The Decolonial Imaginary Summary

The Decolonial Imaginary, an undoubtedly challenging book that makes the reader question not only their knowledge of history and theory but also the way in which it has been told through the centuries. Emma Pérez, a Chicana historian with her bachelors, masters, and doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles, put into perspective the ideas of Freud, Foucault, archeology and genealogy to lead the reader through the deconstruction of Chicana feminist historiography. Pérez then reconstruct history in a way that breaks the destructive cycles of patriarchy. She crosses many boarders as she takes nationalist history and traverses it into a Chicana Feminism, and by doing so she rewrites history from the perspective of a decolonial imaginary.

She poses more questions and introduces more concepts which leave the reader with this bittersweet feeling of nostalgia. In part three she touches on the subjects of genealogy as it pertains to desire. She extrapolates form the ideas of Sigmund Freud’s theory of the Psyche to argue how the Oedipus complex has left its imprint on Chicano/a cultures. She juxtaposes four “cultural bodies”, Selena, La Malinche, Delgadina, and Silent Tongue, which if read from a third space feminist interpretation shifts the perspective to unveil women’s desires through their own agency. She analyses the Oedipus complex and introduce the Oedipal conquest triangle. She touches on theories of power/desire as well as desire and history. She emphasizes that history itself is devised through power. She ultimately concludes with the idea that history has within it a tool for liberatory consciousness. She closes with a poetic comparison of her third space feminist critique to the Alamo in hopes of moving toward a post colonial

This story in its universality usually negates the women’s experience, Pérez argues that through the deconstruction of the historiography at play, history can be posed through a feminist lense, which includes rather than negates the perspectives, views, and adversities of women throughout history. Within her argument she also poses several sub arguments aimed at forcing the reader to think outside of the basic lines that surround Chicano/a history. She argues that the use of binaries can no longer be used as modes to determine whether or not someone is a friend or an enemy. She also argues that society has yet to reach a post colonial era based on the simple fact that in order to become a post colonial society, there was be a decolonization of the object, in this case women, to become the decolonial subject. This Pérez states will finally allow society to enter