Macondo Foundation

This is so exciting...The Macondo Foundation (founder: Sandra Cisneros) has opened up its admissions process for summer workshops!

I'm applying. Are you?

The Macondo Foundation works with dedicated and compassionate writers who view their work and talents as part of a larger task of community-building and non-violent social change. We are poets, novelists, journalists, performance artists, and creative writers of all genres whose work is socially-engaged. What unites us is a commitment to serve our under-served communities through our writing...

Time for Amazon!

A valuable list of Chicana Women Writers

Reunion

Chavela Vargas sings "La Llorona" in the movie, Frida:




In the late 1950s and early 1960s in Mexico, singer Chavela Vargas dressed in men’s clothes, drank and smoked cigars like any man, carried a gun with her, and was notorious for her love of women. Some even say that she once kidnapped a woman at gunpoint, but Vargas denies that rumor...


from "The Life and Music of Mexican Legend Chavela Vargas," by Malinda Jo, January 24, 2005, AfterEllen.com

An Awesome Artist

Camille Rose Garcia

Nightmarish, joyful work.

check out this book : The Magic Bottle

Sweat-free and Ethical Shopping

Feminists are busy people. We combat misogyny, racism, and classism everyday at home, in the workplace, and in the classroom. We then produce art and scholarship that we hope will change the world.

If you're going through a rally/protest lull, as I am nowadays (grad school + work = toothpicks to keep my eyes open)-- remember that you can still be a conscientious consumer.

Consider fair-trade, sweat-free gifts for the holidays:

Feminist Majority Online Store

No Sweat Apparel

Ten Thousand Villages

World of Good

The Breast Cancer Site

"Bicultural Harmony"

"We Chicanos are like the abandoned children of divorced cultures. We are forever longing to be loved by an absent neglectful parent - Mexico - and also to be truly accepted by the other parent - the United States. We want bicultural harmony. We need it to survive. We struggle to achieve it. That struggle keeps us alive."
~ Poet Lucia Corpi, from Black Widow's Wardrobe

Latina Artists on Latina Beauty

The Challenges of 'Cha Cha': What is Latina Beauty?

Poet Marisela Norte, artist Terry Ybanez and writer Sandra Cisneros share their insights on Latina beauty.

On the Visibility of Chicana Feminists

I'm concerned about the visibility of Chicana feminists, especially Chicana feminists in art or music. Where are we? Every time I search for a Chicana writers collective I get broken links or websites that were started up (probably as the supplementary "cultural" section of a college course) and then not maintained. So I dedicate this blog to creating visibility of Mexican and Mexican-American womyn writers, musicians, and artists. I know you're out there somewhere.

Our homework for today:

Making Face, Making Soul: A Chicana Feminist Website

A website put together by Susana L. Gallardo, a doctoral candidate in the Religious Studies Department at Stanford University. A very rich source for Chicana Feminists and supporters, with various definitions of Chicana Feminism, from writers like Gloria Anzaldua. A section on literature, culture, and religion. Lesbiana friendly. Maintained recently.

A Reason

First, I should mention why I decided on this title in the first place. In my search for interpretations of Frida Kahlo's painting, "La Venadita," I came across a Columbian poet named Piedad Bonnet whose work thoroughly jarred me.

Here's a link to the poem that I drew from, entitled "Prayer."

Prayer