rebecca mendoza

i have learned much from this dear soul.

and now.. she can’t not write:

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dec 2016 – polarized

http://www.kosmosjournal.org/article/polarized-america-polarized-self-a-call-for-collaboration/

I have no tribe that can truly represent me; my identity lacks clarity. I am politically, ethnically, spiritually homeless

[..]

E pluribus unum inspires us to ruthlessly re-evaluate and recalibrate the balancing act between self and society, private and public.

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commit to the labor of love as citizens of this country and begin to walk the third-way path of transformative transpartisanship.

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via fb share

I want to be in “permanent osmosis with everything around me”

from talk by Elena

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on this tragic day.. becca pens:

Sol Pais.

Solcita. Cualquier cosa in your mind.
Whatever led you to undermine
humanity,
yours included…
I’m so sorry.
Lo siento que no pudimos ayudarte.
That we did not know how to love you,
that we didn’t see your pain, that we assigned you names

names reserved for our “enemies”
– those we
refuse to see,
as our brother, sister…
branches of our human family tree
Severed.

Some people don’t deserve dignity?
It seems that this is something on which we unconsciously agree.

Solcita, I look at your face.
18 years young and deemed “dangerous.”

I don’t blame us… entirely.
We are fear-driven,
protectors, investigators…
and we love our children.

But do we love you, child?

I admit, it would be harder to write this had you carried out your plans.
I admit, it would be harder to love you had you been a white man.
My biases precede me.
I too am guilty.

I admit, I have not been a direct victim of school-violence…
So I hold silence. I hold you as sacred, daughter of the earth, child of the sea.

Solcita, preciosa.

You are the imago dei. Innocent, guilty, beautiful, sufferer.
Aren’t we all?
And aren’t we all victims of our own internal landscape?
Depressed, angry, heart-broken, misinformed, unseen, outcast, blamed, shamed.

Sol Pais, lo siento que no pudimos salvarte.

Rest in peace #SolPais

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via fb share:

Grateful for a chance to write this piece for Sacred Writes and Contingent Magazine during the past year.

Writing this piece helped me to reflect on my experiences over the last few years learning about the history of museum collections, Native American and Indigenous efforts to bring home their ancestors, belongings, and sacred materials (NAGPRA etc.), and the ways in which museums continue to uphold colonial systems of ownership. Both my research and my part-time job at the Peabody Museum have been challenging and heartbreaking. Yet, working with incredible colleagues (both native and non-native), gives me hope for transgressive, powerful resistance which centers the voices and knowledge of descendants and directly-impacted communities.

[https://contingentmagazine.org/2023/11/22/beyond-the-gates/]:

‘“undisciplined” practices, .. that usher in liberation.. important to feel uncomfortable, and to face that which has been naturalized and neutralized as science and progress’

two books

david and nika on museum of care

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