Fire

Image from ID2Studio

I like women who hate,
women who insult,
get mad and shout

Those women who know they are fire
and know how to burn passionately

Men fear those women, mistrust them,
hey call them exaggerated and fanatics
because they fear the fire they can’t control

They say to women why burn like that?
Look, I can show you
you can be like an oven
look how useful you can be in that corner
not harming anyone, they say
their hand firmly on the knob
knowing they’re in control
to turn on or off, and regulate

They say fire has been controlled already
there’es no need to set ourselves on fire
why dance around a bonfire
there’s nothing to learn
nothing to discover

Depp inside they know
the fire they fear
will burn away this plastic model
they manufactured to feel gods

Our fire
Like the gaze of God in Eden
reminds them of their own

 

Drag King: Timeline

One year ago I started this blog with the intention of putting my thoughts in order and share them, and also to leave a testimony of my road to the darkest depths of my identity.

So I decided, as a way to close one year of thinking and growing, to share this timeline of my story as a Drag King (click on the images to enlarge them).

I also would like to thank all those who have shared this process with me, whether in person or from the distance.

Enjoy!

June 2013

2. My road to the Encuentro

I found out about the existence of the Encuentro Nacional de Mujeres (National Women’s Meeting) a few years ago, but only in this occasion I had the means to travel and attend it.

During that time, my curiosity for feminism evolved into a more solid knowledge, then comprehension and finally, thanks to the Encuentro itself, in political activism.

Image from Kelly Barnhill

Just like my awakening to political consciousness and citizenship, I made an effort to explore and understand the different points of view and strategies within the women’s movement.

I found myself within a world of ideas, considerably more complex, diverse and contradictory than an ideology or a political-party-oriented identity.

1. ¿What is the Encuentro Nacional de Mujeres?

The following excerpts were selected and translated from Spanish by me.

There are links to the original content at the end of each section.

Organization

Year after year, women from all corners of Argentina get together to try and make our thousands of voices heard, through an open, democratic and participatory system.

Logo image from the 28° Encuentro Nacional de Mujeres

These meetings are the most important expression of the fights and struggles we face in our different places, neighborhoods, cities, homes, works, etc.

In them, we all learn together, we say it is one big school. We share our experiences among women from very different places in our country. Thousands of us discovered through the Encuentros that the daily oppression we endure is not our destiny.

We do this through a practice that contradicts the social practices imposed upon women, and it is in the workshops of the Encuentro where we recover the voices of those of us who have no voice.

Thus we strengthen this democratic, horizontal and heterogeneous space, which has no owner because it belongs to all of us.

Har Biji Jine YPJ

Image from The Middle Eastern Feminist

I dedicate this post to my  sister, friend and fellow feminist Hawzhin, a.k.a. The Middle Eastern Feminist.

It was thanks to her that I learned about the YPJ forces and the struggle of the Kurdish people for their independence and against ISIS terrorism.

This text was originally published in her Facebook page.

An essential objective of the Kurdish YPJ (Women’ Protection Unit) is to challenge the gender norms in relation to war; including women’s role in war as well as to exist as a visible psychological boost for women in war-torn communities, demonstrating that women are not weak or passive and can actively work to defend themselves and their communities.

By the same token, their existence challenges male perception that in war women are passive subjects ready to be killed, maimed, abused, etc at the whim and will of male aggressors.

My experience at the 29th National Women’s Meeting in Argentina

This year, I participated for the first time in an event called Encuentro Nacional de Mujeres (National Women’s Meeting) during its 29th edition, in the city of Salta.

The National Women’s Meeting takes place annually in Argentina since 1986. It is an ​​autonomous, self-organized, democratic, pluralistic, self-funded, federal and horizontal meeting.

It is held in a different city every year, the new location is chosen democratically in the final assembly of each meeting.

With the intent to enrich the debate around the organization of women with focus in Argentina, I’m sharing my experience of participating for the first time in the Encuentro and, from my subjective point of view, my personal and political reflections.

Transformation: Rainy Morning

Today I’m bringing you a selection of pictures from a project I made with a friend. Click on the images to enlarge them!