One week away-Forum with the Editors of Women Warriors of the Afro Latina Diaspora

Greetings my peoples,

We are one week away from the Book Forum with the editors of Women Warriors of the Afro Latina Diaspora. Marta Moreno Vega, Marinieves Alba and I, are looking forward to celebrating the release of the book and engaging in a fruitful dialogue with the Boston community.

Here is part of the Press Release by our publisher Arte Publico

Afro-Latinas’ Activism, Personal Stories Shine in New Book

HOUSTON, TX—WOMEN WARRIORS OF THE AFRO-LATINA DIASPORA is comprised of eleven essays and four poems in which Latina women of African descent share their stories. The collection is a fascinating look at the legacy of more than 400 years of African enslavement in the Americas.

The authors are from all over Latin America—the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Panama, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and Brazil—and they write about issues such as colonialism, oppression and disenfranchisement. Diva Moreira, a black Brazilian, writes that she experienced racism and humiliation at a very young age. The worst experience, she remembers, was when her mother’s bosses told her Diva didn’t need to go to school after the fourth grade, “because blacks don’t need to study more than that.”…

The contributors span a range of professions, from artists to grass-roots activists, scholars and elected officials. Each is deeply engaged in her community, and they all use their positions to advocate for justice, racial equality and cultural equity. In their introduction, the editors write that these stories provide insight into the conditions that have led Afro-Latinas to challenge systems of inequality, including the machismo that is still prominent in Spanish-speaking cultures.

We also received a wonderful review from Afro Puerto Rican author and activist Christopher Rodriguez,

“The book “Women Warriors of the Afro-Latina Diaspora” are personal accounts of African descendant women who created their own space, a “palenque” so to speak, a physical and psychological refuge, to redefine their place in both Hispanic and Anglo-American patriarchal cultures. These women are spiritually and historically connected to those “cimarrones,” or individuals who risked their lives in early colonial times to escape the shackles of slavery and build autonomous communities throughout the Americas. The publisher placed on the book cover the image of a Woman Warrior with a “Machete.” It clearly is the symbolic tool to clear away the weeds of ignorance and poverty as the African ancestors did to clear the sugar cane fields of the Americas.”

Please join us for this celebration and timely dialogue sponsored by the Boston Pan African Forum and Encuentro Diaspora Afro. Attached please find the flyer for the event designed by Encuentro Diaspora Afro new team member, Nia.