| Title | : | Remedios: Stories of Earth and Iron from the History of Puertorriquenas |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0896086445 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780896086449 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 244 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1998 |
We learn of Juana de Asbaje, author of the "Reply to Sor Filotea" in 1693, the first feminist essay written in the New World; Gracia Nasi, Constantinople's "Queen of the Jews"; the African-American activist and warrior of words Ida B. Wells; and the unlikely martyr and symbol, Ethel Rosenberg.
Levins Morales weaves in her own story of pain and healing, ameliorated by the restorative power of memory, and bears witness to a larger history of resistance and abuse by women and men.
This historical memoir revives our connection to the forgotten lore of our grandmothers, featuring explanations of the medicinal properties of herbs and and foods such as rosemary, ginkgo, and banana. With love, joy, and defiance, Levins Morales offers Remedios as testimony to those barely recorded or known to history, the women who shaped our world.
Aurora Levins Morales is author of Medicine Stories: History, Culture, and the Politics of Integrity (South End Press, 1998) and Getting Home Alive (Firebrand, 1986). A Jewish "red diaper baby" from the mountains of Puerto Rico, Morales writes lucidly about the complexities of social identity. She teaches at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
[box]
Also available from South End Press
Medicine Stories: History, Culture, and the Politics of Integrity
TC $14.00, 0-89608-581-3 o CUSA
DeColores Means All of Us
TP $18.00, 0-89608-583-X o CUSA
Loving in the War Years
TP $17.00, 0-89608-626-7 o CUSA
Remedios: Stories of Earth and Iron from the History of Puertorriquenas Reviews
-
This book took me ten years to research and write. Its structure was inspired by both Susan Griffin' Woman and Nature, and Eduardo Galeano's Memory of Fire trilogy. I've written a little aboutmy research process in TheHistorian as Curandera, whicha ppears in my book, Medicine Stories.
-
An intensely personal and poetic whirlwind history of civilization. I don't usually get into books that are overly optimistic and life affirming, but much of this book is that in a Howard Zinn sort of way. Its easy enough to set that aside though. She paints dazzling portraits of peoples lives that put the larger painting into perspective.
Recommended if our interested in feminism, green anarchy, slave rebellion. -
Yes!
A spider web
plants, women, time, space
with the author's sense
of self and place
at the center.
So. Beautiful. -
Aurora Levins-Morales traces the complex history of Puertorriquenas, including women of the Americas, Africa, and Europe. She details the ever-changing status of women in their own communities, the brutal history of slavery and colonialism and how various women resisted, were complacent, or both. In the style of Eduardo Galeano, the history is told in short vingettes, and Morales includes her own personal history as well, tying her struggles with abuse and recovery to oppression and liberation struggles worldwide.
-
I was first introduce to Levins-Morales' work in high school. She wrote a poem with her mother that was taught in a poetry/theater class that I was in. Really beautiful wordsmithing. I suppose I should also add that I'm a bit biased in my review--I met her through a mutual friend (she lives in Berkeley), so she gave me my copy of this book.
-
I'm digging the digging the author had to do to unearth the stories of many forgotten women, especially those featured only in footnotes of books discussing great uprisings and resistance movement from Puerto Rico and beyond. Loving the healing salve of plant medicine sprinkled throughout the book too, and the way she gives them life an honor.
