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Instagram Quote Collection

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In the beginning, I was wary of choosing quotes for this project. The process was slow, and it felt as if I was getting nowhere. I was stuck in my own positionality as a white women, and how I should go about presenting the information I have learned in this course, from predominantly women of color, and Black women. However, this class has furthered the realization that I may garner the lived knowledges of Black and Brown women and implement those knowledges in productive ways; and that even if I am not always correct, there is always room for growth and learning. I wanted to begin my piece with an introduction to one of the focal points of this class which was the effects of colonization, from which I moved on to more nuanced statements and quotes about how colonized women have learned to decolonize their lives and spaces.

My choices in using Lugones and Anzaldúa were in part because of my perceived connection to the sentiments of them, while also keeping in mind that I may activate them in slightly different ways that the author. I would like to flesh out a little more about my choice from María Lugones’, “The Coloniality of Gender”; I chose this quote not to bring attention to the horrendous ways that colonized women, including enslaved women, were treated, but rather something more relevant to myself. I wanted to bring attention to the way white womanhood is characterized, and how it is the job of white women to recharacterize themselves, how it is their (and my own) job to counter the notion that we are not, “fragile and sexually passive,” with the notion that we are no better than our Black Brown counterparts. (Lugones) I went on to bring attention to the interconnectedness of the colonization of Black bodies and Native/Indigenous bodies, as neither may be decolonized without the other, and this means reparations and sovereignty for all groups. This sentiment is not one I have heard many times before, but one that I would like to uplift because of its relevance to the colonized Black and Brown women of Puerto Rico.

Perhaps one of my favorite quotes from the collection was that of Paula Gunn Allen’s, “Some Like Indians Endure,” because of the sheer bluntness of it; ‘because whiteman took//all the rest.’ (Gunn Allen) Gunn Allen’s words spoke to the words of many other authors from this semester, in two simple lines. Following Gunn Allen, I chose another work of Lugones, from “Toward a Decolonial Feminism,” and Emma Peréz’s “Queer Subaltern Citizens: Agency through Decolonial Queer Theory,” to discuss that the work of decolonial studies falls on no one identity, or community, but rather on all identities and communities. I also wanted to touch on the importance of finding decolonial/postcolonial/anticolonial knowledges within survival, resistance, opposition and reconstruction movements/happenings.

The final quote that I chose for this collection may not resonate with me in the manner which the author resonated with it, such is most literature. This quote for me meant that listening to and learning about the stories of other colonized peoples and bodies will help connect each of us to one another; it will help bring together those affected by colonization, which is inevitably everyone on this Earth. This quote meant that through learning and understanding all of the ways the people of the world, and the world itself has been harmed, we will come into our own ways of healing our suffering and decolonizing our minds.

 

INSTAGRAM POST QUOTE COLLECTION (in order):

 

“Western Civilization is eating up the world, tearing great hunks of it from the bone.” Aurora Levins Morales, “1900: Civilization─Europe,” Remedios, p. 165

 

“We are not self-important, we are not fixed in particular constructions of ourselves, which is part of saying that we are open to self-construction.” María Lugones, Playfulness, “World”-Travelling, and Loving Perception, p. 16

 

“The struggle is inner: Chicano, indio, American Indian, mojado, ;nexicano, immigrant Latino, Anglo in power, working class Anglo, Black, Asian—our psyches resemble the bordertowns and are populated by the same people. The struggle has always been inner, and is played out in the outer terrains. Awareness of our situation must come before inner changes, which in turn come before changes in society. Nothing happens in the “real” world unless it first happens in the images in our heads.” Gloria Anzaldúa, Towards a New Consciousness, p. 109

 

“Historically, the characterization of white European women as fragile and sexually passive opposed them to non-white, colonized women, including women slaves, who were characterized along a gamut of sexual aggression and perversion, and as strong enough to do any sort of labor.” María Lugones, The Coloniality of Gender, p.13

 

