As our journey begins, here’s a space for us to pose queries to the group!
(1) Part of the intention behind this blog is to be able to share our experience with our home communities. As you prepare, take a moment to think about someone you wish you could take along–a friend, a sibling, a partner–write them a letter reflecting on what the Tule Lake Pilgrimage means to you, what you hope for, and how you see yourself “bringing them” along with you.
(2) Respond.
I say mujer mágica, empty yourself. Shock yourself into new ways of perceiving the world, shock your readers into the same. Stop the chatter inside their heads.
Your skin must be sensitive enough for the lightest kiss and thick enough to ward off the sneers. If you are going to spit in the eye of the world, make sure your back is to the wind. Write of what most links us with life, the sensation of the body, the images seen by the eye, the expansion of the psyche in tranquility: moments of high intensity, its movement, sounds, thoughts. Even though we go hungry we are not impoverished of experiences.
Write with your eyes like painters, with your ears like musicians, with your feet like dancers. You are the truthsayer with quill and torch. Write with your tongues of fire. Don’t let the pen banish you from yourself. Don’t let the ink coagulate in your pens. Don’t let the censor snuff out the spark, nor the gags muffle your voice. Put your shit on the paper.
We are not reconciled to the oppressors who whet their howl on our grief. We are not reconciled.
Find…the muse within you. The voice that lies buried under you, dig-it-up. Do not fake it, try to sell it for a handclap or your name in print.
Love,
Gloria Anzaldua
Genki Speak 