Inés Hernández-Ávila – författare

Telling to Live embodies the vision that compelled Latina feminists to engage their differences and find common ground. Its contributors reflect varied class, religious, ethnic, racial, linguistic, sexual, and national backgrounds. Yet in one way or another they are all professional producers of testimonios-or life stories-whether as poets, oral historians, literary scholars, ethnographers, or psychologists. Through coalitional politics, these women have forged feminist political stances about generating knowledge through experience. Reclaiming testimonio as a tool for understanding the complexities of Latina identity, they compare how each made the journey to become credentialed creative thinkers and writers. Telling to Live unleashes the clarifying power of sharing these stories.The complex and rich tapestry of narratives that comprises this book introduces us to an intergenerational group of Latina women who negotiate their place in U.S. society at the cusp of the twenty-first century. These are the stories of women who struggled to reach the echelons of higher education, often against great odds, and constructed relationships of sustenance and creativity along the way. The stories, poetry, memoirs, and reflections of this diverse group of Puerto Rican, Chicana, Native American, Mexican, Cuban, Dominican, Sephardic, mixed-heritage, and Central American women provide new perspectives on feminist theorizing, perspectives located in the borderlands of Latino cultures.This often heart wrenching, sometimes playful, yet always insightful collection will interest those who wish to understand the challenges U.S. society poses for women of complex cultural heritages who strive to carve out their own spaces in the ivory tower.Contributors. Luz del Alba Acevedo, Norma AlarcÓn, Celia Alvarez, Ruth Behar, Rina Benmayor, Norma E. CantÚ, Daisy Cocco De Filippis, Gloria HolguÍn CuÁdraz, Liza Fiol-Matta, Yvette Flores-Ortiz, InÉs HernÁndez-Avila, Aurora Levins Morales, Clara Lomas, Iris Ofelia LÓpez, Mirtha N. Quintanales, Eliana Rivero, Caridad Souza, Patricia Zavella

Mexican and Mexican American women have written about Texas and their lives in the state since colonial times. Edited by fellow Tejanas InÉs HernÁndez-Ávila and Norma Elia CantÚ, Entre Guadalupe y Malinche gathers, for the first time, a representative body of work about the lives and experiences of women who identify as Tejanas in both the literary and visual arts.The writings of more than fifty authors and the artwork of eight artists manifest the nuanced complexity of what it means to be Tejana and how this identity offers alternative perspectives to contemporary notions of Chicana identity, community, and culture. Considering Texas-Mexican women and their identity formations, subjectivities, and location on the longest border between Mexico and any of the southwestern states acknowledges the profound influence that land and history have on a people and a community, and how Tejana creative traditions have been shaped by historical, geographical, cultural, linguistic, social, and political forces. This representation of Tejana arts and letters brings together the work of rising stars along with well-known figures such as writers Gloria AnzaldÚa, Emma PÉrez, Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Carmen Tafolla, and Pat Mora, and artists such as Carmen Lomas Garza, Kathy Vargas, Santa Barraza, and more. The collection attests to the rooted presence of the original indigenous peoples of the land now known as Tejas, as well as a strong Chicana/Mexicana feminism that has its precursors in Tejana history itself.

Indigenous Poetics is a collection of essays by contemporary Native American poets in the United States who explore how the genre helps to radically understand, contemplate, and realize something deeper about ourselves, our communities, and our worlds. The collection illuminates the creative process, identity, language, and the making of poetry. The contributors tell us, in their own words and on their own Indigenous terms, how they engage poetic expression as one would a tool, a teacher, a guide, a map, or a friend. Indigenous Poetics reveals poetry’s crucial role in the flourishing of Native American and Indigenous Studies.

Indigenous Poetics is a collection of essays by contemporary Native American poets in the United States who explore how the genre helps to radically understand, contemplate, and realize something deeper about ourselves, our communities, and our worlds. The collection illuminates the creative process, identity, language, and the making of poetry. The contributors tell us, in their own words and on their own Indigenous terms, how they engage poetic expression as one would a tool, a teacher, a guide, a map, or a friend. Indigenous Poetics reveals poetry’s crucial role in the flourishing of Native American and Indigenous Studies.

This new collection reveals the vitality of the intellectual and creative work of Native women today. The authors examine the avenues that Native American women have chosen for creative, cultural, and political expressions, and discuss the points of convergence between Native American feminisms and other feminisms. Individual contributors articulate their positions around issues such as identity, community, sovereignty, culture, and representation. This engaging volume crystallizes the myriad realities that inform the authors' intellectual work, and clarifies the sources of inspiration for their roles as individuals and indigenous intellectuals, reaffirming their paramount commitment to their communities and Nations. It will be of great value to Native writers as well as instructors and students in Native American studies, women's studies, anthropology, cultural studies, literature, and writing and composition.