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Giving Up the Ghost &
The Mixquiahuala Letters

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CONNECTed Voices

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Chicana/Latina Studies &

This Bridge Called Cyberspace

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      As I continued to look for examples of Chicana literary texts that would help me develop ideas for my dissertation, I found a rich source, This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, a groundbreaking anthology of women of color feminist writing edited by Chicana feminists Gloria Anzaldua and Cherríe Moraga in 1981. The project began as a way of tracing the continued influence of This Bridge as a model of a transformative and multicultural text for Chicana feminist literature. I hoped to find examples of the other Chicana literary texts that connected multiple voices of feminists of color, a nod to coalitional politics. Although the anthology, co-edited by two Chicanas, is often cited as an example of Chicanas' ability to cross borders, I could not find any examples of individually authored Chicana texts that could be called multicultural or that held promise as a hypertext model.

I remember expressing my dismay to Dr. Slatin, who was co-chair of my dissertation. While Dillon, his faithful guide dog, healed my emotional anxiety, John's academic healing sent my naive expectations in another direction. We talked about why I thought text-based literature might have influenced what I found in my research. Because of this, I turned my attention to the World-Wide-Web as an emergent medium with promise for community building, a way for Chicanas to represent a much needed space to develop on their own AND a way to connect to sites created by other communities to demonstrate solidarity and recognition of difference. Finding few sites by Chicanas, I expanded my project to look at all sites by women of color. CONNECTed Voices became the fourth chapter of my dissertation, Chicana Feminist Voices: In Search of Chicana Lesbian Voices from Aztlán to Cyberspace.

Screen shot of the Introduction page of CONNECTed Voices, chapter 4 of my dissertation. It reads, "This site, CONNECTed Voices: Women of Color Feminism, provides an ongoing analysis of women of color web sites. CONNECT is an acronym for concealed,obedient,naive, nascent, emulating, creating, and transforming. It is also a method of linking women of color identities. This site emphasizes the differences between women of color world-wide-web sites. External web sites by and about women of color are arranged into categories of voice, where voice is a metaphor which charts shifts in women's internal development and identity. Each category has a separate page which provides a more detailed explanation of the category and lists a growing number of external sites that exemplify a qualitative match (although sites usually engage more than one level of development). While navigating CONNECTed Voices, the reader is asked to engage with the level of voice of the various external sites discussed. My hope is that the architecture of CONNECTed Voices will allow visitors to view and experience the diversity of women of color voices, and that this experience will reinforce the importance of connected knowing as a necessary components for sustaining women's communities' ability to survive and develop to new levels of awareness and action. My goal is to encourage the full use of the web as a medium for connecting communities that intersect women of color."

Begun in 1996 and ending in 2001, the web-chapter contained over 300 files. My hope was that the dissertation web site would help advance my goal of a network of sites that could connect women of color and transform isolated political ideas into a shared sense of possible coalitions. I categorized the sites into seven voices: concealed, obedient, naive, nascent, exposing, creating, and transforming.

However, I had bigger problems in getting my dissertation chapter in the public discourse. Published as a digital dissertation, in 2001 I submitted PDF, html, and images as required by the University of Texas at Austin. It wasn't until 2007 that it was brought to my attention that UMI, the publishers of Dissertation Abstracts International had only included the PDF file. The web chapter, CONNECTed Voices is not available through UMI, which may come as a surprise to the libraries that bought copies. According to UMI, there is nothing they can do about it. In hindsight, I should have put the site on my own domain and linked to it from the PDF file.

screen shot of CONNECTed Voices page. "Concealed, primary characteristic: neither seen nor heard; The sites listed as Concealed no longer exist on the web. Concealed voices are silent or hidden for various reasons. Theoretically, concealed voices can also be used to describe issues of the digital divide. Obedient, primary characteristic: visibility without subjectivity or agency; The sites listed as Obedient focus on socially acceptable representations of gender which are superimposed on an unproblematic racial identity. It's not clear from the main page of the sites if women of color are active participants in the sites construction. Nor are other socially stigmatized categories brought into focus by the organizational design. Obedient voices are directed towards the exploration of internal awareness. Naïve, primary characteristic: agency within traditional feminine roles; The sites listed as Naïve focuses on socially acceptable representations of race and gender. Gender is superimposed on an unproblematic racial, class and sexual identity. Socially stigmatized categories may be revealed within the organizational design but are not analyzed. Externally, Naive voices express beliefs and teachings without major changes to the status quo. Nascent, primary characteristic: challenging external definitions of identity; The sites listed as Nascent foreground women of color voices as they begin to challenge accepted notions of race or gender. The sites may deal with class and sexuality as well. Nascent voices express an internal awareness of self which challenges external definitions. Exposing, primary characteristic: examining systems of power; The sites listed as Exposing voices foreground women of color voices within the context of a collective group voice, usually an organization; individual identity is subsumed by the collective identity. Race, class, gender and sexuality are common themes. Creating, primary characteristic: producing new knowledge; The sites listed as Creating focus on a racial, gendered collective identity which interweaves both personal experience and institutional knowledge. All foreground individual or personal voices of at least two of the following social categories: race, class, gender and sexuality. Creating voices connect women across social categories: race, class, sexuality. Transforming, primary characteristic: building women of color feminist community; The sites below shift focus between women in two or more groups of color and the groups' intersection by at least two social category: race, class, gender, sexual orientation. Transforming voices bring women of color's multiple social identities into relationship with other women of color.This is an emergent form.<br /> "

(Click to see more screen shots of CONNECTed Voices)

home

PLAY:

Giving Up the Ghost &
The Mixquiahuala Letters

LEARN:

CONNECTed Voices

SHARE:

Chicana/Latina Studies &

This Bridge Called Cyberspace
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