you && me at a little toy shop

i attended a lecture yesterday by dr. emma perez, a chicana historian, creative writer, and feminist critic. her lecture was part of a series this week on campus entitled, 'la semana de la mujer.' she is a professor at the university of colorado, boulder and while i have not had the privelege of reading her books, i did want to hear what she had to say. i've become even more interested in the latina/chicana movement since my gender and latino/a mirgration course this semester.

i guess the points that stood out most to me were:

*the fact that in order to move past the racist, patriarchal society we are currently living in, we must recognize the colonial tendencies--that is the ideologies that shape our thoughts and our actions. we must acknowledge them and be critical of them for us to even be able to understand where we are coming from

*she talked about the hermeunetics of love--love as a process. love as a revolutionary tactic. in her lecture she drew on audre lorde's piece about the power of the erotic. further, audre lorde believes that women of color must break through the silence and create or use this discourse of the erotic. that is, lourde argues that women must empower themselves through the erotic by using these pleasures, these gifts, these intimacies.women of color must break their silence and choose to identify themselves with pride over the socially constructed roles they are given in society. much like this, perez believes we must use love. we must protect our lovers, our friends, our families, our communities. there can be power in claiming an identity. finally, we must recognize that we are not separate entities, but that we are able to exist b/c we are precisely interconnected and 'we' or what is 'us' is rooted in the 'we' and 'us' of our community.

*i truly appreciated her comment about the hopelessness some women of color, lesbians, etc. felt and that others felt hopeful. she emphasized a great point: hopelessness is very selfish. it considers the one person that is feeling as such. but hope, hope is different. hope is a community outlook. hope is the feelings we allow ourselves to possess and share with our community. it is something larger than ourselves and hope is this recognized power of something outside of ourselves.

i guess that's all i'd like to say about that. i am increasingly hopeful these days and her last comments held very true for me. when i was feeling hopeless in my life, i shut people out. i didn't let them in as fully as they deserved to be. and by doing that, i was being selfish. and i'd rather not do that. hope is recognizing that others exist outside of yourself. it's recognition that one must love and not only love, but protect those that one loves.

my hope is that one day the world will consist of people caring for the well-being of others. my hope is that one day the struggles that others face will be at the forefront of our awareness. and my hope is that we will be able to love instead of work in a capitalistic system that forbids even the slightest time for love in many underprivileged, exploited people's lives. when won't we be slaves to $$ and work??

sweeter dreams.
k