Coleman Cultural Engagement Foundation

Gloria E. Anzaldúa

Tue, 17 May 2016 12:45:00 GMT

Two quotes from the poet, author, and Chicano activist Gloria E. Anzaldúa:

“Borders are set up to define the places that are safe and unsafe, to distinguish us from them. A border is a dividing line, a narrow strip along a steep edge. A borderland is a vague and undetermined place created by the emotional residue of an unnatural boundary. It is in a constant state of transition. The prohibited and forbidden are its inhabitants .”

Borderlands/La Frontera:The New Mestiza

“Caminante, no hay puentes, se hace puentes al andar.”

Translation: “Voyager, there are no bridges, one builds them as one walks.”

This Bridge Called Me Back

Naoto Matsumura: the world’s most radioactive man

Wed, 21 May 2014 17:34:00 GMT

Perhaps you have heard of Mr. Naoto Matsumura who resides near the Fukushima nuclear power plant. He has sacrificed his life by returning to his hometown of Tomioka, which lies within the radioactive danger zone, in order to take of the animals that were left behind when the town’s residents evacuated. He is truly a remarkable human being who has crossed a border few would dare to cross. Here is his story as published in the UK Mail.

World’s most radioactive man: Japanese farmer who refused to leave crippled Fukushima nuclear plant so he can take care of his animals

By Daniel Miller

They call him Radioactive Man, the Japanese farmer who refused to leave his home town despite it being less than six miles away from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. Defiant Naoto Matsumura, 53, is the only remaining inhabitant of the town of Tomioka which was a thriving community of 16,000 people before the tsunami hit two years ago.

The rice farmer disobeyed government orders to leave and has stayed on to feed the town’s animals including his own 50 cows and two ostriches.

Mr. Matsumura is permanently exposed to up to 17 times the level of radiation that is considered safe. He put his health at further risk by eating food that had also been exposed to radiation, although he is now surviving on relief supplies delivered from outside and water that has been checked for radiation. . . .

When researchers at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency conducted tests, Mr. Matsumura was found to have the highest level of radiation in anyone they had tested.

He told Vice magazine: ‘When I went down and let them look me over, they told me I was the “champion”.

‘But they also told me that I wouldn’t get sick for 30 or 40 years. I’ll most likely be dead by then anyway, so I couldn’t care less.’

Matsumura, who is a fifth generation rice-farmer, did leave the town for a short while to live with his parents in the south of the country, but after a few days he could not bear the thought of the animals left to fend for themselves so he returned.

He added: ‘I was scared at first because I knew the radiation had spread everywhere.

‘The next thought in my head was that if I stayed too long, I’d end up with cancer or leukemia. But, the longer I was with the animals, the more I came to see that we were all still healthy and that we would be OK.’

As well as the animals on his own farm Mr. Matsumura now cares for dozens of former pet dogs and cats left behind when the town was evacuated.

He explained: ‘Our dogs didn’t get fed for the first few days. When I did eventually feed them, the neighbors’ dogs started going crazy.

‘I went over to check on them and found that they were all still tied up. Everyone in town left thinking they would be back home in a week or so, I guess. From then on, I fed all the cats and dogs every day.

‘They couldn’t stand the wait, so they’d all gather around barking up a storm as soon as they heard my truck. Everywhere I went there was always barking. Like, ‘we’re thirsty’ or, ‘we don’t have any food.’ So I just kept making the rounds.’

Among the animals he rescued was a dog that had been trapped inside a cattle barn for a year and a half. It had only survived by eating the flesh of cattle that had starved to death. When Mr. Matsumura rescued it in the summer of 2012 most of its fur had fallen out.

But thanks to Mr. Matsumura’s loving care it has made a remarkable recovery and most of its fur has now grown back. Mr. Matsumura named him Kiseki, which means ‘miracle’ in English.

Without any humans about many of the town’s dogs and cats have gone feral and now live in the forest.

Sadly hundreds of head of cattle were left to starve to death inside a nearby barn and despite Mr. Matsumura’s efforts many of the survivors are severely undernourished.

