Colectivo Raahuna - Tejiendo por el futuro de nuestros pueblos, Santo Tomas Jalietza, Oaxaca, July 2010.
Lately I've been thinking a lot about how we relate to one another, in other words, been thinking a lot about Human Relations. Yep, here goes another curve ball in the all-encompassing slightly schitzo mexiroccan blog coming to you direct from deep down in the heart-of-southern Mexico. Bare with me...it's a bumpy ride but one I think worth taking ;]
Specifically I've been thinking about women and how we relate to one another. I think about these relationships constantly I suppose as a direct result of my own back and forth upbringing, the
macho and
machista-like tendencies in this upbringing (I urge you not to take my honesty under a US-centric microscope of Oooohs and Aaaaws exotification), my here and there state of mind, and the constant need to reconcile this
aquí y alla syndrome in the most productive of ways possible. Mostly, I think, the strong female role models that have surrounded me, as I am sure many of you, throughout my life have led me to seek out other women, to listen, learn, and at times use that
bridge on my back as a link between what I understand and what I don't get just yet. You gotta keep that bridge handy living the transborder lives we live these days, gotta bring it out to reach each other just as much as to cross to the other side.
I've been more aware lately of these crossings, of the reaching, the seeking, the learning. For one, I recently had the opportunity and privilege to meet a
grupo de artesanas from
Santo Tomas Jalietza, a small rural pueblo in the central valley of Oaxaca, with two Xicanas from Califas who were visiting Oaxaca for a few weeks. The indigenous Zapoteca women from
el Colectivo de Mujeres Raahuna originally came together to support each other in the working and sale of their weaved goods, which now includes computer bags and cell phone pouches (how's that for globalization). The experience was humbling as the women worked to organize packages to send back to the US with the two Xicanas. Final destination for the packages...the hands of an indigenous woman migrant who has been living under cover with the threat of deportation for a few years now, who despite her own situation has kept extending her hand out to help.
Sharing time with the women in Santo Tomas and the Califas Xicanas, and thinking about myself the pocha living in Oaxaca, and seeing how we all came together a darnos la mano was, at the risk of sounding conry, exilerating and nurturing. Don't get me wrong I am by no means naive enough to believe in some sort of universal sisterhood, hermanahood, or the like. And NO, I am by no means interested in engaging in some sort of we are women vs. machista men dialogue. On the contrary, what I am interested in is finding ways of relating despite or better said, THROUGH our differences. We already do this all the time! Let's leave that second wave feminism cochinadas, as much as they pop-up over and over, where they belong en el pasado.
What I am interested in these days is finding spaces where we can learn, collaborate, and exchange ideas without leaving behind our differences, mas bien, spaces where we can put those differences to use. In other words instead of beginning from an assumed sisterhood, launching ourselves from difference towards building bridges, links, conversations...
Lately I've been more hopeful of the possibilities, mostly because of everyday experiences here, but also because of you I know personally, because of you I don't but who read, and because of you with whom I exchange brief "how do you do's" with virtually.
Here are just a few more mujeres, you might be interested in checking out what they do:
