Author: torresmv1

If we as humans

as people

as brothers and sisters

mothers and fathers

Focused on hearing what our bodies says

all bodies say something

as much as we focus on talking

talking is a distraction

It distant ourselves from our own bodies

as women we express ourselves through our body

Makeup, clothes all distractions

our bodies expresses itself to us

if we decided to listed

if we stopped being so afraid

afraid of achieving a deeper level

a balance between body and mind

Mind and body

focusing on what matters

thats the real relationship that I think if we all need to have

De lo que es amor, de lo que es la vida

to me it is to think and clear out my mind

to let go of what you cannot control

the political themes  Ines Hernandez Avila touches on

is amazing to do through ones passion

the passion of writing poems

I wish I could be brave enough

enough  to express my thoughts and put them out there

Dedicated to a very especial person in my life that I prefer to keep anonymous:

As Claridad writes about a missing body
I reacted in regards to missing souls
never thought of it this way
could it be possible that when all we care about is our great body
this is linked to the need of hiding our abused souls ?

Claridad’s testimony led me to think that she does not care about her body no more
because she don’t want no creeps looking at her in the wrong way
she kept working on her mind putting no effort on her body,
what about when all you want is guys’ attention, the wrong kind of attention
because you don’t realize your worth goes further than your body
because all of the emotional abuse you’ve suffered all of your life
you forever focus on your body putting no effort on your brain
because as far as you always known  you don’t have a brain ..

Luz del Alba Acevedo in her testimony, “Speaking Among Friends: Whose Empowerment, Whose Resistance?’ displays the challenges and contradiction between feminism race and ethnicity in implementing new curriculums to undergraduate studies focusing on women studies.

This reading provoked in me the most interesting of reactions because I had never read anything on this topic before. I think it would be great in the United States could incorporate a nation wide “basic” curriculum for Latin American and Caribbean Studies and Women Studies.

I would like to point put the distinction the author makes between “what a woman is” and “who we are as women”(page 251).

I feel that the transition that Luz del Alba Acevedo mentions from being invisible to being the visible minority might be an experience that many of the “other” might experience when they arrive to this country, however sometimes is not always in the same way for everybody. I have a personal experience to share, before moving to the United States I was always Costarricense, if somebody (not that I remember anyone doing it) asked where I was from, Costa Rica that would be the answer, simple as that. I had always lived with Costarricenses around me.

When you separate yourself from the comfortable space is when you start realizing who you are. Oh the first thing here when I was applying for school, how would you describe yourself?

Latino, White, Asian, Other.. I was in my head like “hmm I am white”, I associated whiteness to the color of one’s skin, not to race nor ethnicity..

Who defines diversity? After these profesoras find themselves with this puzzle, a new code for the “other” is created “women of color” I wouldn’t necessarily say Asian are people of color, then we go again with the differentiation between color, and ethnicity. Luz argues how her professionalism was shadowed by the university’s need to fulfill their inclusion and multiculturalism quota.

It is amazing how whiteness would mostly be associated with patriarchal power regardless of gender. I cannot believe the whole women’s studies faculty would team up against a professor that challenges their ideological teachings, instead of acting as professionals in their field they behaved as petty ignorant people.

Reading Alvarez passage on language brought to me the most strange of realizations: I was thinking to myself “ my mom is not the reason why I am bilingual because Spanish is my first language”. I had to stop myself and re think that — my mom is in fact the reason why I am bilingual, I moved to this country 5 years ago and perhaps I would have learned English in my country, but not too this level and not this fluent. The main reason why I moved to the States was to graduate from college in this country, however, this would have never become my goal if my mom wasn’t already living here.

Gracias mami, hope to one day have the courage to express my gratefulness ..

Our first time to the Statue of Liberty, she cried .. We have gone there four times now.

Caridad Souza’s story “Esta risa no es de loca” reminded me of a discourse that is very common within Latin American families. And how elder generations do not associate Europeaness with the times of conquest and colonization, but to whiteness or betterment.
For example two daughters of the same family married to two drunks one from Salvadoran descendant and one from German descendant, somehow the believe is that the parents of this daughters would always be more satisfied by the German descendant drunk son in law than by the Salvadoran descendent one.
I am pretty sure this happens in every family, how grandparents are always happier when you bring someone home who is lighter skin than darker skin.
The bright side is that younger generations embrace diversity and want all to be a part of the community.

Happy family

Aurora is an organic intellectual feminist, however, in the last paragraphs of her contribution for Telling To Live, she writes about an important discourse. This quote in particular called to my attention, because just yesterday(03/08/2017) International Women’s day we were touching upon this topic. Within every movement that we wish to enter as a woman it means leaving behind, and closing doors to another one. For example, if I was to join a feminist movement dealing with reproductive policy rights, the fact is that I might not be able to also join a Latina, Black or Muslim reproductive rights policy, the point is that within every struggle women’s must face there are so many categories to this.

How is it possible that there are still so many things to accomplish?

Theories:

• Mostly white men in higher position of power.
• Women also dedicate to motherhood, which takes time and energy away from other purposes.

Picture from:  https://twitter.com/.