altares

A quick trip to the library this evening, meaning a brisk walk through the ancient forest and the cold that lingers in between the redwoods, and i find myself visiting the Gloria Anzaldúa Memorial Altares Exhibit at the McHenry Library much longer than usual. I remember my first visit to that library very well. A moment of exhilaration — if other spaces seemed small and closed upon themselves, the library held such a promise of openings to other worlds. And then there was the shock of finding out that Gloria Anzaldúa had died, already a little while ago (15th of March 2004). Ever since all visits to the library are made of a moment of pauzing among her books, objects from her alters and quotes from her writing. When i get back to Santa Cruz, i realized today, the exhibit will be gone.

From a woman who understood the power of words and used them wisely.
“Through the act of writing you call, like the ancient chamana, the scattered pieces of your soul back to your body… the ability of story (prose and poetry) to transform the storyteller and the listener into something or someone else is shamanistic. The writer, as shape-changer, is a nahual, a shaman.”

I didn’t know that she used to live in Santa Cruz, near the Lighthouse. Maybe that’s where the picture is taken, or maybe the rock is a part of Natural Bridges. As i was looking for an image of the poster of the exhibit, I came across an online altar with condolences, and i was very much struck by this comment:

“Gloria Evangelina Anzaldua–another feminist, Lesbian, writer of color dying long before her time. Joining the ranks of other great women. How long before the health of sisters becomes a priority instead of just another problem to be lived and solved by minorities?” (Judith K. Witherow)