“Current structures of oppression are situated historically and relationally: to undo slavery’s legacies for Black communities, the territorial dispossessions of Indigenous peoples must be undone as well. And vice versa.” Joanne Barker, Indigenous Feminisms, p. 12

 

“If we acknowledge that the sovereignty of the land continues to persist and is Indigenous, then we have to challenge the legitimacy of the United States. This kind of approach asks us to pay attention to, work with, and be accountable to the ways in which global processes play out on Indigenous bodies in the places where we live rather than just in those places where we work.” Hokulani K. Aikau, Maile Arvin, Mishuana Goeman, Scott Morgensen, Indigenous Feminisms Roundtable, p. 86

 

the place where we live now

is idea

because whiteman took

all the rest

 

Paula Gunn Allen, “Some Like Indians Endure,” Haciendo Caras, p. 299

 

“One does not resist the coloniality of gender alone. One resists it from within a way of understanding the world and living in it that is shared and that can understand one’s actions, thus providing recognition.” María Lugones, Toward a Decolonial Feminism, p. 754

 

“And if I am persistent, I’ll find within those colonial ideologies the subjugated knowledges of people who created ways to survive, resist, oppose and reconstruct those ideologies.” Emma Peréz, Queer Subaltern Citizens: Agency through Decolonial Queer Theory, p. 24-25

 

“But if you take these stories as bitters, your own pain will dissolve into the larger stream of pain and you will find comfort with these women, for the poison they suffered and died from is the same poison, and if you eat bitters, drink bitters, speak bitterness with them, you will be cleansed. You will be healed.” Aurora Levins Morales, “Bitters,” Remedios, p. 64

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BxBqoZhHOQi/?igshid=mp5nv98940nc

Student Blog

Colectivo Morivivi

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Colectivo Morivivi make artwork that puts the voice and artistic expression of the people as the focal point. Representation matters and the women behind Morivivi choose to represent a vulnerable community within Puerto Rico: women of color. Their focus on central issues that affect Puerto Rico such as environmental disasters, U.S imperialism and reproductive rights are feminist issues as well and their involvement with the diaspora highlights their collaborative efforts of solidarity and unity. The work of Colectivo Morivivi, especially the piece “May Day 2018” relates heavily to the issues of decolonization. The quote used in the mural “no hay estado intermedio entre la esclavitud y la libertad,” by Segundo Ruiz Belvis provides viewers with the context of liberation struggles and tells us that these movements for sovereignty have not ended, but has only increased with U.S imperialism and intervention.

Image screengrabbed from https://www.colectivomorivivi.com/community-projects

The protest at May Day proves what we have reading about Puerto Rico during the semester- how U.S intervention has imposed an economic and political crises onto the people of Puerto Rico. In “Beyond Nationalist and Colonialist Discourses: The Jaiba Politics of the Puerto Rican-Ethno Nation,” the writers delve into the dichotomous concept of colonialism/nationalism. While mural uses the quote of Ruiz Belvis stating that there is no halfway point between slavery and liberty, the writers explain how full on liberation could be debilitating for the nation. However, Puerto Rico must be free in terms of their own political representation, because they have no senators and its representative in the House of Representatives is a delegate called the Resident Commissioner, with limited voting rights and privileges. “The U.S Congress has absolute authority over Puerto Rico’s local political structures,” the reading states and that, “any measure taken by the Puerto Rican legislature can be unilaterally invalidated by the U.S Congress.” Puerto Rico is indeed a colonial possession under congressional jurisdiction and the reading accurately points out that Puerto Rico has a double coloniality of power, one of U.S Congress determining all aspects of Puerto Rico and the other of power by local elites who uphold racist structures.

