Compañeras is the untold story of women's involvement in the Zapatista movement, the indigenous rebellion that has inspired grassroots activists around the world for over two decades. Gathered here are the stories of grandmothers, mothers, and daughters who became guerilla insurgents and political leaders, educators and healers—who worked collectively to construct a new society of dignity and justice. Compañeras shows us how, after centuries of oppression, a few voices of dissent became a force of thousands, how a woman once confined to her kitchen rose to conduct peace negotiations with the Mexican government, and how hundreds of women overcame ingrained hardships to strengthen their communities from within.

Originally published in 1987 and revised in 2004, Compañeras speaks with the voices of Latina lesbians who are puertorriqueñas, chicanas, cubanas, chilenas, hondureñas, brasileñas, colombianas, argentinas, peruanas, costarricenses, mexicanas, ecuatorianas, bolivianas, dominicanas, and nicaragüenses; women who met to speak about what it implies to be both Latina and lesbian in our communities, whether we live in Latin America or the US. Each time a woman begins to speak, a liberating process begins, one that is unavoidable and has powerful political implications. In these pages we see repeated the process of self-discovery, of affirmation in coming out of the closet, the search for a definition of our identity within the family and our community, the search for answers, for meaning in our personal struggle, and the commitment to a political struggle to end all forms of oppression. The stages of increasing awareness become clear when we begin to recount the story of our lives to someone else, someone who has experienced the same changes. When we write or speak about these changes, we establish our experience as valid and real, we begin to analyze, and that analysis gives us the necessary perspective to place our lives in a context where we know what to do next. Compañeras becomes an instrument of unity, a political tool. Compañeras habla a través de la voz de lesbianas latinoamericanas, chicanas, puertorriqueñas, cubanas, chilenas, hondureñas, brasileñas, colombianas, argentinas, peruanas, costarricense, mexicanas, ecuatorianas, bolivianas, dominicanas, y nicaragüenses; mujeresque se encontraron para hablar sobre lo que significa en nuestra comunidad ser ambas cosas, latinoamericanas y lesbianas, sea que vivamos en América Latina o en los Estados Unidos. Cada vez que una mujer comienza a hablar, comienza el proceso de liberación; es algo inevitable que tiene implicaciones politicas ponderosas. En estas paginas vemos repetido nuestro propio proceso de descubrimiento, la afirmación al asumirnos ante los demás, la búsqueda de una definición de identidad dentro de la familia y de nuestra comunidad, la búsqueda de repuestas significativas a las muchas personales y el compromise en la lucha politica para acabar con toda forma de opresión. Las etapas de crecimiento o de desarrollo de nuestra conciencia se hacen claras cuando comenzamos a reecontar la historia de nuestras vidas en alguien más, alguien que ha experimentado los mismos cambios. Cuando hablamos sobre estos cambios afirmamos nuestra experienca como válida y real, y ese análisis nos da la perspectiva necesaria para colocar neustras vidas dentro de un context que nos permita saber cuál es el próximo paso que temenos que dar. Compañeras viene a ser un instrument de unidad, una herramienta politica.

An upsurge in women's activism across Latin America over the past decade has provoked vigorous discussions about feminism, machismo and the whole process of social change in this diverse continent. The 25 essays in Compañeras: Voices from the Latin American Women's Movement present a unique overview of current debates amongst Latin American women activists.--Back cover.

This is a collection of oral histories, essays, poems, short stories and art work by and about Latina lesbians. In these pieces, some in Spanish, most in English, 47 women born in ten different countries address issues such as coming out, relationships with families and friends, political organizing and community-building.

"Personal histories of participants in 1980s-90s guerrilla movements against Guatemala's military regime, collected by a US citizen who lost Guatemalan husband in struggle, and prefaced by scathing history of Guatemala since 1930s by Noam Chomsky. Simplistic and not on par with similar published remembrances from El Salvador and Nicaragua"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58.

Literary Nonfiction. LGBT Studies. "CHICANA LESBIANS is a love poem, a bible, a dictionary, nothing so simple as a manifesto--this book is yet another reason to believe--to believe in the girls our mothers warned us about, brown girls, lesbians, making their own love poems, bibles, dictionaries, manifestoes, reasons to believe."--Dorothy Allison "When I was selling books at a Chicana conference, I noticed book buyers were literally afraid to touch this anthology. I say now what I said then, 'Don't be scared. Sexuality is not contagious, but ignorance is.' If you've ever been curious, been there, been voyeur, been tourist, or just plain under-informed, misinformed, or unaffirmed, here is a book to listen to and learn from".--Sandra Cisneros

Foreword (Prefacio) / Katherine Warren -- Acknowledgments (Agradecimientos) / Amy Conger -- Compañeros de Meìxico : women photograph women (Compañeros de México : mujeres fotografiando mujeres) / Amy Conger -- Some women photographers of Mexico (Algunas fotografas de Meìxico) / Elena Poniatowska.

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"Essays, documents, interviews and other texts relating to the history and development of the feminist movement in Puerto Rico during the 1970s."

Explores activist scholarship in relation to feminist and social movements in the Americas. Taking Risks offers a creative, interdisciplinary approach to narrating the stories of activist scholarship by women. The essays are based on the textual analysis of interviews, oral histories, ethnography, video storytelling, and theater. The contributors come from many disciplinary backgrounds, including theater, history, literature, sociology, feminist studies, and cultural studies. The topics range from the underground library movement in Cuba, femicide in Juárez, community radio in Venezuela, video archives in Colombia, exiled feminists in Canada, memory activism in Argentina, sex worker activists in Brazil, rural feminists in Nicaragua, to domestic violence organizations for Latina immigrants in Texas. Each essay addresses two themes: telling stories and taking risks. The authors understand women activists across the Americas as storytellers who, along with the authors themselves, work to fill the Latin American and Caribbean studies archives with histories of resistance. In addition to sharing the activists’ stories, the contributors weave in discussions of scholarly risk taking to speak to the challenges and importance of elevating the storytellers and their histories. “Julie Shayne took a risk with this book, and the result is impressive: By challenging the activism-research divide that US academies so often sustain, the authors in this collection challenge epistemological as well as national, race, class, age, and gender boundaries. Taking Risks is a must read for researchers and students alike!” — Amy Lind, editor of Development, Sexual Rights, and Global Governance