Fleshing the Spirit: Spirituality and Activism in Chicana, Latina, and Indigenous Women's Lives

by Elisa Facio (Editor), Irene Lara (Editor)

Overview

Fleshing the Spirit brings together established and new writers exploring the relationships between the physical body, the spirit and spirituality, and social justice activism. Examining the complex and dynamic connections among these concepts, the writers emphasize the value of “flesh and blood experience” as a site of knowledge. They argue that spirituality—something quite different from institutional religious practice—can heal the mind/body split and set the stage for social change. Spirituality, they argue, is a necessary component of an alternative political agenda focused on equitable social and ecological change.

The anthology incorporates different genres of writing—such as poetry, testimonials, critical essays, and historical analysis—and stimulates the reader to engage spirituality in a critical, personal, and creative way. This interdisciplinary work is the first that attempts to theorize the radical interconnection between women of color, spirituality, and social activism. Before transformative political work can be done, the authors say in multiple ways, we must recognize that our spiritual need is a desire to more fully understand our relations with others. Conflict experienced on many levels sometimes severs those relations, separating us from others along racial, class, gender, sexual, national, or other socially constructed lines.

Fleshing the Spirit offers a spiritual journey of healing, health, and human revolution. The book’s open invitation to engage in critical dialogue and social activism—with the spirit and spirituality at the forefront—illuminates the way to social change and the ability to live in harmony with life’s universal energies.

Contributors

Volume Editors
Elisa Facio
Irene Lara
 
Chapter Authors
Angelita Borbón
Norma E. Cantú
Berenice Dimas
C. Alejandra Elenes
Alicia Enciso Litschi
Oliva M. Espín
Maria Figueroa
Patrisia Gonzales
Inés Hernández- Avila
Rosa María Hernández Juárez
Cinthya Martinez
Lara Medina
Felicia Montes
Sarahi Nuñez- Mejia
Laura E. Pérez
Brenda Sendejo
Inés Talamantez
Michelle Téllez
Beatriz Villegas

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780816530977
Publisher:	University of Arizona Press
Publication date:	04/10/2014
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Elisa Facio is an associate professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado–Boulder. She is the author of Understanding Older Chicanas: Sociological and Policy Perspectives and co-editor of Enduring Legacies: Ethnic Histories and Cultures of Colorado.

Irene Lara is an associate professor in the Department of Women’s Studies at San Diego State University. Her work has been published in numerous academic journals, and she is the author of several book chapters, including “Healing Sueños for Academia” in This Bridge We Call Home: Radical Visions for Transformation.

Table of Contents

A Mindful Invitation / Una invitatión consiente Inés Talamantez xi

Foreword: A Meditations Inés Hernández-Avila xiii

Acknowledgments xxi

Introduction: Fleshing the Spirit, Spiriting the Flesh Irene Lara Elisa Facio 3

Part 1 The East: New Beginnings 19

The East Cinthya Martinez 21

Writing with Crooked Lines Laura E. Pérez 23

Toward a Spiritual Pedagogy along the Borderlands Maria Figueroa 34

Spiritual Roots of Chicana Feminist Borderland Pedagogies: A Spiritual Journey with Tonantzin/Guadalupe C. Alejandra Elenes 43

Spirit Journey: "Home" as a Site for Healing and Transformation Elisa Facio 59

Part 2 The West: Feminine Energies 73

Queeranderismo Berenice Dimas 76

Methodologies of the Spirit: Reclaiming Our Lady of Guadalupe and Discovering Tonantzin Within and Beyond the Nepantla of Academia Brenda Sendejo 81

Saints in the Cuban Heat Oliva M. Espín 102

Sensing the Serpent in the Mother, Dando a Luz la Madre Serpiente: Chicana Spirituality, Sexuality, and Mamihood Irene Lara 113

Part 3 The North: The Direction of the Elders 135

Sacrificios Felicia Montes 137

Chicana in the Zendo: Love and Power on the Spiritual Path Alicia Enciso Litschi 138

"Pero hi no crees en dios": Negotiating Spirituality, Family, and Community Michelle Téllez 150

Healing Introspections: Reaching Inside and Reconstructing Myself Rosa María Hernández Juárez 157

Nepantla Spirituality: My Path to the Source(s) of Healing Lara Medina 167

Part 4 The South: The Direction of Youth 187

The Woman Within Sarahi Nuñez-Mejia 189

Creosote and Lavender Angelita Borbón 191

Coming Full Circle Beatriz Villegas/Ilhuicatlahuili-Bea 195

Living La Vida Santa: My Chicana Spirituality and Activist Scholarship Norma E. Cantú 202

Anatomy of Learning: Yauhtli, Peyotzin, Tobacco, and Maguey Patrisia Gonzales 218

References 241

Contributors 257

Artist's Statement 263

Index 265

Interviews

Chicana and Latina studies, Indigenous studies, and women's studies

Editorial Reviews

03/10/2014
Academics Facio and Lara bring together 19 prose and poetry pieces, all reflecting on the spirituality of Chicana, Latina, and indigenous women. The editors want the academy to take spirituality more seriously, and they want students of spirituality to pay greater attention to particularities like race and class. The volume calls for practices that are inclusive and liberating for all people—sensitive to, and opposed to, colonialism, heterosexism, and patriarchy. Throughout, the authors connect the spiritual to the political, insisting that, as the foreword puts it, spirituality is inseparable from “the well-being of... our communities” of women and of all life. Some of the contributions are more overtly academic—C. Alejandra Elenes meditates on “Chicana feminist pedagogies as a spiritual praxis” and calls for “the theorization of the nonmaterial elements of education.” Yet the volume is thoroughly, pointedly autobiographical; for example, a moving essay by Alicia Enciso Litschi recalls the author’s leaving Buddhism because she felt exploited and marginalized by a teacher who seemed to appreciate Litschi only for supplying diversity to a largely white Zen center. A comprehensive collection of feminist spirituality will be incomplete without this volume. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

"A comprehensive collection of feminist spirituality will be incomplete without this volume."—Publishers Weekly

“This is the first book that attempts to theorize the connection between the brown female body, spirituality, and social activism, or to argue that spirituality is a necessary component of an alternative political agenda.”—Edén E. Torres, author of Chicana Without Apology: The New Chicana Cultural Studies
 


“Collectively these scholars provide us with a way to engage the idea of spirituality critically, personally, and creatively.”—Dolores Delgado Bernal, co-author of Chicana/Latina Education in Everyday Life: Feminista Perspectives on Pedagogy and Epistemology


“This is one of the best books I’ve read all year.”—AnaLouise Keating, author of Transformation Now!: Toward a Post-Oppositional Politics of Change

From the Publisher