Disney’s new “Latina” princess is not Latina after all… –at NBC Latino
.
And Sonia Sotomayor reminds kids, “A princess is not a career…”
From Dionne Espinoza
(MALCS) Women Active in Letters and Social Change
Disney’s new “Latina” princess is not Latina after all… –at NBC Latino
.
And Sonia Sotomayor reminds kids, “A princess is not a career…”
From Dionne Espinoza
Submitted by Rebeca Burciaga
By Erica Lorraine Williams for The Feminist Wire
In response to Toni Cade Bambara’s classic question in TheSalt Eaters, I am absolutely sure that I want to be well. In fact, I am determined to be well. I have been haunted by the legacies of premature death of black women academics since before I chose to enter into the academy. What does wellness look like for black women in the academy, and what are some strategies that we can utilize to achieve it? As an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Spelman College entering my fourth year on the tenure-track, I have learned some tips and strategies for balance and wellness that I only wish I had known in college and graduate school….
For me, self-care quite simply means setting boundaries on how and when I work. I refuse to run myself into the ground by working around the clock with no time for rest and relaxation. The academy tends to privilege a lack of sleep, workaholic tendencies, and scholarly productivity at the expense of everything else. I refuse to sacrifice my nights and (whole) weekends for work. Evenings are reserved for exercise, family time, home-cooked meals, and general “down time,†and I will not be made to feel guilty about that.
I want to be a prolific scholar, to open students’ minds, and to make an impact on my institution and my community. However, I can’t – and I won’t – do this at the expense of my health and well-being. I am haunted by stories of women of color who worked so hard to earn tenure that once they got it they were too burnt out – suffering from fatigue and chronic illness – to enjoy it. I refuse to fall into this trap of self-destruction. Just as people often say that being a parent is a full-time job, self-care is also a full-time job! Sometimes my days feel so long because I am running from one thing to the next, even if some of those things I’m running to include Afro-Cuban dance class at 7:30pm after a long day of office hours, writing, and a 3-hour honors seminar.
It is one thing to say that self-care is important, however, how does one actually fit it into a busy schedule?
Article continues at The Feminist Wire
Suggested by Cristina Serna and Catriona Rueda Esquibel, from the Crunk Feminist Collective blog:
[Read more…] about Back-To-School Beatitudes – 10 Academic Survival Tips
From your webjefa:
I’ve been following the production and success of Aurora Guerrero’s Mosquita y Mari for  a while now. I was fortunate enough to meet Aurora back in the late 90s when she screened one of her first short films, Ixchel, for my class in Chicana Feminisms at Occidental College. It’s been a pleasure to see her career blossom, and see her newest project, Mosquita y Mari, take multiple honors including Sundance and the SF International Film Fest.
Mosquita & Mari is a Chicana coming of age that was recently reviewed in the New York Times as “unassuming indie jewel, [that] resists all of the clichés that its story of the fraught friendship between two 15-year-old girls invites.”
Here’s a recent interview with Aurora by Melissa Silverstein at Indiewire. Here she talks about how worked to make her film a community project, and gives advice to other women filmmakers:
WaH: You were very deliberate in putting together grassroots partnerships like the one with Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) to help get the film done. Talk about that experience and what you learned from it?
AG: I didn’t want to do what so many entitled people do to marginalized communities. I didn’t want to just take from this community and not give anything in return. Ideally, I think there should be a partnership between you and the community you’re documenting. If they open up their doors to you, then in what ways can you be of use to them? That’s the question I came to CBE with. I wanted to make sure Mosquita y Mari was somehow beneficial to the community of Huntington Park. Together, CBE and I developed a hands-on mentorship program for the youth in the area. Anyone interested in media was brought on to the film and mentored by one of the department heads, depending on the interest of the young person. CBE and I also talked about making the film available to the community however possible, especially because it can serve as a tool to talk about identity within an immigrant community. I went into this partnership with CBE a firm believer in its potential to make filmmaking a positive and powerful experience for many. I guess I walked away re-affirmed that collaborating in this way is how I’m meant to work as a filmmaker.
WaH: What was the one mistake you made that you will do differently next time?
AG: There were a couple of times I didn’t trust my instinct and paid for it. No more of that!
WaH: What advice do you have for other female filmmakers?
AG: Don’t shy away from telling the story you want to tell. I think we often look for permission to be able to make the films we deep down want to make. Give yourself that! I bet if you allow yourself to create freely you’ll probably end up with something unique.
Muchisimas gracias to UCSB graduate student Ester Trujillo for spontaneously posting to our Facebook page this series of three daily reports from the Summer Institute (mirrored here with photos added). Ester is a graduate student in Chicana/o Studies who works in Salvadoran-American culture and identity formation; Latinas/os and new media; Pan-Latinidad, diasporas and globalization.
I arrived at the UCSB Campus on the morning of the last day of the MALCS Summer Institute sad, knowing it would be the final day to say hi to the amazing women present but my sadness soon faded when I heard the melodic sounds coming from the registration tables. Elisa and Mayra were playing music that filled my heart with joy.