In the mural, the two colonial powers are being challenged. Those who are front and center protesting and in unity are not creole elites who exercise power under the banner of nationalism, but those who truly are fighters for justice. Additionally, the fact that the mural is about May Day in 2018, where people protested over budget cuts and austerity measures, challenges the U.S’s economic hold over Puerto Rico, and how many will not stand for it. Retaliation against police forces also demonstrates a form of resistance. Thus, the mural’s political and social commentary is one that does not simply question imperialism, but demands decolonization of Puerto Rico’s political and economic sectors.

Images screengrabbed from https://www.colectivomorivivi.com/community-projects

As we mentioned earlier, the work of Colectivo Morivivi clearly reflects much decolonial thought, as their pieces of artwork often question dominant power structures, and symbolize the lived experiences of those at the hands of these structures. The third mural that we chose to discuss was called, “Paz para la Mujer,” or “Peace for the Woman.” This mural was created with an organization titled, “Paz para la Mujer,” (http://www.pazparalamujer.org) in collaboration for International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (https://www.un.org/en/events/endviolenceday/). This artwork ties to María Lugones,’ “Playfulness, ‘World’-Travelling, and Loving Perception,” because it aims to humanize and soften the perception that the dominant culture in Puerto Rico assigns to Black women and their bodies; in a way, ‘traveling to their world.’ According to an interview done with Teen Vogue, member Chachi González, shared that the butterflies, or mariposas, are meant to represent three Dominican sisters who were murdered by dictator Rafael Trujillo in 1960, which caused the creation of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. As one can see in the image above, the mural was defaced, not even one year after the painting of it. Though this was a clear disappointment, women local to the area were not intimidated; they were incited to set up counter-protests of their own, taking images topless and breastfeeding their babies in front of the mural. These reactions to the vandalism of the artwork further prove the decolonial nature of the art; it can inspire people to come together and advocate for the message of the piece.

Image screengrabbed from https://www.colectivomorivivi.com/community-projects

The murals created by Colectivo Morivivi are a clear example of how art made to represent Puerto Ricans, made by Puerto Ricans takes on a more genuine meaning as opposed to that which is produced by foreign bodies. The authenticity of the messages that are intended to be conveyed are done with far more care and attention paid to the details that make up the day to day struggles faced by members of the Puerto Rican community found both within the territory itself, and those living in the diaspora. The murals this group has created emphasize the importance of a collective story and the power that can be found within the bonds formed by firm supporters of a common movement. An individual that is not a member of the community, one that has no true intentions of getting to know the individuals they are portraying in their “art”, which does not give the participants a genuine voice. One of the points raised by Llorens was that there was too much of an artificial presence in the photo that was taken of the Puerto Rican Natives. The staged photo offered no true insight of what daily life was like for the people living there, and it did not seem like there was much interest in that fact to begin with being that there was no way of knowing who the individuals were and whether or not they had any relational ties to one another. The goal of the murals created by Colectivo Morivivi is to inspire and cultivate the movement toward giving people impacted by hardship a voice of their own and a beautiful outlet to express it. The mural “Hombre-Isla” was meant to signify the movement of a community to rebuild itself with the help its inhabitants and create something upon which their lives could thrive and they would be able to flourish together.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1kyfb0oJICZDGKIG0nQsb67UldaLXCGGrbUugxPDglJ4/edit?usp=sharing

Links to sources used:

https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/puerto-rico-crisis/puerto-rico-protesters-police-clash-thousands-march-may-day-rally-n870556

https://www.colectivomorivivi.com/community-projects

http://segundoruizbelvis.org/

https://www.codaworx.com/project/the-miracle-project-colectivo-morivivi-hua-quan-village-yingtan-city-jianxi-province-china

https://www.womenarts.org/2018/04/10/puerto-rican-art-collective-creates-murals-and-social-change/

