Needing more: chicana lesbian desire as intervention and offering

Introducing the 1991 publication of Chicana Lesbians: The Girls Our Mothers Warned Us About, editor and visionary Carla Trujillo identifies the seed planted by Juanita Ramos' 1987 anthology Compañeras: Latina Lesbians. Detailing her experiential arc from exuberant to unsettled, Trujillo explains: "Compañeras had only teased me. Not only did I want more, I needed more" (ix). Trujillo's editorial recognition of a lack-of presence, voice, power, visibility-as well as the need to foster spaces for the nurturing of more Chicana lesbian voices and work engage two key components of what I identify as "needing more," a critical engagement of Chicana lesbian desire as intervention and offering. Using analysis of queer, decolonial, and performance studies, I suggest that Chicana Lesbian desire as articulated in Trujillo's anthology can be seen as a critical unsettling that posits both a critique of existing norms and structures as well as an active envisioning of new modes of self and queer familia. Shifting from theory to literature, I offer an application of "needing more" to two original contributions from Chicana Lesbians by Monica Palacios and Diane Alcalá. My analysis illuminates the three key elements of "needing more"-a recognition of lack, a conscious and ongoing envisioning of "more," and an active renegotiation of familia within the context of queer desire and community. I close the essay with my letter testimonio in the spirit of Trujillo's "needing more" and the collection's enduring engagement with and impact on queer familia.