During session VIII, I attended a panel titled “Striving for Social Justice: Women of Color Lawyers’ Reflections on Education and Careers†which was composed of three tremendously amazing attorneys, discussed by Jessica Lopez Lyman, and moderated by Aida Hurtado: Chair of the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies at UCSB and Chair of the Summer Institute. Public Defender Jessica Delgado, Arcelia Hurtado of the National Center for Lesbian Rights and Simona Farrise of the Farrise Law Firm spoke about the challenges and strategies they have engaged on their journey as women of color lawyers in different types of law practice. The presence of several undergraduate students at this panel demonstrated that relationships of mentorship and guidance make MALCS tick and give it its signature essence.
During Plenary III, titled “Creative and Spiritual Healing Practices: Transforming Violence for Social Justice,†I and approximately 110 other mujeres were truly in for a treat!
The first presenter Yvette G. Flores gave a talk titled “Healing from Institutional and Interpersonal Violence†Her testimony of being a Central American trying to find her identity in a Chicano Studies department in the 1970’s was definitely something I can identify with due to my Central American background. Flores’ explanation of the identity politics she met with during that time period and its effects on her professorial and publishing career also made me think of some of the issues I have put to query at times. Yvette encouraged us to understand the nature of trauma from a feminist social justice perspective and to look at the processes available for healing to begin.
Second speaker, Adelina Anthony spoke about the act of honoring our creative selves and about making public the re-membering of trauma. She explained the performance of her second birth at the Stanford University campus around the time during which her mother passed away and about how this performance gave her the ability to express trauma and healing that she lacked the language to describe verbally. She spoke of giving the plenary a gift of humor by explaining that through her performance she recovers her mother from the violence that was inflicted against her. She showed a clip on www.comediva.com/hocicona from “La Chismosa!!!†Anthony then transformed her presentation into a full performance where she instructed the audience of Mariconas and Mariconas who are lying to themselves how to achieve self-gratification in less than 4 seconds. The performance cannot be adequately explained in words on a page; it was absolutely spectacular. Anthony instructed us to “Get out of your heads and back into your bodies.†As the Zen Ranchera, she spoke of not letting addictions get the best of you while she was grinding up against Keta Miranda and Antonia Castañeda and insisted that she was going back to the Rancho to learn new meditation techniques as she concluded her performance.
Now that the 2012 MALCS Summer Institute is over I am overwhelmed with emotions as my sisters return to Ohio, D.C., Texas, Arizona, Spain and various locations around the world and across the country. I feel so grateful and so fortunate to have met so many amazing mentors and so many new friends. I can’t wait to see everyone again next year at Ohio State University for the 2013 MALCS Summer Institute!
The MALCSistas from UC Santa Cruz: from back left, Chela Sandoval, Josie Mendez-Negrete, Aida Hurtado, Maylei Blackwell, three unknown women (sorry!), and Gabriella Gutierrez y Muhs. Front women unidentified as well (sorry!)
First image above: Outgoing chair Monica Flores and new chair Theresa Delgadillo, wrapped in MALCS traditional mantle of leadership, the rebozo. Rita Urquijo-Ruiz is our new chair-elect.
Second image above: Annemarie Perez with Karen Mary Davalos and Karen Mary’s daughter
All images in series by Susana Gallardo
From NBCLatino, by Adrian Carrasquillo
Josefina Lopez is best known for authoring “Real Women Have Curves,†a play turned movie which challenged cultural assumptions on beauty, marriage and a woman’s role in society. Her latest effort could be described as even more personal – “Detained in the Desert,†a movie from her and director Iliana Sosa, is an uncompromising look at the topic of immigration in the U.S. — something they feel has been completely ignored in the powerful film medium.
“I was undocumented for 13 years,†Lopez says. “As a little girl it really damaged me. You don’t feel human, you internalize this invisibility and really feel like you are an alien.†The movie is centered on Sandi, a second-generation dark skinned Latina and Lou Becker, a controversial talk show radio host. “They get stranded in the desert and have to help each other out,†Sosa says. “They have to set their political differences aside – they become like the undocumented immigrants who die out there, trapped.â€
Lopez gained firsthand knowledge of the plight of undocumented immigrants who attempt to cross the desert to enter the U.S. when she was given a tour of the areas in Arizona by Enrique Morones, who founded Border Angels. The non-profit organizations works to “stop the unnecessary deaths of individuals in the desert by delivering water in key points where migrants cross the desert.â€
Morones, who will play himself in the movie, tells unbelievable stories of his experiences as a border angel. He says he has had confrontations with militiamen in Arizona who poke holes in the water gallons he leaves for migrants. He also told Lopez he puts down crosses when he comes across a body in the desert and says he has seen the spirits of those who perished sitting in the back of his truck.
During her tour with him, Lopez was eventually taken to a cemetery with 700 unmarked graves of undocumented immigrants who died making the fateful trip. It is because of this “haunting†experience that she decided to donate the proceeds from the movie, which begins filming on June 21, to Border Angels.
There is also a campaign online to help pay for the post-production costs for the movie, which is on a tight and low budget. Story continues at NBCLatino
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 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. [Read more…] about Entre Mujeres: a translocal music composition project