Pages 109 - 133; 134 - 138 Summary

"A Long Line of Vendidas": Octavio Paz, a Mexican author, formulated a distinction between the two partners in any sexual act. There is the chingon, the active partner who is, so to speak, ripping open the chingada, the passive part of the act who only receives and does nothing actively. Generally speaking, this distinction falls clearly along gender lines: The chingon is usually masculine and the chingada is usually female. However, this is not always the case—Moraga found that when she first started having sex with women that she was assuming the role of chingon. This is because of how much she repressed her sexuality as a childhood. The idea of feeling anything emotionally in sex, especially with a woman, was odious to her and therefore she covered over those feelings by being aggressive and dominating.

One...