ABSTRACT
The urge to create or maintain community is related to the way we perceive it. Yearning for connection can sometimes be a signal that such an experience is no longer being lived, but has lapsed into memory. When our sense of community is constantly threatened with annihilation by a preeminent force outside it, we feel our solid grounding slipping away. This fear of loss and the longing for community may come from an emotional and/or political recognition of the significance of feeling connected. When we become afraid, what has been denied us, taken for granted, or seemed unimportant for so long, a feeling that we can depend on one another, may suddenly seem key to our survival. In the cultural production of Chicana writers we see this longing and sense of urgency, as well as both new and old ways of thinking about community and our connections to others. It is in part what Chéla Sandoval has called in much of her work “the methodology of the oppressed.” The desire to identify, celebrate, or create community—as well as socially conscious coalitions—is very much a part of a political revitalization cycle.
