Viva la Feminista

Well we've turned on the heat at home, pumpkin spice products have hit the market and we have to wear socks again...this only means one thing, summer is over. But before we put away the lawn lights (ahem...), let's take some time to view this amazing video that Kat Lazo , Patricia Valoy , Dior Vargas and Raquel Reichard took the time to make in response to my prompt to talk about how your girlfriends fit into your feminism. Thank you mujeres for this video. It was moving, funny and sums up the summer perfectly. I'm not even going to attempt a summary post. Thank you to everyone who participated this summer: Linda Garcia Merchant Vicky Barrios Brenda Hernandez Amy Richard Lisa Quinones-Fontanez Lilian Coral April Lee Elisa Batista Sandra Ramos O’Briant Estela Delgado Summer of Feminista 2014 is a project of Viva la Feminista where Latinas are discussing girlfriends.  Link and quote, but do not repost without written permission . Read how you ...

Today Summer of Feminista is proud to welcome back, Linda Garcia Merchant.  Linda Garcia Merchant , an award-winning filmmaker and Independent scholar, is technical director of the Chicana Por Mi Raza Project, a community partner for the Somos Latinas Oral History Project and the Chicana Chicago/MABPW Collection Project, a member of the LGBT Giving Council of the Chicago Foundation for Women and a board member of the Chicago Area Women's History Council. Watch the trailer for Linda's latest production ' Yo Soy Eva ' , being released this fall. Every year for the past thirty years I get together for a weekend with three women I have been friends with since college. We make it a point each year to get together at one of our homes, catch up and hang out. I first wrote about this weekend fifteen years ago for my own blog site, twotightshoes. At that point it had been fifteen years of getting together; our children were small or teens and not all of us were divorced or ...

Today Summer of Feminista welcomes Vicky Barrios of Kindness and Kisses . You can also find her on Instagram where you can see she's passionate about soccer! When it comes to feminism, I don't try to do feminism in any prescribed way. I do attempt to embody feminism, specifically womanism.  All my very best friends are amazing women of color and I don't think that's an accident. Still, I believe in respecting the abilities and talents of all women as well as acknowledging their contributions to the community and to our world. That's exactly how my girlfriends fit into my life. We may not be outright feminists but we are women who not only believe in each other, but actively offer each other our individual strengths as support and for actionable inspiration. Whether by karma, divine order, or chance, I have been abundantly blessed with the love, generosity, and depth of authentic sisterhood friendships.  These are real deal have-your-back best frie...

Today Summer of Feminista welcomes, Brenda Hernandez. Brenda is a law school diversity professional. She is the Outreach Coordinator for Hollaback! Boston . She is also a Co-Director for The Boston Doula Project. You can read all about her feminism, pop culture musings, and her upcoming Latino Jewish feminist wedding at BoricuaFeminist.com . I’ve always maintained small tight knit friend circles. I have my group from childhood, my college friends, and my law school friends. Usually these groups max out at about four people. These women have been my rocks. They’ve seen me through the great and most definitely the not so great. I have always valued strong female friendship and that resulted in an immediate connection to feminism. I recognized the importance of a sisterhood and to fight for the rights of those closest to me. Some of my girls identify as feminists, but not all. This has never been a requirement of my friendship (laughing on the other hand is non-negotiable). In fac...

Today Summer of Feminista welcomes one of my dearest friends, Amy, to the conversation...But anyone who knows Amy & me knows she is not Latina. So why am I letting her in? Just read her piece and I think you can agree that it is in the spirit of SoF. I am not a Latina. This was something I wrote to the goddess that writes this blog and she wrote back a short email that said, “Yeah, I figured that out 13 years ago!” The fact is, I didn’t even think about that when I volunteered to write here on this blog. I think that is part of who I am. I met one of my BFF’s online through mama blogging. I knew what her name was, I figured she had another ethnicity than my own....but I didn’t even think about it...in fact, I was just pissed I couldn’t spell her last name. (At times I still can’t!) She ended up being an integral part of my life. So when she posted on her blog that she was running this summertime blog series, I volunteered....forgetting that one of the main components was that I...

