SOURCE: "Cherríe Moraga: Mapping Aztlan," in American Theatre, Vol. 13, No. 8, October 1996, pp. 76-78.

In the following essay, DeRose discusses Moraga's involvement with the Brava Theater Center in San Francisco's Mission District.

Cherríe Moraga and I are sitting at the kitchen table in her San Francisco home, swapping stories about growing up in California. It is a badge we both wear proudly, and it has deep spiritual meaning for both of us—particularly for Moraga, who senses in the California landscape racial memories of Aztlan, the ancient North American homeland of the Chicano. She tells me a story about driving through the Southern California desert near San Diego.

"I'm driving along in this van listening to music. Looking at the desert landscape. I start thinking a lot about Aztlan: that this land was originally Mexico, and before that, Mexican Indian territory. And I know this land has...