General News

African American Studies Professor Aaronette M. White of UC Santa Cruz passed last Tuesday at the age of 51, possibly of an aneurysm.  In a facebook thread, Angie Chabram writes “let’s memorialize her by putting her picture and the write up in a public place other than the net. I am going to put this lovely person I didn’t know outside my door!” I did the same.

Here is an excerpt from Aishah Shahidah Simmons’ essay (at Feministwire 8/18/12) celebrating Aaronette’s life:

It is with deep sadness and profound devastation that I share that radical Black/Pan-African feminist activist and social psychologist Aaronette M. White, Ph.D., recently made her physical transition. While there is presently uncertainty about the exact date and time of her sudden death, no foul play or harm was done to her in the last hours of her life. Her body was found in her apartment on Tuesday, August 14, 2012. The belief is that she suffered an aneurysm. She was 51-years old.

….Aaronette’s activism, scholarship, and writings were frequently ahead of the curve. She constantly championed unsung warrior feminist women who were predominantly of African descent. However, she celebrated the resiliency and (sometimes armed) resistance of all women she defined as freedom fighters.

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La voz áspera de la ternura, Chavela Vargas (via Lina Murillo)

From the Associated Press:

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Chavela Vargas, who defied gender stereotypes to become one of the most legendary singers in Mexico, died Sunday at age 93.  Her friend and biographer Maria Cortina said Vargas died at a hospital in the city of Cuernavaca, where she had been admitted for heart and respiratory problems.

Vargas rose to fame flouting the Roman Catholic country’s preconceptions of what it meant to be a female singer: singing lusty “ranchera” songs while wearing men’s clothes, carrying a pistol, drinking heavily and smoking cigars.

Though she refused to change the pronouns in love songs about women as some audiences expected, many of her versions of passionate Mexican folk songs are considered definitive.

Born in San Joaquin de Flores, Costa Rica, on April 17, 1919, Vargas immigrated to Mexico at age 14. She sang in the streets as a teenager, then ventured into a professional singing career well in her 30s.  “I was never afraid of anything because I never hurt anyone,” Vargas told the audience at a Mexico City tribute concert in June 2011. “I was always an old drunk.”

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From Francisca James Hernandez: 
Please share these informative graphics!

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Received from Amelia Montes: (via Kathryn Blackmer Reyes)

Update 8/2: 

Read Diane Lefer’s touching tribute to tatiana here. 

Update 8/1: 

Queridas y Queridos NACCS familia:
As you may have heard, our colega, poeta, feminista, powerful Latina Lesbiana, tatiana de la tierra has died. Tatiana and I share writing duties for an international website: La Bloga.  I would like to honor tatiana this Sunday by posting YOUR thoughts, words, memories of Tatiana.

Please send me a sentence or two to the following e-mail address: laroja45@earthlink.net. Don’t forget to include your full name and where you are. Gracias y abrazos, Amelia

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