New Mexico Author, Christine Eber Visits Denver
Christine Eber ~ Activist, Anthropologist and Author of “When a Woman Rises” will grace Denver with her presentations and book readings below which are all open to the public.
Also, Bill Jungels, documentary filmmaker and producer of Maya Faces in A Smoking Mirror will present at the DJPC Forum and will attend the following events below.
April 4th 6:00pm – Denver Justice and Peace Committee Forum at the American Friends Service Committee Office Conference Room, 1420 Ogden Street, Denver, CO 80218 Free
April 5th 7:00pm – Museo de Las Americas, 861 Santa Fe Drive, Denver, CO 80204 (First Friday) (Book Reading from When A woman Rises) Free
April 6th 9:30am – Ross-Barnum Branch Library Community Room, 3570 W. 1st Ave. @ Lowell Blvd., Denver, CO 80219 w/National League of American Pen Women-Denver Branch (Book Reading from When A woman Rises) Free
Aoril 6th 3:00pm – Su Teatro XicanIndie Film Fest, 721 Santa Fe Drive, Denver, CO 80204 DOCUMENTARY FILM: “Maya Faces in a Smoking Mirror”
The documentary, Maya Faces in A Smoking Mirror, Co-Produced by Eber was the winner of the 2018 Best Feature Length Documentary at the Las Cruces International Film Festival.
In addition, weavings and textiles from various Maya Women’s weaving collectives in Chiapas, México will be available for sale at all these events.
The textiles are made by Maya women weavers on back-strap looms. The women belong to three cooperatives that Weaving for Justice works with in Chiapas. http://weaving-for-justice.org/
In the novel, “When A Woman Rises”, Magdalena from Chenalhó, Chiapas tells the story of her best friend Lucia who has been missing for ten years. Magdalena recounts how as children they dreamed of going on in school after primary school and how as adults they faced the challenges of poverty, racism, and rigid gender roles. Both women eventually join the Zapatista movement and struggle to reconcile the many demands on them as kinswomen and community organizers.
The dicho or saying in Tsosil states that “When a Woman Rises, No Man is Left Behind.”
Christine Eber is an author, anthropologist, and activist. Her work explores the lives of indigenous women of women in Chiapas, México and how they have been organizing to defend their lands and lives. She is Co-Founder of Weaving for Justice, a volunteer organization that assists the Maya weaving cooperatives of highland Chiapas to sell their textiles through fair trade in order to avoid having to migrate for work. In recognition of her service to the people of New Mexico, Christine was chosen as one of the twenty women to receive the 17th Annual Governor’s Award for Outstanding New Mexico Women. http://www.christineeber.com/
Eber’s other books include: Pasar Bien Por La Tierra: El Tejido de Vida de Una Mujer Maya-Tzotzil de Chiapas, México/The Journey of a Tzotzil-Maya Woman of Chiapas, México: Pass Well Over the Earth—Co-authored with “Antonia.” (University of Texas Press), Agua de Esperanza/Agua de Pesar/Mujeres y Alcohol En Un Pueblo Maya de Los Altos de Chiapas (CIRMA—Centro de Investigaciones de Mesoamerica and Plumsock Mesoamerian Studies, Vermont), Women and Alcohol in A Highland Maya Town: Water of Hope, Water of Sorrow, University of Texas Press (Women of Chiapas, Making History in Times of Struggle and Hope, Co-edited with Christine Kovic, (Routledge), and Just Momma and Me (Lollpop Power).
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR WHEN A WOMAN RISES:
“With the deft touch of a novelist and the sharp eye of an anthropologist, Christine Eber tells a luminous, spiritually-charged tale of an indigenous Maya community adapting to the wrenching demands of the outside world. When a Woman Rises is a jewel of a book—engaging, moving, tragic, and ultimately transporting.” – Peter Canby, senior editor, The New Yorker
“Christine Eber has fulfilled her cargo with this exquisitely drawn and incandescent novel of the lives of women in the Maya community of Chenalhó in Chiapas, México. Detailing the lives of friends Magdalena and Lucia, the novel builds slowly, resolutely, and powerfully toward a greater understanding of what it is to be a woman. That charge is to know the inexorable beauty and pain of being human.” – Denise Chávez, author of The King and Queen of Comezón