At a recent presentation, Dr. Yvette Saavedra, Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Oregon, shared insights from her forthcoming book project, Queer Turns: Locating the Lesbi-Queer Genealogy of Chicana Feminism, 1720–2000. Drawing on years of archival research and her previous article “Of Chicana Lesbian Terrorists and Lesberadas: Recuperating the Lesbian/Queer Roots of Chicana Feminism, 1970–2000”, Dr. Saavedra is working to expand this scholarship into a full-length book that reframes the intellectual history of Chicana feminist thought.

Recovering a Silenced Genealogy

Dr. Saavedra’s work highlights how lesbian and queer voices have been central to the development of Chicana feminist discourse, even as they have often been erased, sidelined, or relegated to footnotes in both Chicana/o history and Chicana/o Studies as a field. By centering this genealogy, she argues that queer Chicana feminists did not simply exist at the margins but played a foundational role in shaping activism, theory, and cultural politics.

A Project of Intellectual Reclamation

Funded in part by the CLLAS Faculty Seed Grant and support from the University of Texas at Austin’s Benson Latin American Collection, Dr. Saavedra has begun extensive archival work tracing the intersections of queer identity, feminism, and Chicana/o activism over three centuries. Her project reveals how lesbian and queer Chicanas carved out space within movements that often resisted their visibility—challenging machismo, heteronormativity, and colonial narratives of identity.

Queer Turns in Chicana/o Studies

Focusing especially on the period between 1970 and 2020, Queer Turns documents how lesbian-queer Chicana thought opened new avenues of academic and activist inquiry. From community organizing to literature and theory, Dr. Saavedra shows how these voices reshaped the trajectory of Chicana/o Studies, ensuring that sexuality, gender, and intersectionality became inseparable from questions of race, culture, and justice.

Looking Ahead

By mapping this genealogy, Dr. Saavedra’s work contributes to an ongoing project of intellectual and cultural reclamation—bringing lesbian and queer Chicana voices out of the archival shadows and into the center of historical memory. Her presentation reminded us that telling a fuller story of Chicana feminism requires acknowledging those whose contributions were long dismissed, but whose impact continues to reverberate across academia and activism today.

👉 Stay tuned for more updates as Dr. Saavedra’s book project develops.