Friday, June 26, 2009

"white" man/woman

Guate - canche
Panama - fulo/fula

CR - macho (macha para mujeres?!)

Nica/El Salvador - chele/ chele
Mexico - güero/güera

Colombia - mono/ mona

I am looking for anything written about how whiteness works in Latin America and would very much appreciate references. What strikes me is that rather than being unmarked/invisible as it is in North America, it is instead hypervisible and regularly remarked upon. Surely folks must have written about this? I haven't had much luck finding it, other than one article about the use of whitening creams in Mexico. Of course white privilege works differently in Latin America and I'm especially interested in anything written about that. Not only do 'monas' like me get this privilege, but lighter skinned mestizos do too - though this seems rarely talked about or acknowledged.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009


proceso: organizing process, organizing project

Often proceso just gets rendered literally, as process, as it is in the video above by the Nasa First Nation of Colombia. Process can mean all sorts of things in English, but I think that a community organizing process is one of the last things that will come to the minds of English speakers who do not speak Spanish when they hear this term. To clarify I strongly suggest adding the word organizing. In English we would normally say organizing project, not process. I like importing process actually, because it implies that organizing is forever ongoing, not a one shot deal, but for it to make sense in English, again, I think we need to add the word organizing. Thoughts on this one?

Monday, June 15, 2009

botín de guerra

botín de guerra: war trophy

"El cuerpo de la mujer no es botín de guerra" is a slogan of the Ruta Pacifica de Mujeres in Colombia. This photo is from their mobilization in Nov. 07 where they shut down the border between Colombia and Ecuador to highlight how many women are being forced to flee their homes and cross that border, and how war particularly affects women.

When I first heard this slogan the term that came to me in the moment was war booty, which not only sounds like pirates, but makes you think of women's butts! Clearly one to avoid. So my next thought was spoils of war, but that is a much higher register in English and sounds ridiculous in a chant. Women's bodies are not war trophies, now that seems to do it.

Monday, June 8, 2009


mochacabezas: decapitators

It's a higher register in English but I can't think of another way of putting it, other than maybe the head slicers, which I don't think would be understood. I got the term from this fantastic investigative article by Teo Ballvé in the Nation, which exposes how through USAID the US government is giving 'drug war' money to brutal paramilitary drug traffickers for growing oil palm for agrofuel, on land they've stolen from Afro-Colombian peasants. (the article isn't gruesome reading, despite the term - though certainly it's plenty disturbing to find yet another way in which US "aid" to Latin America is deeply screwed up).

It's crazy that Obama has just sent a proposal to Congress that keeps the same very high levels of military aid going to the Colombian army, which works closely with these "palm growers". Please take a minute to send this quick click action email to Obama about it.

(note, photo is the one that goes with article and is by paul hackett - of palm workers, not decapitators)

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

tejido social

tejido social: social fabric

Though I prefer the more poetic weave, it sounds odd in English. We can certainly talk about weaving together our lives and struggles though. The point of state terror is often to shred the social fabric. Well, actually in English we usually talk about breaking the fabric. You would think it would be rip, or, as is often the case, shred or decimate. En español creo que tambien se suele hablar de romper el tejido, no? Aun que aca se habla de su ruptura.

Well, may we all use our gifts and talents to weave a tighter and wider fabric that holds us all, norte y sur.

(image by Will Lion)