Running To / Fro


They come pouring off the highway, salt caked to their faces, thousands of them. It looks like some will need medical assistance. Hopefully they have family waiting for them. If not, perhaps they made a friend along the way who can provide support. Some volunteers hand out shawls, others bread, fruit and water. This is the […]

¿Presente? A challenge


Diana Taylor poses a question in her book ¡Presente! that, for me, the central challenge of this course: How to be present ethically, as a scholar, an activist, and a human being—with/ to/ among the many people struggling against a virulent brew of Latin/ American colonial-imperialist- capitalist-authoritarian violence? (Taylor 25) I say challenge, and I mean that […]

The Question of Present(E) Form


“Presente”, to be present, in the present, a wrinkle that merges time and space together, to be present, a call for embodiment and attention to our surroundings, an interpellation of the environment …. shouting to us: “stop… and listen”. Reading Diana Taylor’s text “Presente” is especially relevant in the progression of our class, the text […]

Removing the Mask


In the speech The Place of Indigenous Voice in the 21st Century, Tomson Highway said, “Every plant on Earth…has a role to play in the long survival of the planet.” After hearing Highway, I thought of Octavio Paz’s Mexican Mask, and how the mask is almost like the plants not getting enough water to fully […]