What's up with the "@"

Reading Chican@ Like a Queer: The De-Mastery of Desire

 Sandra K. Soto describes the use of the "@" in "Chican@ [because it] signals a conscientious departure from certainty, mastery, and wholeness, while still announcing a politicized collectivity," adding that the "@" catches "our attention with its blend of letters from the alphabet on the one hand...at first sight looks like a typo and seems unpronounceable"(Soto 2). 

The "@" in poch[o]tec@ announces its gender inclusivity while making Soto's same political announcement. The "@" separates some of the trapping of "a/o" binary of gender and other trappings that might be associated with older unifying messages. 

This reminds me of the Kid Frost song "This is for La Raza" in which there are messages of Chican@ pride that might be conflated with misogynist ideology. Chican@ scholars like Soto point to gaps where the generative aspects of something can be emphasized and the less desirable aspects dismissed.

Kid Frost "This is for La Raza": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REEu9Oua47M


Click on the subtitle or here for the Google Book link: http://books.google.com/books?id=MWuGctuYpj0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=sandra+soto+reading+like+a+queer&source=bl&ots=fqAwDRGvuT&sig=SXkxTn-GX-ZdSVBLXq838C7Jge4&hl=en&ei=ARxtTZW6Oon0swPrnZzABQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false