1. By Cherrie Moraga pages 18-22
”Giving Up The Ghost”
By Cherrie Moraga
pages 18-22

2. About the Author
Cherríe Lawrence Moraga was born September 25th, 1952 in Whitter, California.
Growing up Moraga was troubled by self identification as she felt she was not being equal to both her counterparts of her ethnicity.
Moraga earned her bachelor’s degree in English from Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles. She also earned a masters degree in Feminist Writings from San Francisco State University.
Her pieces of work as a Chicana writer explain how gender, sexuality and race are all intertwined.

3. Summary pages 18-22
In the beginning of scene six of the play Amalia describes the only man she was ever in love with whose name is Alejandro. She talks about his cleanliness and how she admired that.
Amelia says Alejandro ”ran to every whore he could find” when he thought Amelia was performing witchcraft.
Amelia says that her troubles such as loneliness did not come from the result of the relationship but from leaving Mexico.
A sexual encounter happens between Marisa and Amelia and both explain their reasoning behind their actions.

4. Summary Continued
Marisa says “It’s not that you don’t want a man, you just don’t want a man in a man. You want a man in a women”.

5. Analysis
The play could be tricky at times to fully comprehend on the first read because of the change of setting from one stanza to the next.
Maybe Alejandro was another strong factor for Amelia becoming a lesbian because of how she was hurt by this man.
I get the feeling that Amelia and Marisa don’t really love each other genuinely and are only together to comfort both of their insecurities in their sexual identities.