Telling to Live

"Telling to Live is a groundbreaking text-important in its outreach, inclusiveness, and power-that expands, qualifies, complicates, and illuminates the ground of our discourse the way the best texts do-through transformative narratives, stories, and poems that resist the neat paradigms and -isms of our time. It is also a text that will fill an alarming gap in the academy, where silence or simplification of Latina perspectives still prevails."-Julia Alvarez, author of How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents "Twenty years after the publication of This Bridge Called My Back, this stunning collection of writings by Latina feminists raises the stakes of collaboration across race, class, nation, and sexuality. Telling to Live challenges prevailing research practices and forges a model of deep collaboration for future generations of scholars."-Angela Y. Davis, author of Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday "Telling to Live may be one of the most important books published in the last few decades. Latinas collectively have not had a book like this before that features so many different backgrounds and cultures. . . . The inclusion of all these mix-and-match identifications is what qualifies this book to be required reading in women's studies classes all across the globe. . . . Even if you are not of Latin descent, anyone who identifies with hardship and triumph in their own lives will connect with Telling to Live. Que vivan las Feministas Latinas!" -- Jocelyn Climent * Bust * "Groundbreaking. . . . [It] should be required reading for all women's studies, American studies, and American history students. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries." * Library Journal * "[A] rare and important collection of autobiographical narratives, snapshots, short stories, poems, and dialogues." -- Amanda Davis * Aztlan * "Poignant. . . . Insofar as accomplishing their stated goal, to explore the complex intersections of race, class, gender, nationality, ethnicity, and sexuality with regard to coalition building, Telling to Live is a highly successfully undertaking. . . . [A] laudable enterprise with far-reaching implications for those of us hoping to one day embark upon similar paths paved by the trail-blazing accomplishments of these testimoniadoras." -- Marie Sarita Gaytan * Latino Studies *

About the Series ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction: Papelitos Guardados: Theorizing Latinidades Through Testimonio 1 I. Geneaologies of Empowerment 25 Certified Organic Intellectual / Aurora Levins Morales 27 My Father's Hands / Yvette Gisele Flores-Oritz 33 Vignettes of a Working-Class Puerto Rican Girl in Brooklyn, New York / Celia Alvarez 39 Silence Begins at Home / Patricia Zavella 43 You Speak Spanish Because You Are Jewish? / Rina Benmayor 55 Getting There Cuando No Hay Camino / Norma E. Cantu 60 Reflection and Rebirth: The Evolving Life of a Latina Academic / Iris Ofelia Lopez 69 Mi Primera Amiguita: Carmelita / Gloria Holguin Cuadraz 86 The House That Mama Biela Built / Daisy Cocco de Filippis 90 Lightning / Mirtha N. Quintanales 96 My Name Is This Story / Aurora Levins Morales 100 Resisting the Alcemy of Erasure: Journey to Labor Ideas / Clara Lomas 104 Esta Risa No Es de Loca / Caridad Souza 114 A Esconditas: A Chicana Feminist Teacher Who Writes/A Chicana Feminist Writer Who Teaches / Norma E. Cantu 123 Canto de Mi Madre/Canto de Mi Padre / Ines Hernandez Avila 132 Daughter of Bootstrap / Luz del Alba Acevedo 139 Beyond Survival: A Politics/Poetics of Puerto Rican Consciousness / Liza Fiol-Matta 148 I Can Fly: Of Dreams and Other Nonfictions / Eliana Rivero 156 II. Alchemies of Erasure 167 The Christmas Present / Caridad Souza 169 Snapshots from My Daze in School / Celia Alvarez 177 Point of Departure / Mirtha N. Quintanales 185 Another Way to Grow Up Puerto Rican / Liza Fiol-Matta 192 El Beso / Ruth Behar 196 The Prize of a New Cadillac / Yvette Gisele Flores-Ortiz 201 La Tra(d)icion / Latina Anonima 204 Between Perfection and Invisibility / Latina Anonima 207 Diary of La Llorona with a Ph. D. / Gloria Holguin Cuadraz 212 Welcome to the Ivory Tower / Latina Anonima 218 I Still Don't Know Why / Latina Anonima 224 Lessons Learned from an Assistant Professor / Gloria Holguian Cuadraz 227 Don't You Like Being in the University? / Latina Anonima 229 Temporary Latina / Ruth Behar 231 Dispelling the Sombras, Grito mi nombre con rayos de luz / Ines Hernandez Avila 238 Biting Through / Latina Anonima 245 Sand from Varadero Beach / Ruth Behar 247 Speaking Among Friends: Whose Empowerment, Whose Resistance? / Luz del Alba Acevedo 250 III. The Body Re/members 263 Reading the Body / Norma E. Cantu 264 Missing Body / Caridad Souza 266 Malabareando/Juggling / Liza Fiol-Matta 269 Migraine/Jacqueca / Norma E. Cantu 271 The Wart / Daisy Cocco de Filippis 273 Why My Ears Aren't Pierced / Ruth Behar 275 Night Terrors / Latina Anonima 277 La Princesa / Latina Anonima 286 Forced by Circumstance / Norma Alarcon 289 Let Me Sleep / Latina Anonima 291 Depression / Mirtha N. Quintanales 293 Desde el Divan: Testimonios from the Couch / Yvette Giselle Flores-Ortiz 294 Telling to Live: Devoro la Mentira, Resucitando Mi Ser / Ines Hernandez Avila 298 IV. Passion, Desires, and Celebrations 303 Shameless Desire / Aurora Levins Morales 305 La Cosa / Ruth Behar 307 Boleros / Eliana Rivero 309 A Working-Class Bruja's Fears and Desires / Norma E. Cantu 314 Aun / Yvette Gisele Flores-Ortiz 318 The Names I Used to Call Your/The Names I Do Call You / Eliana Rivero 319 Platanos and Palms / Rina Benmayor 321 Three Penny Opera or Eve's Symphony in B Minor / Daisy Cocco de Filippis 323 Descubrimiento(s) / Celia Alvarez 327 Entre Nosotras / Latina Anonima 331 Pisco and Cranberry / Eliana Rivero 334 De lo que es Amor; de lo que es Vida / Ines Hernandez Avila 336 Eating Mango / Liza Fiol-Matta 344 Everyday Grace / Mirtha N. Quintanales 345 Tenemos que Swguir Luchando / Patricia Zavella 348 Select Bibliography 357 About the Authors 373