YOLANDA CHAVEZ LEYVA
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We the Resilient

2/14/2017

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Recently, I saw a photo of one of the many marches that have emerged since Trump's inauguration and was struck by this poster and its message. "We the resilient have been here before." We have. It's an important message. It reminds us that we are still here despite the centuries-long attacks on our bodies, our languages, our cultures, our spiritualities, our sexualities, our love, our very being. We are here still... in the inner cities, in the barrios, in the urban areas and in the rural areas. We are resilient.

We are also profoundly affected by those never-ending attacks.

My mother suffered a great fear from having experienced repatriations and deportations among her family members. As I grew from adolescence to young adulthood, she warned me, "Mija, they are going to deport you if you complain too much." It was difficult for her to have a daughter who grew up with the Chican@ movement, and later entered the lesbian rights movement. Until my forties, she warned me that I was not safe, that I could be deported for speaking up, even though I am a U.S. citizen. I never knew how much this affected me until one day in class during my doctoral program, we were discussing the history of deportation and I had to leave the class to cry. I still hate to answer the door or the phone because doing so fills me with anxiety.

Many of us suffer the worst consequences of historical generational trauma: alcoholism, drug dependence, addiction to food, illnesses such as diabetes and high blood pressure, suicidal feelings, and depression. Eduardo Duran has explored this in Healing the Soul Wound: Counseling with American Indians and Other Native Peoples (2006).

In these times of despair, of heightened attack, of the normalization of racism, sexism, xeophobia, homophobia and transphobia, I want us to learn to heal ourselves and each other. I want our resilience to shine through our art and writing and speaking and teaching that is grounded in freedom and love. I don't want to "go through this" again. 
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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.
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This message is painted on the east side of the old Mission movie theater.
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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.
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This pinata shop caught my attention as I was driving west on Alameda Street on my way to work.
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Hawaiian dancer, Alameda Street.
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Unicorn pinata on Alameda Street.
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Proud graduate pinata.
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Love message on the east side exterior wall of the old Mission Theater.

Segundo Barrio
Father Rahm Street
​July 2022

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Looking into Padre Pinto Plaza, Sagrado Corazon Catholic Church.
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Treasures on the window sill.
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La bici
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Tres vatos.
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Esperando el bus.
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Two generations.

 La Virgensita en la frontera
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Woman reflected on la Virgencita, Segundo Barrio, 2021.
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La Virgen de Guadalupe, 12 de diciembre 2017, Centro de Trabajadores Agricolas, El Paso
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Protecting Barrio Duranguito 2019

 Cd Juarez downtown
​December 2017
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Raramuri father and son musicians, downtown Juarez, 2017.
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The smell of copal, downtown Juarez, December 2017.
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Ciudad Juarez limpia, downtown, December 2017.
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Selling at the mercado, downtown Juarez, December 2017
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Telcel payaso, downtown Juarez, December 2017


 La Mariscal, Ciudad Juarez, 2017

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Dos perros, La Mariscal, December 2017
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Mujer con cabello verde, La Mariscal, Juarez, December 2017.
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Beautiful death, La Mariscal, Ciudad Juarez, December 2017.
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Tin Tan, La Mariscal, Ciudad Juarez, December 2017.
 
Montana Vista 2019
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Red high heels in the desert 2019
 El Centro July 2022
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A tree reaches out to Oscar Zeta Acosta (mural by Lxs Dos), El Paso, Texas July 2022
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