Travesando Chicana Punk

Abstract

Travesando Chicana punk explores the cultural phenomenon of Chicana punk. Focusing onliterary and cultural productions such as memoirs, zines, oral herstories, and soundscapes created and informed by Chicanas in punk I trace the formation of a Chicana punk discourse. Key to this study of Chicana punk is the timeframe of the 2000s and early 2010s. It is within this timeframe that I argue Chicana punk discourse emerges. I further center the work of Chicanas in punk from across the U.S. West and Southwest including California, Arizona, and Texas. As I demonstrate throughout this project, these timeframes, and geographies, and specifically the Southwest, remain underexplored sites of Chicana punk. Furthermore, this project introduces my methodology of travesando, as a process of creating new methods and modes of analyses while traversing different research sites. Travesando entails of the shifts and movements that were required of me to examine Chicana punk texts, archives, and spaces. In reading and examining sites of Chicana punk, I traverse socio-cultural relations including social spaces and sounds via creator’s self-published literature, narratives, and performances. Travesando Chicana punk draws on Chicana feminist theoretical frameworks, queer and Latina/o studies, cultural studies, as well as sound studies. Traversing Chicana punk’s various discursive and scattered sites, I provide a nuance conceptualization of Chicana punk as a new discourse.