Women Writing Resistance: Essays on Latin America and the Caribbean

by JENNIFER BROWDY (Editor), Veronica Chambers (Afterword)

Overview

Essays on Latinx and Caribbean identity and on globalization by renowned women writers, including Julia Alvarez, Edwidge Danticat, and Jamaica Kincaid

Women Writing Resistance: Essays on Latin America and the Caribbean gathers the voices of sixteen acclaimed writer-activists for a one-of-a-kind collection. Through poetry and essays, writers from the Anglophone, Hispanic, and Francophone Caribbean, including Puertorriqueñas and Cubanas, grapple with their hybrid American political identities. Gloria Anzaldúa, the founder of Chicana queer theory; Rigoberta Menchú, the first Indigenous person to win a Nobel Peace Prize; and Michelle Cliff, a searing and poignant chronicler of colonialism and racism, among many others, highlight how women can collaborate across class, race, and nationality to lead a new wave of resistance against neoliberalism, patriarchy, state terrorism, and white supremacy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807088197
Publisher:	Beacon Press
Publication date:	10/10/2017
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Jennifer Browdy teaches comparative literature and gender studies at Bard College at Simon’s Rock. She is also a co-editor of African Women Writing Resistance and Writing Fire: An Anthology Celebrating the Power of Women’s Words.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Preface by Elizabeth Martinez
Introduction by Jennifer Browdy

Part One: Re-Envisioning History
1 Revision (Aurora Levins Morales)
2 We Are Ugly, but We Are Here (Edwidge Danticat)
3 The Silent Witness (Raquel Partnoy)
4 And What Would It Be Like? (Michelle Cliff)
5 Everthing I Kept: Reflections of an “Anthropoeta” (Ruth Behar)
6 The Dream of Nunca Más: Healing the Wounds (Emma Sepúlveda)

Part Two: The Politics of Language and Identity
7 Language as an Instrument of Domination (Rosario Castellanos)
8 Speaking in Tongues: A Letter to Third World Women Wrtiers (Gloria Anzaldúa)
9 Las aeious (Ruth Irupé Sanabria)
10 Art in América con Acento (Cherríe Moraga)
11 The Myth of the Latin Woman (Judith Ortiz Cofer)
12 The Quincentenary Conference and the Earth Summit, 1992 (Rigoberta Menchú)

Part Three: Strategies of Resistance
13 A Massacre in Mexico (Elena Poniatowska)
14 A Small Place (Jamaica Kincaid)
15 One Precious Moment (Margaret Randall)
16 On Being Shorter: How Our Testimonial Texts Defy the Academy (Alicia Partnoy)
17 Death in the Desert: The Women of Ciudad Juárez
18: I Came To Help: Resistance Writ Small (Julia Alvarez)

Selected Bibliography
Permissions
About the Editor and Contributors
Index

Editorial Reviews

A wonderful compilation of works by Latinx writers commemorating the past and aspiring to change the future.”
—Library Journal

“Bless these voices, these powerhouses of the Americas, my teachers, my heroes. May this book travel near and far and inspire others to resist. Thank you for restoring courage in an era of fear, purpose in a season of confusion, and, in these times of censorship, an obligation to speak.”
—Sandra Cisneros, author of The House on Mango Street

“Women Writing Resistance has been reborn in a crucial time in herstory, as belonging, identity, and what it means to be American have once again taken center stage. . . . Empowering to read and process.”
—Raquel Cepeda, filmmaker and author of Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina

“Timely, compelling, and nuanced, this anthology invites us to discover what resistance has meant to women and to steward that gift through meaningful action in our own lives.”
—Ashley Perez, author of Out of Darkness

“A big, bold inspiration now. . . .These women will set your soul on fire.”
—Achy Obejas, author of The Tower of Antilles

“A powerful reminder of how much we can learn from listening to each other’s stories . . . .stories that compel, that inspire—stories that need to be heard to envision a more inclusive future.”
—Nicole Caso, director of the Spanish Studies Program, Bard College

From the Publisher

09/15/2017
This anthology edited by Browdy (comparative literature, Bard Coll. at Simon's Rock) is a collection of prose and poetry focusing on Latin America and the Caribbean, drawing attention to the theme of suffering throughout history. Each chapter takes readers on a journey as contributors write about a personal experience, a person in their life, or an event that made them realize they had a story worth telling, one that would help inform others and keep memories alive. We meet a Haitian grandmother whose wise words about remembering the past prevents anyone from dying. There is also a series of poetry, in English and Spanish, paying homage to Cuban poet Dulce María Loynaz. Ruth Behar, the chapter's author, depicts the challenges she and other Cubans have faced owing to the unpredictability of U.S.-Cuba political relations. Together these pieces discuss injustices that have evolved from colonization, imperialism, and globalization. They succeed in drawing attention to the plight of others and how throughout history, the majority has suffered to benefit the few. VERDICT A wonderful compilation of works by Latinx writers commemorating the past and aspiring to change the future.—Susan E. Montgomery, Rollins Coll., Winter Park, FL

Library Journal