Memorias del desplazamiento

This is our land: Mapping stories of forced displacement through collective embroidery

(Independent project / 2021- to date)

Forced internal displacement is a phenomenon that has multiplied in recent decades in different parts of Mexico. In Chihuahua, organized crime seeks to exploit natural resources and control strategic routes, causing many mestizo, rarámuri, and ódami families to flee the violence and abandon their homes and land.

One of the post-displacement economic strategies resorted to by some women in the communities is textile work. This activity has also served as a tool to share their testimonies and narratives of their life experiences after displacement.

A multidisciplinary team formed by a journalist, a photojournalist, and an anthropologist, has accompanied one community's internal initiative of a series of maps embroidered on blanket cloth. We have worked with a participatory methodology facilitating spaces for dialogue and workshops to share mapping and drawing tools. We have recovered the testimonies, processes, and dates of displacement in such a way that the words become the main axes that are captured on the fabric. The visual narrative represents a before and after in the history of the community, thus accessing the memories of displacement.

To date, three of the four maps have begun to be embroidered.

Literary Workshops: Intersectionality and Representation through Poetry

(Independent project 2021)

The first workshop was held in collaboration with the Kasa Kapikúa project (Gt) and the Nuit project (Gt-Mx). It was carried out under an internal modality which was called the ‘akratic’ seminar.

Through an akratic seminar, we seek to build a ‘brave space’ to promote collective and collaborative learning of its participants around issues that seem important to us but are often ignored, devalued, or made invisible. We agree with our preference for participatory educational models such as the Socratic model, however, we believe that this model is still rooted in the traditional and is based on the hegemonic. Therefore, we seek to redefine dialogue and knowledge construction with a new concept, which we call ‘akratic’, in favor of the search for collective and practical knowledge.

This seminar sought to reflect on intersectionality in the work of voices that are not usually represented as well as the themes and audiences that are not taken into account in classical Western poetry. It seeks to form a brave space to share experiences and thoughts to build knowledge around poetry in a communitarian way. From our position as a brave space, we invite all participants to be open to the mutual construction of knowledge and collective responsibility.

We are guided by the proposal of the Black lesbian poet Audre Lorde, reflecting on intersectionality can enrich any result that is sought thanks to the visualization and strength of differences. We agree with Audre Lorde when she says that "POETRY IS NOT A LUXURY" and we base ourselves on the position that literature, and specifically poetry, is a highly political and necessary act.

The Literary Workshops on Intersectionality and Representation through Poetry were held twice in person: once in Guatemala City, Guatemala, and the other in Chihuahua City, Mexico. In 2021, a virtual adaptation was also carried out as part of the continuous community training workshops of CUENCA and the Secretary of Culture of Mexico City.