As a way to express Chicanisma, Chicanas began to write literature and produce and direct films. Six artists, Sylvia Morales, Margarita Cota-Cardenas, Lourdes Portillo and Susana Blaustein Munoz, Erlinda Gonzales-Berry, Frances Salome Espana and Denise Chavez, through their films and books, respectively, Chicana, Puppet: A Chicano Novella, La Ofrenda: The Days of the Dead, Paletitas de guayaba, El Espejo/The Mirror and Loving Pedro Infante, (re)discover and (re)present Chicana history through their works.
Watson Dean provides a thoughtful and honest account of Chicana creative expressions. Through her concept of Chicanisma, Watson Dean successfully outlines the contours of Chicana creative expressions. Through personal interviews and conversations with important Chicana writers and filmmakers, Jennifer Watson Dean identifies Chicana creative expressions as acts of social, cultural and political emancipation and protest. Jennifer Watson Dean provides a historically and culturally grounded account of Chicana film and literary production.