Josefina López, seated at center, and the cast/crew of Chicanas, Cholas y Chisme at Casa 0101.        by Stephanie Serrano I first heard about Casa 0101 in one of my Chicana Studies classes. My bad ass chingona professor Dr. Terri Gómez gave us—mostly young fiery women of color—glimpses into worlds and options beyond the neighborhoods we grew up in. Josefina López—like Gloria Anzaldua, Ana Castillo, Rigoberta Menchu, Dolores Huerta, and Frida Kahlo—is a staple, a pillar in Chicano/Chicanx community. She, like each of those named, became a change-maker through diligence and hard work.  They all continue to spark fires in successive generations of revolutionary spirits, and they breathe life into Chicana Feminists when the world attempts to drown out our voices. Since hearing of it, I have wanted to visit Casa 0101, which had grown to include two spaces over the last few years, according to what I’d heard sometime after graduating fro...

Writer Denise Chávez. Photo by Norm Dettlaff, High Desert News by María Nieto   The border is a space cast in a constant barrage of terms, from predictable prepositions like across, before, after, over and between to interrogatories such as how, as in how in the hell did such a line in the sand come to be drawn? The artificial separation between two nations, the borderland of Las Cruces, New Mexico, is where Denise Chavéz made her entry into this world. The playwright, short story writer and novelist has been gifting us with her words for more than forty years, Denise Chavéz’s first work of fiction in 1995, Face of an Angel , won the American Book Award. Since that first novel, she has delivered three more books. The most recent, The King and Queen of Comezón , was published in 2014. In it, Chavéz opens the door for her readers, inviting them to visit the small, fictional town of Comezón. On its streets, in the homes of its residents or in the Mil Recuerdos Bar, Chav...

by Abel M. Salas For 20 years, a loose-knit, all-woman collective of artists, activists and exponents of “urban indigenism” have gathered in March and April to celebrate the transformative power of the sacred feminine. From students and family caseworkers to former Pete Wilson protestors; from immigrant rights advocates to youthful staffers at barrio non-profits; from neighborhood stakeholders to LGBT warrior womyn, they assembled each spring on LA’s Eastside to share the unique Mujeres de Maiz expression of modern day syncretism. For you milenios, let me simply say that syncretism occurs when two or more disparate belief systems, often spiritual, are combined to create a blended one that works, a prominent example of this being contemporary danza azteca, which often venerates Catholic icons such as the Virgen de Guadalupe. Many in the early Mujeres de Maiz class of cohorts had come of age under the Bush presidency and equated it with the worst aspects of warmongering patriarch...

Mamie Aldama (bed) and Mari Mercado in "Atrapada y Perdida," from Su Frida Caló. Photo: Nadia Andrade. Review by Alci Rengifo Frida Kahlo has joined the pantheon of immortals commodified by pop culture. The great Mexican artist stands by Che Guevara, Emiliano Zapata and Mao as one of those historical figures who graces t-shirts, soda bottles and bags to be paraded by trendy types unaware of the history behind any of these names. But a new, blistering theater marathon by the group Chicanas, Cholas y Chisme over at Casa 0101 Theater makes an admirable attempt at capturing not only details of Frida’s life, but the actual spirit of what she represents timelessly in our own era. In a recent run from mid-March - to mid-April run, the show—titled Su Frida Caló under the guidance of artistic director Josefina López—presented a collection of 21 (yes, you read that correctly) plays written and directed by women playwrights and directors. Each of the 21 pieces either interpret...