October 5, 2020
“The Latino community is suffering a lot right now,” says Arnulfo Romero. The former field supervisor lives in Santa Maria, California, an agricultural community that, depending on which way its sea breeze blows, smells of strawberry, broccoli, or diesel. The town is small by California standards, populated by about 107,000 residents. Most, like Romero, are
September 9, 2020
A conversation with the author of The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and GirlsSeptember 9, 2020Mona Eltahawy secured my eternal devotion after I first read her self-described declaration of faith: “Fuck the patriarchy.” I, too, am a member of this faith and I live my faith through guerrilla-style tactics which I execute daily. My favorite
Luz Media l April 19, 2020
My insomnia worsened during the weeks leading up to the discovery of Vanessa Guillén’s remains. On April 22, she went missing from Fort Hood. For two months, people searched central Texas for her. I wasn’t hopeful that she’d be found alive and on the evening of the day that I learned the details of her femicide, I dreamt
March 28, 2020
My little brother has a nameless iguana. I could tell the iguana about how in high school, in my economics class, for extra credit, I wrote a research paper on the Black Death. My econ teacher gave me a B. I told myself that it was okay that I got a B even though I wanted an A. I told myself, “F is for Fabulous. B is for Bubonic.”
March 21, 2020
Did November 2016 give you the shits too? Did you know that the shits are a symptom of COVID-19? The shits are a sign of the times.
March 13, 2020
Content Warning: Sociology. Language. Misogyny. I miss teaching so I’m going to use this thread as my classroom. I want to discuss a term I dislike versus a term I prefer. I dislike the term domestic violence. I prefer coercive control. Here’s why. I became a battered woman after a man trapped me in what
LA Review of Books l January 23, 2020
I called the police after my batterer told me he was thinking about driving me to a desolate California location, fucking me, and then soaking the countryside in my blood. After I shared these details with a domestic violence detective, he lectured me about male fantasies. The detective urged me to have compassion, stressing that
December 7, 2019
I’m reading former Congressional representative Katie Hill’s account of wanting to kill herself after her abusive ex-husband and the Republican party attacked her by using a method of sexual assault called cyber exploitation. The attacks made Hill, a powerful white woman, curl into a ball and contemplate suicide. I wonder if her suicidal ideation was
July 10, 2019
In an essay on E. Jean Carroll, Moira Donegan grimly addresses the underwhelming response that Carroll’s rape allegation against President Trump garnered. She writes, “We have stopped pretending, collectively, that we expect those on whom we bestow tremendous power to behave with commensurate responsibility.” Like many twelve-year-old girls, I learned about the irresponsibility of the