March 16, 2009

Dear Olga Talamante:

It is my honor and pleasure to contact you in order to let you know that I am basing my Chicana/Latinas in the U.S. Project on you and your wonderful work in the political activist field.  This letter will explain some of the reasons why I chose you as a subject for my research.  In my studies, I have found a wealth of information concerning your contributions to the Latino/a and Chicana/o communities.  Your works remind me of two distinct concepts form two distinct books.  One concept is the concept of the curandera from the book Chicana Art: The politics of spiritual and aesthetic altarities by Laura E. Perez.  The other concept is the New Mestiza Consciousness from the book Borderlands/La Frontera by Gloria Anzaldua.  I will explain these concepts in detail in the following pages.  I will also discuss the activist work that has led me to choose you for my project.

From what I have read from Laura Perez’s book Chicana Art, the concept of the curandera describes the reclaiming and reformulating of the spiritual worldviews that empower Chicanas as women of color and reimagining a more serious social role that a Chicana woman might have today.  For example, Chicana writers like Sandra Cisneros and Chicana artists such as Yolanda Lopez have reformed the idea of the Virgin of Guadalupe and sexuality, which in term, has challenged the entire notion of the Virgin-Whore dichotomy.  As a result, these works have given Chicanas a more serious role in society by influencing the academic and aesthetic merits of the Virgin of Guadalupe.  This concept rejects politically disempowering Western narratives about the socially useless, which would be those who are economically unproductive.  For example, a curandera would do everything in her power to help those who cannot depend on others in society.  Imagine a poor, working class Mexican family, two parents, around 3-5 children with almost no money, and only one income to sustain the household.  Now, imagine that one of the kids falls ill.  However, they have no money to go to a regular doctor.  Instead, they head out to the house of the curandera, who cures the child of his/her sickness.  Just like the literal curandera, the metaphorical curandera challenges social norms by empowering those who have been in the periphery of society.  The underbelly, if you will.  Based on my analysis of this concept, I have found in your work a representation of the metaphorical curandera by your willingness to fight for the least of us.  I will explain more in detail later on.  For now, I will continue with explaining the concepts I have mentioned.

The next concept I will explain comes from Gloria Anzaldua’s Borderlands.  The New Mestiza Consciousness is a constant state of nepantilism, which is an Aztec word that means torn between ways.  Basically, it deals with the two distinct worlds that dwell within the Chicano/a.  Anzaldua puts it clearly when she says “Cradled in one culture, sandwiched between two cultures, straddling all three cultures and their values, la mestiza undergoes a struggle of flesh, a struggle of borders, an inner war.” (Anzaldua 100)  As Chicanos/as, there is a war of worlds happening inside our bodies.  We are stuck between two worlds: one world loves burritos, the other loves hamburgers; one world craves Vicente Fernandez, the other Frank Sinatra; One world speaks Spanish, the other speaks English; and one world values family while the other values the individual.  The modern Chicano/a is full of paradoxes and inner conflicting feelings.  I love this quote by Anzaldua: “Within us and within la cultura chicana, commonly held beliefs of the white culture attack the commonly held beliefs of the Mexican culture, and both attack commonly held beliefs of the indigenous culture.  Subconsciously, we see an attack on ourselves and our beliefs as a threat and we attempt to block with a counterstance.” (Anzaldua 100)  Personally, I have had these inner conflicts.  As a Chicano, the two worlds of American and Mexican cultures collide within me.  For example, in America, I am seen as not black, not white, but the other.  I have been called a dirty Mexican, Beaner, Wetback, etc., by my own countrymen.  On the other hand, in Mexico, I am seen as the Pocho, the Coconut, can’t speak Spanish very well which must mean I sold out my heritage.  The new mestiza consciousness allows us to develop a tolerance for these contradictions by adapting to them.

Now, you are probably wondering, “What the heck is this guy yammering on about, and how does this involve me?”  Good question.  I will explain how the curandera concept applies to you.  There are two examples in your career as an activist that I will use to explain it.  The first example is your imprisonment and torture in Argentina. According to an independent news outlet, you headed for Argentina.  You had said that "I had met several Argentineans in Mexico a few years earlier while doing a field study in Chiapas, Mexico.  After those friends returned from Argentina and talked glowingly about the political changes that were taking place there, I decided I would go after I finished school. Since I was interested in pursuing Latin American studies, I thought I might take classes at Buenos Aires University,"  Within a few months of your arrival, you began working in Barrio San Francisco, one of the poorest sections on the outskirts of Azul. "I was working with the Peronist Youth, a group working with poor people throughout the country."   On November 7, the government issued a broad set of security regulations that banned political meetings, labor organizing, anti-government demonstrations.   On the evening of November 11, 1974, when, after a political strategy session/barbeque, you and 13 other members of the Peronist Youth group you worked with, were arrested and taken to the police station in the center of Azul, Argentina, where you were held until March 27 1976.  The curandera concept applies to you because the way you went through this experience help remake the roles that Chicanas make in society.  At first, you went because of your studies, but you began to reach out to those in need in Barrio San Francisco.  You help create the image that women are able to go out, independently, alone and just free yourself from any restrictions based on your gender.  You chose to help the poor rather than sit comfortably in your apartment.   You “cured” the people you helped of living a life of solitude and isolation. 

The second example is the fact that you are the Executive Director of the Chicana/Latina Foundation.  This foundation, as you know, provides scholarships to pay for a college education, recognition events that honor scholarship recipients and community leaders, and workshops to increase Latinos' writing and interviewing skills that will enhance their ability to compete more successfully in the scholarship application process and make the most of a college education.  This work helps empower Chicanas in going out and bettering themselves so that society will not look down upon them.  You are providing opportunities to these women by given them a hand towards becoming a success.  You are “healing” them by providing well needed assistance with their college education.  You are a curandera.

The second concept, the New Mestiza Consciousness, applies to you through your work in the Chicana/Latina Foundation.  Through this work, you are helping Chicanas face the inner conflict within them and to overcome it.  You are battling the forces within that tell these women that they cannot go to college either because they are too poor, or because they’re different from the “ideal” college students.  You provide support to these women to combat the confusion within them through encouragement and rewards.  You effectively change their mindset from “I can’t” to “I can.”  Through this work, you give them the ability to adapt to their cultural mixture, their mestizaje.  The same applies to your work with INROADS; a career and leadership development organization aimed at Latino, African American and Native American college students pursuing careers in business and engineering.  The same applies to your involvement with the Head Start, the YMCA, American Friends Service Committee, the Argentine Commission for Human Rights, the National Center for Lesbian Rights; El Concilio of San Mateo County, the Friends of the Commission on the Status of Women and GELAAM.  Your work with these organizations, in one way or another helps the cultural conflict that inhabits Chicanas, through education, through community service, even through advocacy.

These are the reasons why I chose you for my project.  You provide a beacon of hope to the people who need it the most in their lives.  You stand up for those who cannot stand up.  You fight for a world free from hatred and ignorance, and for this I am extremely thankful.  I have five sisters.  Your work enables them to go out into the world and become doctors, lawyers, teachers, whatever they want to do in their lives.  And for this, I am extremely thankful for your services to the community.

Thank you.

-Con Safos

Daniel Antonio Larios Cisneros