http://remezcla.com/features/culture/moriviv-mural-vandalized-puerto-rico/

www.colectivomorivivi.com/our-work/

www.pazparalamujer.org/index.php/2016-05-15-0

www.teenvogue.com/story/art-collective-colectivo-morivivi-puerto-rico

Student Blog

Photo Essay; Modern Coloniality

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The intention of my photo essay was to connect the different (Indigenous/Native/Aboriginal) peoples around the world who have been and are still effected by colonization. In using the artwork created by these different people and communities, I was attempting to center their individual lives and experiences. In the first photo, I was trying to invoke a personal reaction to the amount that European(cis white heteropatriarchal) colonization has effected nearly all corners of the world; as the article said, all but five countries. This photo was meant to quiet the reader/viewer and prepare them to think about what the rest of the photos would be. The second, third and fourth photos, which I used in the center of the the essay, perhaps as the portraits or the scene photos, were all chosen for specific reasons. The second photo is a piece of Modern Ledger Art, which is artwork that has been created by women Native to North America, usually on United States political/governmental documents. This particular piece of artwork was created by an artist, Dolores Purdy (Corcoran), who is alive and well, and selling her artwork to the public. This photo was meant to represent the resilience of culture through artwork, and the decolonial essence of said artwork. The third photo is a screenshot of a blog post about different decolonial artists and curators. The curator featured in my photo, Matariki Williams, aims not to decolonize, necessarily, but to indigenize. This curator is a member of the Maori of New Zealand and she ‘indigenizes’ the space of the museum/organization that she works for by incorporating artwork of Maori peoples from different eras. The act of bringing artwork created by Aboriginal/Maori people into these ‘professional’, perhaps even ‘academic’ spaces, ensures that those people are representing themselves through their own experiences. The third photo is also a screenshot, but from a video found on the blog, unsettlingamerica.wordpress.com, which advertised for an event that was held in August 2014. This event was called, “Decolonizing street art: Anticolonial Street Artists Convergence.” The artwork created by these Street Artists is meant to show the modernity of Nativeness, Indigeneity and Aboriginality, and that was exactly what I was trying to do by using some of their artwork in my photo essay. The piece that I used was a photo of two people, presumably Native/Indigenous/Aboriginal, with, “What we do to the mountain, we do to ourselves,” written over their profiles. I felt this photo encompassed much of what I have read about Native/Indigenous relationality to the natural world around us. The final photo is a photo I took of a piece of block-out poetry I created from María Lugones’, “Toward a Decolonial Feminism.” The final photo is meant to conclude that, though we are taught to believe that colonization is in the past tense, it has happened to the world, and it is over, the effects of it last centuries, generations. It is, in fact, still with us.

 

Caption:

Student Blog

Teves and Arvin

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Mostly, I feel as if this piece was politely calling out my own ignorance to the term “Asian-Pacific Islanders,”  and the ways that we, as white settler colonialists (which most of us in this class  are), compartmentalize and categorize different groups of people to our own convenience. I did think it was interesting who the actual chapter addressed, because it often goes below mainstream radar when marginalized people(Asian Americans) use the structures of settler colonialism to marginalize others(Indigenous Pacific Islanders). I also thought this reading did a great job setting up the general colonial context of Pacific Islanders, and why it is important that they are addressed as they wish to be addressed, and not how they have been categorized by mainstream, white society. I found it particularly interesting around pages 110-111, the ways that Asian Americans further marginalize and oppress Pacific Islanders by claiming places like Hawai’i as their own and the internalized settler colonialism and violence that takes place through these claims.  For another class(Native American Feminisms), we did a couple readings about Hawai’i and Hawaiian sexualities in relation to the United States as w hole, but we never addressed marginalization/appropriation by Asian Americans in Hawai’i.  I really appreciate that this chapter opened up space to talk about some more diverse/specific feminisms; much of my education has been centered around the binary of white feminisms v. Black feminisms and the like. Here I was introduced to a couple feminisms/feminist perspectives that I have either only heard about vaguely, or have never heard about at all; Asian American Feminisms, Moana Feminisms.  While this reading made me feel quite ignorant as to the situations of Indigenous Pacific Islanders in the system of settler colonialism, I learned much about the ways coalition between these different types of feminisms can address how settler colonialism has manifested power structures within these colonized communities.

