BARRIO BLUES AND OTHER TOTALLY TRUE STORIES

Un Blog de Writing Musings

  • Home
  • Mi Biografía
  • Books
  • Un Blog de Writing Musings
  • Author Interviews
    • Eric Allen Yankee
    • Mehreen Ahmed
    • Steve Carr
    • Martin Eastland
    • P.S. Malcolm
    • P.C. Darkcliff
  • Announcements
  • The Harvested Draft
  • Poetry
  • Barrio Blues Press
  • Useful Bits
  • Contact

26/1/2017

Writing Can Be Resistance, so Write on Brothers and Sisters!

2 Comments

Read Now
 
Picture
This post is meant for the writers in my life that are getting demoralized and discouraged.  Writing is resistance, and The Real Resistance needs you.  (The same goes for those of you who are shutting down and don’t want to discuss all the craziness going on.  Putting your head in the metaphorical sand won’t solve the problems at hand or the attacks on us.)  I’m not saying writing is therapy, though it can be, but if we don’t get our ideas out, whether it’s through art or our other writing who will?  They will with their fascist alternative-facts and rhetoric.  Their campaign will be perpetual to get even more support for a fascist demagogue. 

So, write and resist.  It can’t help but be. 

Enough pep talk.  Well, maybe that will be an ongoing conversation from time to time, but take courage in your art. 

This week, besides trying to write everyday, which as you will note the miracle that has happened yet again, (I managed to get up at 4:45a.m. to write!) I am going to write an article about my educational system.  We have been under attack, and one aim is to privatize our community college system that is meant for poor and working class students. 

I am supposed to do an interview for The People’s Tribune, which is long overdue.  Separate from that I want to write an article because the attacks on education will only get fiercer with DeVos as Secretary of Education.  We need to be prepared and inform people on what is really going on before teachers get blamed, even more than they are, and the new rulers wipe out public education and eliminate access to college for the students that need it the most.  Education should be a human right, not a privilege for those who can afford to pay.  That is my political writing goal for this month.

Now, back to my novel.  This morning, I was working on adding some political economy into the Alan section.  He encounters The Resistance, but there needs to be some dirt on the rebels.  No group is ever pure, and I’m not sure what angle to take.  I don’t want them to be insincere, and being ineffective isn’t enough because that isn’t’ a character flaw.  But the conditions in their world are desperate, so it will have to be a justified action that they see as noble, but necessary.  I’m thinking it will have to be with how they “recruit” children into their organization.  We will see.

In any case, I added a couple of pages this morning.  Yes, the novel is an ever-evolving draft, a third re-write from two previous attempts at this piece, and I am always open to constructive suggestions, even though once I revise the piece, it will be a very different animal.  You can read the full text here:  The Harvest.

Writers, keep resisting.  The rest of you, keep thinking and engaging and staying informed.  We need all of you in this struggle. 

See the example below from political cartoonist Andy Willis who never stops:


Picture

Share

2 Comments
Aaron
27/1/2017 09:03:20 am

Life journey is the same today as it was yesterday and as it will be for tomorrow. The difference is, we will stand by advocating collectively, and united. More than we did yesterday, and stronger tomorrow. Bus remember, there is more of us then there are of them.

Reply
Jesu
27/1/2017 03:01:18 pm

That is the best comment ever!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

Details

    RSS Feed

    Dr. Jesú Estrada,
    Pen Name: 
    María J. Estrada
    Chicago, IL

    You can also follow me on Twitter @drmariajestrada. I give away a book to celebrate every 1,000 followers.

    Subscribe to my YouTube channel, Radical Books and Politics, where I gift original work to my subscribers, every 50 to 100 subscribers. 

    *********************
    MARIA J. ESTRADA is an English college professor of Composition, Literature, and her favorite, Creative Writing. She grew up in the desert outside of Yuma, Arizona in the real Barrio de Los Locos, a barrio comprised of new Mexican immigrants and first-generation Chicanos. Drawing from this setting and experiences, she writes like a loca every minute she can—all while magically balancing her work and family obligations. She lives in Chicago’s south side with her wonderfully supportive husband, two remarkable children, and two mischievous cats.

    Archives

    December 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014

    Categories

    All

Proudly powered by Weebly
Photos used under Creative Commons from shixart1985, Phuketian.S, yourbestdigs, yourbestdigs, Brett Jordan
  • Home
  • Mi Biografía
  • Books
  • Un Blog de Writing Musings
  • Author Interviews
    • Eric Allen Yankee
    • Mehreen Ahmed
    • Steve Carr
    • Martin Eastland
    • P.S. Malcolm
    • P.C. Darkcliff
  • Announcements
  • The Harvested Draft
  • Poetry
  • Barrio Blues Press
  • Useful Bits
  • Contact