Silvia Isabel Rael Almanza is a Chicana. That is not a racial or an ethnic statement/status but, rather, a political one. It was in the 1950s that the hyphen in Spanish-American defined a group of people as less-than-American. It was the political process that eliminated the hyphen and restored our rightful place on this North American land in the United States of America. Silvia feels at home and is proud to be defined as a Chicana.