“Our Movement: One Woman’s Story” Discussion Post

I found it fascinating that Carmen began her life of political activism through such a small, personal group who made up the Puerto Ricans For Self-Determination. This fact makes me understand political activism and agency for Carmen and other Chicana individuals as extremely grounded and personal. Instead of joining a massive group from the start, Carmen joined a small collective of peers who truly were interested in learning about the issues and finding their voices and opinions about them. While reading I felt like by doing this it gave Carmen more of a voice. I found it extremely disheartening to hear about the continued sexism found in the PSP. It seemed like the organization was so advanced in their thinking on certain issues pertaining to race and economy, however, they were still stuck in traditional views on gender. By the end of Carmen’s testimonial, I comprehended that she was continuing to fight for the issues important to her, but I couldn’t help but feel a bit defeated. Carmen tried both radical forces of change through PSP as well as working inside the government to achieve an end to oppression, however neither of these methods ended in success. In the end Carmen states that it needs to be a collective push towards justice and equality, not one person or organization’s fight. If organizations are a community’s way of assembling, how does Carmen propose society move toward justice?