A Manifestation of El Sexto Sol

"This encuentro is a manifestation of el sexto sol ... which is coming in dancing," said Inés Hernández-Avila in her comments at Sex y Corazón. And even over a week after the event, I'm still dancing. Everything went without a hitch, and everyone was so happy to be there, presenters and participants alike. I guess an encuentro like this has been long overdue, and I am grateful that I was able to organize it, that I had the indispensable help of Georgina and Allison, and that everyone was so happy for the space and opportunity for all of us to come together. In a way, it felt like a family reunion in which relations who have not seen each other for along time get to spend a whole day in the same room to share their stories and struggles and chismes with each other in front of 200 witnesses. Each table reverberated concentric circles of love and together, all the tables and all the circles not only created a great synergy of love but also embodied what Emma Pérez calls "Third Space Feminism." That's exactly the space we were in that day: Third Space Feminism.

I especially appreciated that the audience got to meet and listen to the very people they've been reading in our classes, and that they heard the inside story about what we've done and more importantly what we still have to do in our "revolutionary maneuvers toward decolonized being" (Chela Sandoval). For some of us, that meant, simply, speaking from the heart, stepping out from behind the scripted presentation of our academic personas to share our thoughts and memories to that room full of young people without the crutch of a written text. For some it meant talking about our struggles for recognition. For others it signified an opportunity to represent our sexual being and desire without fear of judgement or ostracism. For everyone, I hope, it was a liberating and transformative event. I am so grateful to everyone present for helping to flesh out this vision and to celebrate our department's quinceañera. Third Space Feminism in the flesh.

So many memorable things were said that are still resonating for me and that I hope we will continue to discuss through this blog. Below are some of the more resonant quotes for me and I invite you to respond to one or all. Or post your own resonant quotes.

"Nobody knows how to speak feminist anymore; nobody has changed their grammar."

--Norma Alarcón

"How indebted is queer theory to feminism?"

--Deena González

"No matter what injustice dogs us, we will not be victims."

--Yolanda M. López

"Hermenuetics is the study of hermits who are also nudists."

--Yolanda Broyles-González

"You all have gender; you just have to touch it."

--Horacio Roque Ramírez

"We are the lost generation of the post Civil Rights movements. We arrived late to the party."

--Ellie Hernández

"Constitutive ambivalence is at the heart/corazón of Chicana/o identity formation."

--Luz Calvo