YOLANDA CHAVEZ LEYVA

Fierce.

Fronteriza.

Chicana.

Indígena.

Femme lesbian.

Abuela.

Historian.

Writer.

Teacher.

fierce

of a feeling, emotion, or action showing a heartfelt and powerful intensity:

fronteriza

Que está situado entre dos cosas, hechos, circunstancias

Fierce Fronteriza seeks to inspire hope + consciousness + action to create a more just world by sharing the histories and stories of border people through essays, photographs, and interviews. Centering history from the periphery provides us different perspectives; invisible connections and alliances become visible. Trauma and perseverance live side by side. These histories reveal the past, illuminate the present, and provide us a vision for the future.

A blog about

Historia. Memoria. Esperanza.

Through Essays. Photographs. Videos. Poetry. And podcasts.

Desde la frontera.

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"Carry our stories carefully
Wrap them in soft red cloth
and place them against your
heart."

From A Tejana in Tenochtitlan

My father used to tell me about sneaking into this theater to watch movies as a kid in the 1910s. It showed Spanish language films. In the 1940s, it was transformed into a "whites only" theater but that didn't last long. By the 1950s, it was headquarters to the Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers Union, a radical labor organization. Before it closed, it housed the Mine and Mill Bar.

This message is painted on the east side of the old Mission movie theater.

The bell tower of Guardian Angel Catholic Church, built in the 1910s to serve the growing Mexican immigrant community in what was then the "east side" of El Paso.