Occupying Gender: The Necessity of INTERSECTIONALITY Woman of Color Feminism La Prieta is an essay from This Bridge Called My Back,

a groundbreaking 1981 anthology that has become canonical text for women of color and queer women of color feminism, and for feminism in general! It was edited and complied by Gloria Anzaldua and Cherrie Moraga, two Latina feminists. Bridge was one of first of its kind to address not only gender but also race and sexuality. Bridge was concerned with the invisibility of women of color and especially queer women of color in feminism, and the invisibility of women in anti-racism activism and race studies. So it was meant to BRIDGE A GAP between feminist studies and race studies and activists by considering the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, class (and other facets of social identity like nationality, citizenship status, etc.). Another way to think about this: one is not just a woman, but a white woman, a white lesbian woman, a white lesbian educated woman, a white lesbian educated American woman, etc.) If we consider intersections of identity, it becomes clear that speaking of women as if it applied to or addressed all women, is just not accurate and even though it may be well-intentioned can reinforce invisibility, oppression, and violence. Bridge was praised for its oppositional stance to the academy: it was intentionally nontheoretical on the basis of the claim that women of color dont theorize in white academic ways.

Gloria Anzalduas La Prieta La Prieta is one of the key texts in the anthology. Here Anzaldua outlines a theory of intersectionality to address here multiple and overlapping social identities, considers peoples complicity in perpetuating oppression and inequality, and offers coalition building as a solution. Anzaldua was a seminal scholar of Chicana cultural theory, feminist theory, and queer theory. She was one of the first feminists to theorize about intersectionality, and brought the notion of the mestiza into circulation. Mestizo/a is a Spanish term that describes people of mixed heritage or descent. Anzaldua expanded this traditional usage to mean a state of being beyond a binary (such as Latina/white, Mexican/American, undocumented/citizen), particularly in terms of the binary of the Mexico-U.S. border and the violence that the border does to the people who have traditionally inhabited the Mexico region that is now split into two nations despite the ongoing physical, economic, and social connection between each side.