Today Summer of Feminista welcomes Lisa Quinones-Fontanez. She is an award winner blogger. Her blog, Atypical Familia, is a personal blog and family lifestyle site with a focus on autism parenting and work/life balance. Her writing has been featured on several websites including Huffington Post Parents, Yahoo Shine and KatieCouric.com. Lisa is also a contributing writer at Parents.com and Babble.com. “All you need is one good friend,” my mother used to say. But as a teenager, I liked being surrounded by friends. Going out in groups to the movies, the mall or just hanging out in the park looking at boys - the more friends I had around me, the safer and less lonely I felt. It was all about quantity, quality was an afterthought. My mother also encouraged independence. If I had to go the mall or library for something, my first instinct was to phone a friend to come with me. “Go by yourself and do what you have to do. You don’t always have to go with a friend.” But I liked having the...

Today Summer of Feminista welcomes Lilian Coral, a novice at blogging , who wants to more actively dialogue with colleagues on specific issues around technology and improving the American social safety net. She comes to this work as a Colombian immigrant, raised and educated in the United States and deeply committed to social justice issues. It’s only fitting that I write about girlfriends a day after the death of the mother of one of my oldest girlfriends. In my home, my parents always encouraged my sister and I to prioritize family over friends. It was always about keeping everything in the family. Don’t tell your friends anything about what goes on in our home; don’t over share your dreams and desires... porque la envidia mata. It never seemed like a judgment on my girlfriends, as much as it was the Latin in us, llenos de agueros, that said that family is always more important than friends, and no one can have your best interests in mind. But growing up in the U.S., where B...

Today Summer of Feminista welcomes April Lee. April is an anti-rape culture, sex positive activist located in Seattle. She is the founder of Modern Sex Culture blog . While April is not a Latina, SoF is welcoming her thoughts on this topic.   Most people didn’t think living with my step children’s mother was going to be a good idea. It’s a little crazy, sure. Two moms under one roof will conceivably get ugly. We have different parenting styles and lead pretty different lives. We have completely different backgrounds. She’s Brazilian. I’m American. I’ve just turned 30 and she’s 15 years my senior. There is potential for combustion. But life happens and here she is living with her ex-husband, his new wife and three out of four of her children. It isn’t an idea situation and I was a bit nervous. I’m sure she was, too. The children have tried to play the card of “Well mom said,” or “April said.” They’ve tried to take advantage of a parent not knowing something the other par...

Elisa Batista co-publishes the MotherTalkers.com blog with her best friend Erika Bleszinski. “Tiene el señor presidente
 Un jardín con una fuente,
 Y un tesoro en oro y trigo:
 Tengo más, tengo un amigo.”
 -Jose Marti, “Versos Sencillos” My favorite poem in Spanish is “Versos Sencillos”, written by Cuban “apostle” and poet Jose Martí. I remember my father playing a narration of all 46 verses of Versos Sencillos, which is about friendship, on a record. I will forever associate that record – and that poem -- with my childhood home in Miami: my father in his stained blue jumper suit fixing his mustang while us four kids hooted and hollered with our friends. Hence, two of the most valuable lessons I gained from my parents were that anyone could enjoy poetry… and an honest friend. I am 37 years old, and I am still best friends with women I have known since I was 5. They were at my First Communion, and around to celebrate birthdays, graduations, weddings and baby s...

Sandra Ramos O’Briant is the author of The Sandoval Sisters’ Secret of Old Blood , winner of Best Historical Fiction and Best First Book at the ILBA, 2013. Visit her on Facebook and Blood Mother Blog. The Other Women I almost called this piece Girlfriends, Slutdom and Mom because they’re all of a piece, a patchwork perhaps, that once assembled became me. Boys were always easier for me. We liked being outside and played rough, whereas I was never sure how to engage girls in anything beyond dolls, which didn’t interest me. They also tended to stay in the kitchen with their moms. Mom proudly announced that she’d been a tomboy, too, and followed her twin brother in his rough and tumble play. As she grew older, mom embraced the “sexy” Latina image. I think it gave a boost to her self-esteem, but it meant that her goal was to get a man which invited competition from other females. At her core she embraced a 40’s cinematic femme fatale role model and distrusted all women . . . poss...

