Mujeres de Maiz en Movimiento

Spiritual Artivism, Healing Justice, and Feminist Praxis

Amber Rose González (Editor), Felicia 'Fe' Montes (Editor), Nadia Zepeda (Editor)
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Founded in 1997, Mujeres de Maiz (MdM) is an Indigenous Xicana–led spiritual artivist organization and movement by and for women and feminists of color. Chronicling its quarter-century-long herstory, this collection weaves together diverse stories with attention to their larger sociopolitical contexts. The book crosses conventional genre boundaries through the inclusion of poetry, visual art, testimonios, and essays.

MdM’s political-ethical-spiritual commitments, cultural production, and everyday practices are informed by Indigenous and transnational feminist of color artistic, ceremonial, activist, and intellectual legacies. Contributors fuse stories of celebration, love, and spirit-work with an incisive critique of interlocking oppressions, both intimate and structural, encouraging movement toward “a world where many worlds fit.”

The multidisciplinary, intergenerational, and critical-creative nature of the project coupled with the unique subject matter makes the book a must-have for high school and college students, activist-scholars, artists, community organizers, and others invested in social justice and liberation.

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Contents
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Mujeres de Maiz Chronology
Todos Somos Mujeres de Maiz, An Introduction by Amber Rose González
Mujeres De Maiz: Seeds to Spiritual Artivism––An L.A. Herstory by Felicia ‘Fe’ Montes
Mis Manos Solo Escriben Marilynn Montaño

ROUND 1. EMERGENT SPIRITUAL JOURNEYS AND HEALING SPACES
1. The Drum’s Unequivocal Pound by Ximena Patricia Berta
2. Danzando con el Fuego by Claudia Mercado
3. Magandang Misteryo (Beautiful Mystery) by Liza Cohen Hita
4. Know Your Enemy The Sham Filipino Independence by Liza Marie Cohen
5. Reflections on Mujeres de Maiz by Lara Medina
6. Coyolxauhqui Full Moon Circle: Self-Care as Community Care by Nadia Zepeda
7. Mujeres de Maiz Arising: Shifts and Movement of Positioning Xicana-driven Indigenous Spirituality by Angela ‘Mictlanxochitl’ Anderson Guerrero
8. My Body is My Sanctuary by Povi-Tamu Bryant
9. For My Sister by Natalina Ross
10. Tamoanchan, Aztlan by Luisa Leija

ROUND 2. MOVIMIENTOS DE REBELDÍA
11. I am International Woman by Felicia Montes
12. Re-Collecting by D’Lo
13. Recollections: My Journey with MdM by Skryb Anu
14. The Will of the Water by Marisol Lydia Torres
15. Contusions by Faith Santilla
16. Cuscatlán by Lizette Hernandez
17. Farm for Meme by Virginia Grise
18. Tortilla Warrior by Claudia Serrato
19. Revolutionary Rants by Maribel Martinez
20. The Spiritual Activism of Mujeres de Maiz: Queering the Boundaries of Art and Action by Karen Mary Davalos

ROUND 3. LA CULTURA CURA: ARTIVIST AESTHETICS
21. Reflections by Gina Aparicio
22. Queer Xicana Indígena Cultural Production: Remembering Through Oral and VisualStorytelling by Suzy Zepeda
23. Untitled by Margaret ‘Quica’ Alarcón
24. Bringing Art to the People: Decolonizing Art Spaces and Exhibitions by Michelle L. Lopez
25. Untitled by Xitlalic Guijosa Osuna
26. Una Muñeca by Xitlalic Guijosa Osuna
27. Mythology of Flesh and Turquoise Serpents by Diana Pando
28. We Are by Marisol Crisostomo-Romo
29. My Body: A Sight of Violence by Mariana Moscoso
30. Mi querido 24th and Mission by Maya Chinchilla
31. Femzines, Artivism, and Altar Aesthetics: Third Wave Feminism Chicana Style by Norell Martínez
32. Teatro Heals by Jo Anna Mixpe Ley
33. Poema Para Abuela: Escúchame by Jo Anna Mixpe Ley

ROUND 4. MDM EPISTEMOLOGIES AND PEDAGOGIES
34. In the Spirit of the Voluta by Cristina Gorocica
35. Conocimientos from the Mujeres de Maiz Oral Herstory Project by Gabriela Martinez, Pedro Martinez, Megan Pennings, and Dionne Espinoza
36. Becoming an Activist-Scholar-Organizer with Mujeres de Maiz by Amber Rose González
37. Restoring The Mind, Body, and Spirit: Mujeres De Maíz and Social Media as a Tool of Spiritual Artivism and Education by Megan Pennings
38. The Bees. The Honey. The Humanity Martha E. González
39. Tenacious Angel by Micaela Valdez
40. Momma of the Soft Jersey T’s by Vickie Vertiz
41. Revoloosonary Mama by Panquetzani
42. Let Me Wash The Dishes by Christine Xihuitl Vega
43. I’m a Long Time Coming by Patricia Paz Moya and Patricia Zamorano
44. dreamseeds of the women of the corn by Iris De Anda
45. Makeover Manifesto by Iris de Anda

Contributors
Glossary
Suggested Reading List
Teacher Resources

“The members of Mujeres de Maiz have been building and enriching Chicanx/Latinx, feminist[s] of color, and activist communities for [more than] twenty-five years. Finally, we have a text to document the years of praxis they have been enacting and their visions for the future.”—Anita Tijerina Revilla, activist and professor at California State University, Los Angeles

"We are here, living inheritors of de-colonial feminist movements. We gather across continental divides as 'sisters of the yam,' 'womanists,' 'third world liberationists,' 'nepantleras' and as feminist-of-color creators, students, teachers—practitioners of the possible. Today, we are called to gather as 'Mujeres de Maiz.'  This book's chapters impart what we have learned and want to give back: cooperative modes of power, indigenous systems of communalism, philosophies and practices of non-violence, ancient spiritual practices and time-honored medicine ways. All readers are invited to join, to carry mujerista legacies forward, to re-member, to re-stor(y)!"—Chela Sandoval, University of California, Santa Barbara

 

Mujeres de Maiz en Movimiento
448 Pages 6 x 9 x 0
Published: March 2024Paperback ISBN: 9780816552931
Published: March 2024Ebook ISBN: 9780816552948

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