This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color

This chapter shines a spotlight on the importance, but also the challenge, of Third World women writing their truth in the face of a society that oppresses and devalues their abilities. Gloria Anzaldúa describes the experience, the struggle and danger, of writing as a Third World woman in “Speaking In Tongues.”

“Millicent Fredericks” is a short introduction and poem by Gabrielle Daniels about Millicent Fredericks, a Black woman and domestic worker from Antigua whose existence was recorded in the diary of a white woman and was forgotten in history.

Nellie Wong’s prose in “In Search of the Self as Hero” describes the joy and struggle of becoming an Asian American writer, as well as the motivations and meaning of putting such work out into the world.

“Chicana’s Feminist Literature: A Re-vision through Malintzin/or Malintzin Putting Flesh Back on the Object” is an essay by Norma Alarcón about the mythic and historical figure of Malintzin (aka La Malinche), an Aztec noblewoman who was given to Cortez as a “lover, translator, and tactical advisor” (181) at the time of the Conquest of Mexico in the 1500s. She is an important figure in Mexican and Chicana feminist literature, illustrating the objectification and devaluation of women as she was enslaved by both the Aztec and Spanish patriarchies.