Student Blog

Colonial/Anticolonial/Decolonial/Postcolonial

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Though I had thought I could define these words prior to reading Breny Mendoza’s, “Coloniality of Gender and Power: From Postcoloniality to Decoloniality,” this piece definitely helped sharpen those definitions. I will go on to outline each of these terms; ‘colonial, ‘anticolonial’, ‘decolonial’ and ‘postcolonial’; using my own words, but with the help of Mendoza’s. With respect to colonialism around the world, in this context, I understand ‘colonial’ as a descriptive word for the power held over western concepts of gender(as well as other things; race, class, ethnicity, ability, etc). Essentially, ‘colonial’ implies power relations between and control of certain peoples and bodies; usually one ‘category’ of people other other ‘categories’ of people, whether systematically(which it always is), or individually(which it usually is). Here, the word ‘anticolonial,’ is used to counter and challenge the ‘colonial’. Though she arguably compares most of these words with ‘intersectional,’ she first compares ‘anticolonial,’ with the perspective of ‘intersectional.’ She writes that to be ‘anticolonial,’ is to take intersectionality’s, “critiques of state-based legal practices,” and go further into the understanding of, “mutually constituting systems of power that exist in and through contradictory and conflicting relations,” focusing particularly on gender, if I’m correct. (2016) Moving on to ‘decolonial’ and ‘postcolonial,’ I struggled to separate the two. From what Mendoza says on page 15, I understand ‘decolonial’ as the understanding that colonialism not only created/allowed for capitalism, but “…decolonial theorists argue that colonialism is what made capitalism possible.” (2016) Therefore, capitalism has always thrives and continues to live on the shoulders of colonialism. As for ‘postcolonial,’ my definition mirrors much of how I described ‘anticolonial’ and ‘decolonial,’ however with the focus on race, the construction of race and how racial relations benefit both colonialism and capitalism. These concepts are all intertwined, and defined similarly, but are not interchangeable.

Student Blog

Colonial/Anti-colonial/Decolonial/Postcolonial

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Though I had thought I could define these words prior to reading Breny Mendoza’s, “Coloniality of Gender and Power: From Postcoloniality to Decoloniality,” this piece definitely helped sharpen those definitions. I will go on to outline each of these terms; ‘colonial, ‘anticolonial’, ‘decolonial’ and ‘postcolonial’; using my own words, but with the help of Mendoza’s. With respect to colonialism around the world, in this context, I understand ‘colonial’ as a descriptive word for the power held over western concepts of gender(as well as other things; race, class, ethnicity, ability, etc). Essentially, ‘colonial’ implies power relations between and control of certain peoples and bodies; usually one ‘category’ of people other other ‘categories’ of people, whether systematically(which it always is), or individually(which it usually is). Here, the word ‘anticolonial,’ is used to counter and challenge the ‘colonial’. Though she arguably compares most of these words with ‘intersectional,’ she first compares ‘anticolonial,’ with the perspective of ‘intersectional.’ She writes that to be ‘anticolonial,’ is to take intersectionality’s, “critiques of state-based legal practices,” and go further into the understanding of, “mutually constituting systems of power that exist in and through contradictory and conflicting relations,” focusing particularly on gender, if I’m correct. (2016) Moving on to ‘decolonial’ and ‘postcolonial,’ I struggled to separate the two. From what Mendoza says on page 15, I understand ‘decolonial’ as the understanding that colonialism not only created/allowed for capitalism, but “…decolonial theorists argue that colonialism is what made capitalism possible.” (2016) Therefore, capitalism has always thrives and continues to live on the shoulders of colonialism. As for ‘postcolonial,’ my definition mirrors much of how I described ‘anticolonial’ and ‘decolonial,’ however with the focus on race, the construction of race and how racial relations benefit both colonialism and capitalism. These concepts are all intertwined, and defined similarly, but are not interchangeable.