Anthology of Latino Literature. Alcalá, though well published, is underrepresented in contemporary literary criticism, as can be seen by the only eight entries under her name in the MLA International Bibliography. Therefore, I have chosen her most significant fiction work, her trilogy about the Sonoran Desert, as the perfect text upon which to map post-oppositional theory. Through analysis of her three novels, I show that her work is an ideal example of post-oppositionality in action and that her characters act as post-oppositional revolutionaries and prophets within the pages of the text. The first chapter outlines the parameters of the project. In Chapter 2, I argue that post-oppositionality can be seen in Alcalá through gender bending, looking at the characters of Membrillo and Manzana, Corey, and Rosalinda. In Chapter 3, I argue that the characters of Estela, La Señorita, and Magdalena are enacting post-oppositionality through their transcendence of traditional women's roles in sexuality. In Chapter 4, I argue that the female characters of the novels act as revolutionaries through their political and social agency—reaching out to other characters through such work as educating and writing. In Chapters 5 and 6, I feature my interviews with Alcalá and Keating, who were generous enough to speak with me over Zoom during lockdown. Finally, in the conclusion chapter, Chapter 7, I examine how post-oppositionality in the novels prepares the reader for post-oppositional action in reality. Throughout all of these chapters, I rely on other theories and historiographies such as gender theory (Judith Butler, Foucault, West and Zimmerman, etc.), the history of women's sexuality, and the roles of women in nineteenth century Mexico (looking especially at the works of Nancy LaGreca and Anna Macías).