Nevertheless he has pledged to stay on as long and care for them for as long as he can.

He said: ‘I was born and raised in this town,’ he told us. ‘When I die, it’s going to be in Tomioka.’

UK Mail : published: 13:45 EST, 12 March 2013 | Updated: 13:56 EST, 12 March 2013

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2292273/Radioactive-man-The-Japanese-farmer-living-crippled-Fukushima-nuclear-plant-care-animals.html

A Facebook page has been established for Mr. Matsumura titled: Naoto Matsumura, Guardian of Fukushima’s Animals
and can be found at:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Naoto-Matsumura-Guardian-of-Fukushimas-Animals/182452015189991

Rebecca Solnit

Mon, 02 Dec 2013 19:13:00 GMT

The prolific and award winning American writer Rebecca Solnit (National Book Critics Circle Award winner, Mark Lynton History Prize winner, and Sally Hacker Prize recipient) is a border crosser. In her book of essays titled A Field Guide to Getting Lost (Penguin Books, 2005), she writes about leaving the familiar and comfortable boundaries of one’s existence and fearlessly entering new territory. Her essay, “Open Door,” begins with the story of Elijah and the tradition of Jewish homes leaving an open door for the return of the prophet during Passover, “The important thing is not that Elijah might show up someday. The important thing is that the doors are left open to the dark every year.” Then she writes, “Leave the door open for the unknown, the door into the dark. That’s where the most important things come from, where you yourself came from, and where you will go.” Walking through the door to the unknown, fearlessly and trusting your self, is about “extending the boundaries of the self into unknown territory, about becoming someone else.” The drive or the need to “get lost” is the hallmark of the border crosser. Where most are comfortable within their self-defined boundaries, the border crosser is uncomfortable with the familiar and intentionally seeks a way through Elijah’s door. The border crosser learns “how to travel.”

Continuing, “Lost really has two disparate meanings. Losing things is about the familiar falling away; getting lost is about the unfamiliar appearing. There are objects and people that disappear from your sight or knowledge or possession…. Everything is familiar except that there is one item less, one missing element. Or, you get lost, in which case the world has become larger than your knowledge of it…. The wind blows your hair back and you are greeted by what you have never seen before. …”

The above brief paragraphs hardly do justice to Solnit’s argument. I hope, however, that they might inspire you pick up a copy of her book. I highly recommend A Field Guide to Getting Lost . Ms. Solnit is a wonderful writer and an exemplary border crosser.

Arundhati Roy: Border Crosser

Mon, 18 Nov 2013 14:06:00 GMT

Arundhati Roy is a gifted border crosser. Born in India, Ms. Roy is a novelist, screenwriter, lecturer, and political activist who is respected throughout the world. In1997, she won the Man Booker Prize in Fiction for The God of Small Things . Issues that she has been involved with during the years include: corporate capitalism, environment degradation, human rights, globalization, nuclear power, imperialism, unequal distribution of wealth, violent and nonviolent resistance. She is one of those extraordinary intellectuals who crosses easily over borders and through her writing and lectures helps others see the world from diverse perspectives.

On March 18, 2013, Ms. Roy discussed her latest book, Field Notes on Democracy , at Northwestern University’s Law School. Her presentation was sponsored by Haymarket Books and the Lannan Foundation. It is worth a look and can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AaIcj4MV54

Martin Luther King: Border Crosser

Mon, 07 Oct 2013 18:21:00 GMT

Martin Luther King, Jr. photographed by Marion S. Trikosko, 1964. LC-DIG-ppmsc-01269 Source: Library of Congress

A half-century ago this past April 16th, Dr. Martin Luther King wrote from a jail cell in Birmingham, Alabama: “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” Those words and that idea are even truer today. More than ever, we are connected. That is why it is so important that we make a conscious effort to understand each other. Interculturally this means we must first develop the ability to see the world from different perspectives. We must “cross over” into new territory. Only then can we understand others and engage them in genuine dialogue thereby helping to weave the “garment of destiny.”