Learning Empathy Through Memoir Writing
– Herstory Writers Workshops
by Hazel Weiser, Dir. of Foundation Advancement
at the Long Island Community Foundation
Esto se supone que tiene que ser la página principal de la historia de mi vida y no tengo la mínima idea de cómo la voy a comenzar.
These are the words of Lucky Alvizures who arrived seven years ago with her husband and three children from Guatamala. Like all of the women who come to Herstory Writers Workshops, Lucky must find where to begin her story, not an easy task, but where every writer begins. And so Lucky finds a way to begin:
Es como si estuvieras en una nube y desde arriba ves para abajo a una niña pequeña con el pelo bien largo y negro como el azabache. No se mira si el pelo es lacio o es crespo, porque siempre lo tiene con trenzas una en cada lado. Ella no quiere estar afuera, quiere estar adentro. Afuera está frío y obscuro, pero en cambio adentro hay un bullicio como un arrullo y la pequeña niña sabe que está en su casa, pero que en ese momento hay algo que no entiende y busca por todos lados a su mamá. Hay personas arrodilladas y todas miran al frente y hablan al mismo tiempo. Ella no encuentra a su mamá y sigue en su afán de encontrarla. Brinca y brinca por encima de los zapatos de aquellas personas que en este moment están cantando y la voltean a ver con una mirada que se le clava a la niña bien adentro y entienda que no hace bien el estar brincando, pero no le importa. Ella necesita encontrar a su mamá y sigue y sigue brincando...
Since 1996, Erika Duncan, a novelist, professor, and former columnist for The New York Times Long Island section, has been leading workshops for women who want to tell their stories. Herstory now has fourteen branches on Long Island, including on-going programs in the Riverhead and Yaphank Correctional Facilities and two workshops in Spanish, one in East Hampton and the other in Farmingville. Some women come to Herstory because they want to publish a book, others because they want to leave a legacy for their families, still others because they cannot hold the story inside any longer.
The stories are as unique as the women who struggle to find where to begin them.
For the past year and a half, Sandra Dunn has been facilitating a Herstory Latina workshop in East Hampton and for almost a year, interpreting for the bilingual workshop in Farmingville. These Latina writers have published a first journal — Latinas Write/Escriben — issued this spring in both Spanish and English. The women who attend these workshops come from many Spanish-speaking countries: Argentina, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru. The collection includes excerpts from the memoirs-in-progress of five Herstory writers, writings that open a doorway to understanding the lives of immigrants living in the United States.
Hacía ya más de dos meses que habíamos llegado a este pequeño pueblo perdido en el mapa del mundo. Sesenta días sin trabajar era demasiado para mi acostumbrada rutina anterior de nunca parar y estar siempre en movimiento. Tendría que aceptar cualquier trabajo que se me presentara, lo cual quería decir la limpieza. Ahora podía entender tantas historias escuchadas en el pasado. Historias de gente conocida quienes radicaban en el extranjero por propia decisión o por otros motives más complicados. Nunca te decían con franqueza cómo o de dónde provenían sus salarios, cuál era el tipo de trabajo que realizaban. Siempre las evasivas. Pero lo cierto es que sobrevivían. Quizás los dólares apagaban muchas emociones y acallaban los dolores del recuerdo y las humillaciones. Ahora entendía el porqué de tanta discreción.
– Mariel Burns, speaking about her arrival from Argentina
Latinas Write/Escriben was underwritten by a grant from the J.P. Morgan Chase Foundation, administered by the Huntington Arts Council, and through additional funding from the Town of East Hampton and Bridgehampton National Bank. It was printed courtesy of the Citibank Community Relations Group for Long Island. Herstory’s first grant came from the Long Island Fund for Women & Girls. Herstory receives additional funding from donor contributions and grants from the Long Island Community Foundation.
To learn more about the East Hampton Latina workshop, which is conducted entirely in Spanish, or the Farmingville workshop, which is bilingual, in English and Spanish, please call Sandra Dunn at 631-723-0150 (Spanish or English) or Herstory Writers Workshop at 631-725-4697 (English). Copies of Latinas Write/Escriben can be purchased by calling 631-725-4697. Herstory and the stranger/reader technique of memoir writing are further described at its website www.herstorywriters.org.
Hazel Weiser is Director of Foundation Advancement at the Long Island Community Foundation, which helps generous Long Islanders be more effective with their philanthropy. She was a member of the West Babylon Herstory Writers Workshop for nineteen months, during which time she drafted, LOVING BUDDHA MAMA, a daughter’s memoir of her mother’s death.
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