Join us on May 16th in remembrance of the passing of Gloria Anzaldua as we gather to read, write and meditate. Bring your favorite passage of Gloria’s work or your own work sparked by la Mera Nepantlera’s work.
Noemi will be reading from her “Letters to Gloria” collection.
*Bring your letters to read them too, bring an extra copy or email them to noemi@hermanaresist.com if you want them included in the next issue of “This Bridge we call Home: Finding Gloria” zine.
Where: Hargill Cemetery, final resting place of Gloria Anzaldua.
When: May 16th, Friday
Time: 6:30PM.

**Here’s the newsletter from Esperanza Center in San Antonio dedicated to Gloria Anzaldua.
www.esperanzacenter.org/lavozpdfs2004/2004_07julyaugust.pdf

***if you want to figure out carpooling, leave a comment here:

The zine devoted to La Mera Nepantlera.

Nepantla, it turns out, is the name of a town in the state of Mexico. It is where Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was born. It was also the site of a small but significant massacre by the Mexican government against a radical movement. Twenty-one years ago, in November of 1974, a Napoleón Glockner and a Nora Rivera fingered a house full of members of the National Liberation Forces (FLN) in the town of Nepantla. Five people were killed in a government raid on the house. Nearly three years later, the FLN captured and executed the traitors Napoleón and Nora. The survivors of Nepantla dispersed and regrouped in the Lacandón jungle of Chiapas, emerging years later as the Zapatista National Liberation Army.

http://www.elandar.com/back/www-nov95/feature/feature.htm

*A zine created by the folks she influenced; from the place she grew up in-the borderlands.
How her writing helped shape Chicana feminism, created a new consciousness and gave voice to her generation and future generations and how this allowed others to find their voice and articulate through their bordered tongues.
Why do you write?
“Why am I compelled to write?… Because the world I create in the writing compensates for what the real world does not give me. By writing I put order in the world, give it a handle so I can grasp it. I write because life does not appease my appetites and anger… To become more intimate with myself and you. To discover myself, to preserve myself, to make myself, to achieve self-autonomy. To dispel the myths that I am a mad prophet or a poor suffering soul. To convince myself that I am worthy and that what I have to say is not a pile of shit… Finally I write because I’m scared of writing, but I’m more scared of not writing.”
Gloria Anzaldua
“Speaking in Tongues: A Letter to Third World Women Writers,” This Bridge Called My Back

Gloria on Nepantlera-ism:
“In gatherings where people feel powerless, la nepantlera offers rituals to say
goodbye to old ways of relating; prayers to thank life for making us face
loss, anger, guilt, fear, and separation; rezos to acknowledge our individual
wounds; and commitments to not give up on others just because they hurt us.
In gatherings where we’ve forgotten that the aim of conflict is peace, la
nepantlera proposes spiritual techniques (mindfulness, openness, receptivity)
along with activist tactics. Where before we saw only separateness,
differences, and polarities, our connectionist sense of spirit recognizes
nurturance and reciprocity and encourages alliances among groups working
to transform communities. In gatherings where we feel our dreams have
been sucked out of us, la nepantlera leads us in celebrating la communidad
sonada, reminding us that spirit connects the irreconcilable warring parts
para que todo el mundo se haga un pais, so that the whole world may
become un pueblo.