In the fall of 2011, I performed at Middlebury College and I was honored that in the audience was award winning author, Julia Alvarez. I connected with her immediately and she graciously wrote the following endorsement for Latina 50 Plus.
Julia Alvarez
One of the beautiful traditions from our old cultures is the respeto we were taught to give our viejitos. At every gathering of la familia, there they were: los abuelitos, the old tías and tíos, who carried our history in their heads and the burdens of hard work on their stooped shoulders, whose lives had been devoted to bringing up our parents and teaching them things that they then taught us. We never lost sight that we were more than just a "me": we soaked it in, without having to be told, for there they were, our antepasados, whose hands we kissed and whose bendiciones we asked for. Individually, we were mere single beads; with the string they and others had provided, we had become a necklace of the generations.
Now many of us have traveled far from those roots; sometimes the strings of connection have snapped. But though the specific characters might be gone from our lives, the message they embodied still holds true. None of us become who we are without many invisible hands, sometimes invisible even to us, helping us get there. Our familia has expanded to include many whose blood we might not share, but whose inspiration travels through the bloodstream of our imaginations giving us life, meaning, context, and hope.
That is why I am thrilled to support the Latina Empowerment Fifty Plus: First Stories Program. We need to celebrate those who have been our spiritual, intellectual, creative mothers and grandmothers, those who have been our comadres in the struggle to achieve our full potential, sometimes against great odds in a country of immigrants that does not always warmly welcome the newer, darker versions of itself. Just as we once could once see those abuelitas and tías at family gatherings, we need to see them here, now, in their new incarnations; to gather together and acknowledge their work, to symbolically kiss their hands and receive their blessings.
There is an old folk story among the only people in this country who were not immigrants, the Native Americans. The story tells of a woman who spends her life trying to touch the stars. Finally, she achieves her dream. Father Sky looks down at her and asks, "How did you get to be so tall?"
The woman replies, "I am standing on a lot of shoulders."
“Latina Empowerment: Fifty-Plus First Stories Program" is a way for all of us to acknowledge all those shoulders who have helped us get closer to our individual and collective stars. It is also a reminder that we, too, must lend our shoulders to empower other women, and men, so that the sky of possibility becomes a world of opportunity for each and every one of us.
Julia Alvarez
One of the beautiful traditions from our old cultures is the respeto we were taught to give our viejitos. At every gathering of la familia, there they were: los abuelitos, the old tías and tíos, who carried our history in their heads and the burdens of hard work on their stooped shoulders, whose lives had been devoted to bringing up our parents and teaching them things that they then taught us. We never lost sight that we were more than just a "me": we soaked it in, without having to be told, for there they were, our antepasados, whose hands we kissed and whose bendiciones we asked for. Individually, we were mere single beads; with the string they and others had provided, we had become a necklace of the generations.
Now many of us have traveled far from those roots; sometimes the strings of connection have snapped. But though the specific characters might be gone from our lives, the message they embodied still holds true. None of us become who we are without many invisible hands, sometimes invisible even to us, helping us get there. Our familia has expanded to include many whose blood we might not share, but whose inspiration travels through the bloodstream of our imaginations giving us life, meaning, context, and hope.
That is why I am thrilled to support the Latina Empowerment Fifty Plus: First Stories Program. We need to celebrate those who have been our spiritual, intellectual, creative mothers and grandmothers, those who have been our comadres in the struggle to achieve our full potential, sometimes against great odds in a country of immigrants that does not always warmly welcome the newer, darker versions of itself. Just as we once could once see those abuelitas and tías at family gatherings, we need to see them here, now, in their new incarnations; to gather together and acknowledge their work, to symbolically kiss their hands and receive their blessings.
There is an old folk story among the only people in this country who were not immigrants, the Native Americans. The story tells of a woman who spends her life trying to touch the stars. Finally, she achieves her dream. Father Sky looks down at her and asks, "How did you get to be so tall?"
The woman replies, "I am standing on a lot of shoulders."
“Latina Empowerment: Fifty-Plus First Stories Program" is a way for all of us to acknowledge all those shoulders who have helped us get closer to our individual and collective stars. It is also a reminder that we, too, must lend our shoulders to empower other women, and men, so that the sky of possibility becomes a world of opportunity for each and every one of us.