Lorna Dee Cervantes is a Brilliantly artistic female Mexican American Acknowledged for her culturally inspired poetry. She gained much recognition during a time in the twentieth century when new ideas were being introduced and tradition was being challenged. She is imbued with the energy and ideals of three different movements during this time. One movement would be the Chicano Movement, where Mexican Americans demand acknowledgment of their culture and status in this country, by creating literary works inspired by their experiences and struggles as Chicano citizens of the United States. The feminist movement also accelerated during the mid-twentieth century, and Cervantes uses their ideals to discuss the injustice of men against women in her poetry. In addition, Post-modernism took root and the experimental nature of this movement emerges in the Chicana poet’s writing style. The values of these three movements stimulate the themes of Cervantes’ poetry and help shape her unique and innovative style.
Cervantes draws much inspiration from the momentum that propelled the Chicano Movement in the 1960s. As Dennis Lópe describes it, “The late 1960s and 1970s thus witnessed a florecimiento (flowering) of Chicano artistic production” (186). After an extensive history of the Chicano culture being “silenced, maligned, or caricatured,” they heavily protested this injustice, using their advancements in literature and poetry to dispel these false misconceptions (196). During this time, work by Chicanos began to surface in the literature and arts. Being of Mexican descent, this movement encouraged Lorna Dee Cervantes to produce poetry that drew on her experiences as a Chicana. Often, Chicano writers would build their writing on the struggles and hardships that arise for Mexican Americans. Specifically, the refusal by both white, American society and Mexican culture to accept Chicanos becomes problematic. In "Sitios Y Lenguas: Chicanas Theorize Feminisms," Aida Hurtado elaborates, “By standing on the U.S. side . . . they see Mexico and they see home; by standing on the Mexican side, they see the United States and they see home. Yet they are not really accepted on either side” (150). Assimilation into mainstream white culture and retaining their Spanish culture becomes a frequent motif in Chicano writing. Growing up, Cervantes’ mother restricted her from speaking Spanish to increase her chances of assimilating into American society with acceptance by the mainstream. We can see this conflict in attempting to reclaim this component of her Mexican culture in “Freeway 280.”
Also, being a female poet, Cervantes infuses ideals that are characteristic of the feminist movement into her writing. Similar to the Chicano Movement, the 1960s proved to be a prominent period for feminists as well. Whitehead explains, “Feminist poetry did begin to flower most fully in a single decade, the explosive 1960s, when cultural change and upheaval transformed poetics” (3). Being both a Chicana and a female, the occurrence of these movements that catered to both her minority identities were advantageous to her career as a poet. The feminist movement inspired women to produce poetry in a realm that was dominated primarily by men. It is already common knowledge how women are treated with inferiority when compared to men. Cervantes gains literary prominence in the world of poetry while simultaneously exposing and attacking the injustice committed against women. During an interview with Lorna Dee Cervantes, Sonia V. González discovers how the Chicana poet uses “Poetry became her weapon to denounce racism, sexism, violence against women, and the oppression of the disempowered” (163). This is critical because, again, feminist advancements in literature really sought to prove the literary genius women can possess while condemning any sexism aimed to invalidate a woman’s worth. . Cervantes especially highlights on this injustice in her poem “A un Desconocedo.” Too often are women portrayed as subordinate to men or as tools that cater to a patriarchal society. Cervantes anger towards this inequality and combats that supposed deficit in value or intelligence with the brilliancy of her literary works.
Cervantes’ poetry echoes elements illustrative of postmodern culture. Postmodern poetry is often experimental in how poets play with style and structure, revamping the traditional ideas of what constitutes “real poetry.” Cervantes infuses postmodern innovation into her poetry through how she combines both English and Spanish into her poetry. Not only does this imbue her culture into her writing but her poetry also become “acts of assertion against restrictive social and linguistic structures” (Wallace para. 9). She exits the parameters of traditional poetry and her inventive style raises her as a significant Chicana poet. Moreover, her combination of English and Spanish introduces the issue of identity, a common subject in Post-Modern activity. In "Cultures In Contact Zones," Bob Fecho observes how “her sense of self, of who she continued to become, remained in flux as her multiple cultural identities engaged in dialogue with a range of cultural contexts” (44). In this article, he describes how a new culture has surfaced when Mexican culture clashes with American culture. Because of this intermingling of different values, Mexican Americans are often conflicted whether to identify their American identity or their Mexican one. Andres Rodrigues further expands, “Mexican Americans . . . felt trapped between two worlds, that of Anglo America and that of their Mexican forebears” (para. 2). Due to this uncertainty, they develop split identities because they are unable to embrace one culture without being rejected by the other.
There are several factors incorporated into Lorna Dee Cervantes’ style of writing which range from the values she learned from her mother and her participation in the Chicano and Feminist movements. The themes of the Mexican American identity is quite a prevalent one in her poetry. Still, these revelations evokes a strong sense of culture, a determined testament to the value and richness in Mexican culture. Furthermore, her status as a woman in American society servers to bolster her prominence as such a significant figure in the literary world. She pushes mainstream society’s boundaries for a woman’s capabilities with her unique writing style. Additionally, the blending of different languages into her works really demonstrates the inventive and experimental nature that defines the Post-Modern era. These movements along with her identity as a Chicana all synthesize to birth poetry that elaborate on important cultural themes.