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Leztinas
ap 12 cut me into slices, self-invented rumors,
Nueva Jerseña, femming the dyke;
[ + rant about frybread, horses, cultural "purity" ]
Nueva Jerseña, femming the dyke;
[ + rant about frybread, horses, cultural "purity" ]
At queer-lit events, I usually feel completely at home.
I feel less so on Wednesday, 12 April,
as one of very few XY persons in a roomfull of XX persons.
Tonight we hear four Latina lesbian writers.
Three of them "look Latino", IMHO.
First we remember "Things Inherited",
including frybread contrasted with tortillas and pan dulce.
"Real" identity is an over-simplification, hence an illusion. "Cut me into quarters,
then into eighths..."
Next "la rubia" invents hilarious (and hot) "rumors" about herself, or perhaps one of her selves.
Then she tells a sheroic story about an 11-year-old girl confronting an abusive brother-in-law.
[ Note to future event organizers: Always make this writer read LAST. She's a hard act to follow,
so it's unfair to put her ahead of anyone else. ]
The New Jersey Latina can't escape mama, not even in Nueva York.
Lastly, a well-established author reads bits from a future book about a threatened neighborhood
in New Mexico, where a curandera's clinica looks like a beauty salon;
where activists try to femmify and gentrify a rough dyke, hoping she can spy on the mayor.....
-- Out Sider
......
[ Post-script:
O.S. comments on
"American Indian frybread":
Some purists object that frybread doesn't represent true Native American heritage,
since it was invented as a desperate native reaction to losing their land and freedom
(like the Ghost Dance, only more filling).
Well, if you seek authenticity, don't stop there.
Eliminate the horse,
and even the "Native American".
The horse, which defines our Hollywood image of many tribes, was a recent innovation.
"Indian" horses and ponies were descended from those imported by Europeans.
These horses revolutionized the cultures of tribes which acquired them --
tribes which had traditionally migrated and hunted on foot, helped only by dogs.
And pre-Columbian inhabitants of the lower 48 states had no reason to lump different tribes
together into one mega-tribe, no reason to think of "Native Americans" as a people.
Yurok wasn't Miwok, Dine wasn't Hopi.
The concept of "Native American" was created by Europeans,
distinguishing previous inhabitants from invading aliens.
Clarence Darrow never met anyone who was "racially pure".
Likewise, I've never met anyone who is "culturally pure". ]
.......
I feel less so on Wednesday, 12 April,
as one of very few XY persons in a roomfull of XX persons.
Tonight we hear four Latina lesbian writers.
Three of them "look Latino", IMHO.
First we remember "Things Inherited",
including frybread contrasted with tortillas and pan dulce.
"Real" identity is an over-simplification, hence an illusion. "Cut me into quarters,
then into eighths..."
Next "la rubia" invents hilarious (and hot) "rumors" about herself, or perhaps one of her selves.
Then she tells a sheroic story about an 11-year-old girl confronting an abusive brother-in-law.
[ Note to future event organizers: Always make this writer read LAST. She's a hard act to follow,
so it's unfair to put her ahead of anyone else. ]
The New Jersey Latina can't escape mama, not even in Nueva York.
Lastly, a well-established author reads bits from a future book about a threatened neighborhood
in New Mexico, where a curandera's clinica looks like a beauty salon;
where activists try to femmify and gentrify a rough dyke, hoping she can spy on the mayor.....
-- Out Sider
......
[ Post-script:
O.S. comments on
"American Indian frybread":
Some purists object that frybread doesn't represent true Native American heritage,
since it was invented as a desperate native reaction to losing their land and freedom
(like the Ghost Dance, only more filling).
Well, if you seek authenticity, don't stop there.
Eliminate the horse,
and even the "Native American".
The horse, which defines our Hollywood image of many tribes, was a recent innovation.
"Indian" horses and ponies were descended from those imported by Europeans.
These horses revolutionized the cultures of tribes which acquired them --
tribes which had traditionally migrated and hunted on foot, helped only by dogs.
And pre-Columbian inhabitants of the lower 48 states had no reason to lump different tribes
together into one mega-tribe, no reason to think of "Native Americans" as a people.
Yurok wasn't Miwok, Dine wasn't Hopi.
The concept of "Native American" was created by Europeans,
distinguishing previous inhabitants from invading aliens.
Clarence Darrow never met anyone who was "racially pure".
Likewise, I've never met anyone who is "culturally pure". ]
.......
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At the University of New Mexico, in one of the older, pueblo style buildings is (or perhaps was) a big mural commissioned by a rich white guy from the past. And, the mural was really problematic. It showed a tall white cowboy flanked by a smaller chicano and a smaller black person. He was holding their hands and the light was eminating from behind him ... as if he was the saviour ... the cultural hero rising out of a manifest destiny to carry his less fortunate brethren into the light. So, anyway, many students and faculty members saw that this was outdated B.S. and wanted to get rid of it.
Anyway, the mostly white and republican latino student body had a tidy little discussion about it at one of their meetings and voted amongst themselves to have it painted over. They seemed satisfied with this and ready to move on, until some actual New Mexico natives got their turn to speak. They argued that, look, you can see that many people are indeed racist and that many of the institutions were built on racist notions ... and that if you looked at that mural now, you could really see what people were thinking back in the not-so-distant past. And, so, they proposed to keep the mural but to put up an instructive panel with text explaining and contextualizing all of this. It would give the background of the muralist (who really was a white supremicists ... no shit ... ) anyway, ... I don't know why I mention that now.
What I want to see, is more authenticity and less of this put on identity stuff. Maybe that is what I'm trying to get at. I want to see people talking about issues which seem more tangible to me ... things about water and preserving that for native people ... things like language and the freedom to speak what you want ... and hopefully the ability to preserve the ones our ancestors may have spoken. And, I want to hear people talking about universal and mundane things like access to healthcare ... affordable housing ... decent jobs ... boreing stuff like that ... but, maybe things that really do screw with us all and things that can be unifying instead of always dividing ...
Something in your mild satire reminded me of these things ... even though you were probably speaking about other things ... or about the attitudes in the "scene" and so on ... But anyway, hope you are well and that you find that authenticity in people.
A Lone Lobo ...