Summer of Feminista kicks off with a provocative piece by Estela Delgado. Please share your respectful thoughts in the comments. I have plenty of friends but few are or have been my close friends, fewer are or have been my best friends because for me the forever part has not worked out. I do not know if I should be sad because my childhood dream and desire of finding a BFF did not come to fruition or over coming to the realization that sometimes I outgrow people and others I have only needed in certain situations and or for certain periods of time. Unfortunately, after giving it some thought I have to admit that as I have grown older I have let go of some people. With that being said, I suppose that as I have gotten older so has my personality and perspective have changed and with them so have my friends. I know we are all different and I value and appreciate it. I am open to learning from everyone, thus I am open to all people from all walks of life. But these differences do ma...

Post by Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner .

     Why yes my dear readers, it is that time of the year!  Memorial Day is in the books and as we wonder what summer will bring us, we do know it will bring us a conversation between Latinas about feminism. To facilitate that conversation, I am proposing this theme: Girlfriends And to clarify, I don't mean the romantic "girlfriend." But your friend who is a girl. The one who pop culture tells us we sit around drinking martinis with talking about our sex lives. Also the one that pop culture warns us about -- The catty woman in our lives who might turn on us.  What is Summer of Feminista? It is my annual summer blog event where I ask you, yes, you! to share your thoughts on an idea related to feminism and being Latina. Although not all those who share consider themselves feminists or Latina. You write a blog post and I post it here. And if you have a blog,  can post it there too. If you don't have a blog, that's ok! You can read about ...

My plans for writing an epic closing post for Summer of Feminista faded along with the season. But I swear I'm going to write an epic mentoring/"Lean In" post for y'all by the end of the year. For those of you keeping track of my PhD journey, next month are my comprehensive exams. They are a set of three exams that are supposed to test us on everything we should know. And yes this means that this blog is most likely (should!) go to radio silence. So as I crawl off into the study sunset, I leave you with a list of all of this year's Summer of Feminista posts for your reading pleasure. Thank you to the amazing Latinas who shared their stories with this blog over summer 2013. The Antidote to the Mentoring Poison La Luzma, La Pixie and Me A Responsibility Learning from the Gray Building a Circle of Mentors A Good Mentor Is Nurturing, Tough and Lets You Have a Good Cry On second thought, Latinas have a lot to learn from Sheryl Sandberg Looking back at my...

Francesca Escoto , Founder & CEO of the Innovators Institute and author of “Divorce Your Drama: Courage To Make The Tough Choices That Are Worth Every Tear”, is a startup coach, helping people turn their ideas into money. I don’t want to lean in, lean forward, stand up, stand out, be assertive. I don’t want to show up, show off, toot my horn or speak up. I also don’t want to stay quiet, nor play the game, pay my dues, climb the ladder, or get off the ladder. I want to be me. Is that too much to ask? I am just sick and tired of people – both men and women – treating women as if there is something wrong with us and we need to get fixed. When you add to the mix that I am Latina, well, I might as well get paid for breathing: I am a walking human experiment. The problem with Latin women are endless – health, education, social justice, economic access, biculturalism, ambiculturalism (WTF?), not enough Spanish, not enough English, asthma, diabetes, and apparently, a h...

Linda Garcia Merchant founded Voces Primeras, LLC, a production company dedicated to creating and distributing documentary-style features of pioneering Latinas to the educational, political and retail markets in 2006. It began with a Facebook post asking the two of us to work on putting together some presentations for her in Chicago. It began with her excitement at connecting with a generation of young people at SUNY Binghampton and their enthusiasm toward what she had known all along—that to fight injustice one needs the passionate songs of the poets. Words sung as wisdom, as fuel, as beacon and lightpost both illuminating the way towards change and as sentry against resistance. It began with a question. ‘I don’t know if you know each other, but I would like to present at a few venues, sell some books, spend some time in Chicago—it’s been too long’. “She” is Dr. Luzma Umpierre Herrera, iconic second wave profa from Bryn Mawr—veterana of too many battles, too much challenge...