Back on line!

I've been away from my blog for a while now. Almost a year to be exact. Mi vida loca. Alice Walker says it best in "New Face," "The source appears to be be / some inexhaustible spring / within our twin and triple / selves; / the new face I turn up / to you / no one else on earth/ has ever/seen." I was in my last semester of a full load of doctoral classes and had doctoral qualifying exams ahead. I studied furiously all summer long. And at the end of it all, I received a high pass on the exams. Then the next semester started. I presented parts of my dissertation on Mexican women writers at the Feminist and Rhetorics conference in Little Rock, AK. When I came home around October 6, I collapsed. There is something that happens after one completes a long journey. Margaret Reckord, a poet from Jamaica speaks what I felt. "The Journey" Moon-soaked / she emitted / a cold radiance / that made all / who loved her / leave her alone / As well they might - / hers was the single silver track upmountain to the moon. I was exhausted, mentally drained from my studies. I had put everything I had into my doctorate. Has it given anything back? Well, that is left to be seen.
Right now, I'm checkin' in. I am back on-line and will be keeping up with my postings throughout the weeks. In this post, I'm leaving some pictures that are most dear to me. The first picture I am posing with Dr. Jacqueline Jones Royster at the Clinton Library in Little Rock, AK. When I saw her at the reception for the Fem. and Rh. conference, I made a B - line to her table to talk to her. Jacqueline is a wonderful person. She listened to me and my rambling. She has written several articles and books on African-American women of the nineteenth century. One of her books is Traces of a Stream: Literacy and Social Change Among African-American Women.
The second picture is of me presenting at the Literacy Center for Adults called AVANCE where I completed my internship for my Community Writing class. AVANCE teaches immigrants how to speak English and prepares them for jobs out in the community. My project connected my research of Mexican women writers to teaching critical literacy with the students. The students were mostly women, and they were all beautiful women. Beautiful Mexican women. I loved my experience there, as well, I loved working with Arturo Muro, the teacher at the Robert F. Kennedy school.