Random Creativity


Entre Mujeres: a translocal music composition project

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My name is Martha Gonzalez and I am a Chicana artivista, singer and songwriter for East LA based Quetzal. I want to invite you all to support a very important project that I have been working on.

Entre Mujeres is a translocal music composition project between Chicanas/Latinas in the U.S. and Jarochas/Mexican female musicians in Mexico. This project seeks to make the voices, ideas and translocal dialogues between Chicanas and Jarochas visible through the medium of song.

A song as a sonic and literary manifestation is life’s sound-scape, a unique cathartic memento, as well as a powerful political Entre Mujeres tool. Without question a song is also an important historical text. A person’s testimonio (testimony), life views, triumphs, and struggles can be expressed into song lyrics. In the end a song, like a testimonio is what stands as moment lived. Multiplied by community this can be an active exercise in consensus and knowledge production. As a collaborator in various songwriting moments I have witnessed time and again how this method and process creates space, builds community, challenges multiple patriarchal systems, and can potentially produce knowledge that is accessible.

Throughout this project there has been convivencia, trust, testimonios that have generated important moments of healing, and knowledge production. In these ways Entre Mujeres Project is a testament to the kind of collective knowledge generated across U.S. Mexican borders.

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Letter to President Obama

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Posted by the webjefa, from a public email from MALCSista Francisca James Hernandez, Instructor of Anthropology, Pima Community College, Tucson, Arizona The taking hostage of the country by Tea Party Congresspeople, and Obama’s accommodationism, has me upset and concerned enough … Read More

Inaugural post: On the Uniqueness of MALCS

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Webjefa’s note:  We are honored to re-launch our new blog and website with this thoughtful inaugural post by former Chicana/Latina Studies editor KarenMary Davalos.  Initially presented informally at our General Meeting last November in San Antonio, KarenMary offers her personal insight about what makes MALCS a unique organization.

Why MALCS is an important and unique professional organization
by KarenMary Davalos

While I served as the lead editor of Chicana/Latina Studies: The Journal of MALCS, readers and contributors consistently asked me to articulate why our organization is important and what makes it unique. I offer this brief reflection based on my experiences and observations to stimulate discussion about the significance and contribution of MALCS. Each item represents a vision and practice, and I admit, MALCS is on the path and in the process of our own nepantla. MALCS may not get it right every time, but the organization continues to return to the mission and vision it has for social transformation. In the words of Josie Mendez-Negrete, “MALCS is being careful not to reproduce the injuries that the academy has done to us,” and it creates spaces to guarantee that it grows and develops as an organization and with its membership. Thus, I hope that our collective voices will become the material for a more formal statement about MALCS that can be utilized in fundraising campaigns, membership drives, chapter development, and promotion and tenure. Additionally, if our voices can suggest ways to further operationalize these principles and practices that make MALCS unique and important, then we will also create a work plan for us and others to duplicate and share in these troubled times.

1) MALCS is a visionary organization because mentorship is one of its core principles.

Mentorship is one of the founding objectives of MALCS. It is not simply that we mentor through MALCS; it is the content of our consejos. MALCS does not try to reproduce the power structures that wounded our predecessors or our communities.  

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