Importance of Self Identity

With the scene(s) from Stuff, one theme I found interesting and constant throughout the piece was the need for maintaining a sense of self through all the adversity and pressure to adapt to the ways of the "gringos". The narrator at one point describes the fact that she is the only one who cooks and doesn't "live on take out." I think the whole cannibalism aspect to the piece is an abstract, metaphorical way for the Chicanas to maintain their identity. The way the author talks about the process of eating humans so casually makes me believe that such an extreme metaphor is used to convey the urgency and importance in maintaining one's identity.