Ana Castillo quotes

Our goal should be to achieve joy. (Ana Castillo)

There are things coming from me that I felt I wanted to talk about. My search for my own blend of spirituality, my acknowledgement of my sexuality, my being the single mother of a young man.

Ana Castillo

I was just, like, not at all the office type; I was the artist type.

Ana Castillo

Human sexuality has been regulated and shaped by men to serve men's needs.

Ana Castillo

For things to have value in man's world, they are given the role of commodities. Among man's oldest and most constant commodity is woman.

Ana Castillo

A good lover will do that, see something worthwhile in you that you never knew was there. And when there's something you don't like to see in yourself a good lover won't see it either.

Ana Castillo

I wanted everything. What could you not want when you are brown and Indian-looking in a society in which the white aesthetic is praised as acceptable?

Ana Castillo

Catch me, as if I have surely been out committing a violation against you, my sin of insisting on existing without you.

Ana Castillo

Women Are Not Roses Women have no beginning only continual flows. Though rivers flow women are not rivers. Women are not roses they are not oceans or stars. i would like to tell her this but i think she already knows.

Ana Castillo

It is the nature of all living creatures, including Homo sapiens, I believe, to adapt to a place where they may survive. If that is something we as social beings called home then home it is for my main character in The Guardians, Regina who has plunked down hard earned pennies on a cachito of terreno where she can survive, plants some vegetables to live from, etc.

Ana Castillo

As disturbing as some of us may find it there seems to be some evidence that the age men are most attracted to is a young teen, 13 to be specific. Women especially are subjected to ageism. Once she is past her twenties, I think a lot of women, let's say in contemporary Western culture, still fear losing their sexual appeal, i.e., their worth as women... (Ana Castillo)

I'm obviously an American citizen. My parents are American citizens. But I'm not looked at as an American.

Ana Castillo

I've spent my whole life in Chicago being asked where am I from, so that I have a sense of displacement that also is very psychologically disorienting.

Ana Castillo

...But as far as the novel makes reference to that, Miguel seems to be willing to concede to the mother's care more than enforce macho authority over the sickly boy. Miguel is a man of the new millennia. He listens to what his significant other opines. As an educated individual, he also turns to literature for answers. He reflects on his failed marriage and tries to learn from it rather than shut down and repeat his mistakes. There is a deep desire to find spiritual and romantic fulfillment. He's willing to find new ways to do that within the constrictions of society's patriarchal institutions.

Ana Castillo

...I always tell people that you have to write what's tearing at your heart, what you need to resolve. I thought it was time to walk my talk. How was I going to write about parts of my life and not write about what really was motivating some of my behavior? I've written long enough to know where the boundaries are.

Ana Castillo

We can't assume who speaks what language in these times.

Ana Castillo

We all participate in patriarchal patterns.

Ana Castillo

according to las feministas, feminism was "a very dynamic aspect of the Chicana's heritage and not at all foreign to her nature."" Contrary to ethnographic data that portrays Chicanas as submissive followers who are solely designated to preserve the culture, the feminists did not see herself or other women of her culture as such. While the feminist dialogue remained among the activists in el Movimiento, one sees in Encuentro Femenil that there indeed existed a solid initiative toward Chicana feminist thought, that is, recognition of sexism as a primary early on as the late 1960s. Clarifying the differences between the needs of the Anglo feminist and the feministas was part of the early feminista's tasks.

Ana Castillo