Machetes Under Our Bed gifts readers with the writing and orations of over 100 Latina writers, speakers, and activists across the world in one of the most eclectic and inclusive collections traversing time, style, and traditions.
Machetes Under Our Bed: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Daughters of Latin America follows in the steps of Margaret Busby’s New Daughters of Africa as a seminal collection of female creators that includes thought leaders and activists of the Latinx diaspora. This anthology celebrates the numerous women who wrote like machetes and broke new ground, certifying that these voices are not lost to history.
Machetes Under Our Bed: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Daughters of Latin America follows in the steps of Margaret Busby’s New Daughters of Africa as a seminal collection of female creators that includes thought leaders and activists of the Latinx diaspora. This anthology celebrates the numerous women who wrote like machetes and broke new ground, certifying that these voices are not lost to history.
Grammy, National Book Award, Cervantes and Pulitzer Prize winners as well as a Nobel Laureate are just some of the women included in a rich tapestry that of almost 140 Latinx women—and features almost 30 Indigenous voices. For some, Machetes is an entry point of womanist thought leaders from Panama to America to the Caribbean to Asia. Collectively this anthology is a time capsule spanning centuries and genres as a long-awaited archive of these contributors’ inherent strength, vision, and creativity. The abundance and diversity within these pages open with a Mazatec chant from shaman and poet María Sabina testifying to the power of language as a cure. From there readers are transported through time, space, and sensations in poems from National Book Award winner Elizabeth Acevedo and celebrated Cervantes Prize winner Dulce María Loynaz, short fiction from NYT bestseller Naima Coster, essays by playwright Josefina Josefina López and Guggenheim Fellow Maryse Condé, and rousing speeches from U.S. Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez and Lencan Indigenous land and water protector Berta Caceres.
These cherished contributions are divided into 13 parts representing the 13 Mayan Moons, each cycle honors different intention and allows a full breadth of voices to share space through thematic and harmonious ambitions. Machetes Under Our Bed is more than a collection of writings, it is a resurrection of ancestral inheritance as well as a celebration of the rising voices encouraged and nurtured by those who came before them.
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