Voices from the Earth: Current Issue

SRIC Friends

Table of
Contents
SRIC's Continuing
Commitment
From The President
Did you say "Groundwater Contamination?" What's That?
For 25 Years,
The Workbook
Call to the Land,
the Past, the Soul
Molycorp Clean-up
Far from Over
Border Plan for
Sustainability
Uranium Mining on Eastern Navajo
Black Ranch
Driveway to Sprawl
Los Alamos Fire
Book Reviews
Glossary

"Until one is committed there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth…that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves, too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man would have dreamt would have come his way."

— W.H. Murray in
The Scottish Himalayan Expedition.

Pat Mora

SRIC has previously provided support and organized poetry readings featuring the works of Jimmy Santiago Baca and Pat Mora. Through a grant awarded by the New Mexico Endowment for the Humanities, SRIC has assisted in highlighting voices from local communities that speak to a myriad of social issues affecting Chicana/o people. Creativity and artistic expression often enables artists, writers and poets to tell their stories — stories about the struggles faced by individuals and families, and stories from people who are from land-based communities with close relationships to water, soil and living cycles.

Voices like Jimmy Baca and Pat Mora are not only important to Hispano people but to the general public alike. The work of these individuals is essential in creating a multi-cultural learning experience to support each of our efforts to make positive contributions in our lives. One important component of the project illuminates the work of aspiring young adult writers and poets. It aims to give talented youth public exposure by reading in a public setting as part of a tandem presentation with an accomplished author as a role model.

One such event, "Desert Voices/Voces del Desierto" was held Thursday, August 24, in Santa Fe at Site Santa Fe. The program was an interactive presentation that showcased the work of Mora, a nationally acclaimed author of poetry, non-fiction, and children's books. Pat Mora, a native of El Paso, Texas, speaks often at conferences, universities, and schools about creative writing, leadership and multi-cultural education. Pat is active in having April 30th celebrated as Dia de los ninos/ Dia de los libros, a celebration of children, books, languages, and cultures. For more information about Pat Mora please visit www.patmora.com.

The August 24 evening program featured the talent of young poets Sabina Zuniga and Erin Bad Hand, students, respectively, at University of New Mexico and Colorado College.

 

Sabina Zuñiga     Words I feel your words like White sage smoke Curl around my body, Settle on my clothes, In my hair Fine rivulets of you Slide themselves Through my fingers Leaving the scent of Unanswered prayer. — Erin Bad Hand

Forgive Us The land used to be a part of the family. we knew it would be ther when we needed. to eat, to live, to love. We took care of it, in return, we were given life. Then like back stabbers we took advantage we asked for more --than she could give. She gave us life, in return, we trampled her skin with asphalt and steel. No longer did the delicate hooves of horses, pulling an old wooden cart with a farmer, his family, and his crop, tread the beautiful land. We must drive miles, and miles, in order to see, to feel, to love the land --the way it used to be. To get away from the asphalt and steel, to once again welcome our mother back in our arms to say, "Forgive us." Only, she is too old, and worn, --and tired. Instead, we get the response of a white plastic bag Rustling in the wind, Caught between branches. — Sabina Zuñiga