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A bridge that interrupts a legacy of pain with the honest sharing of stories.
Sana, Sana is a witness to the multiple wounds etched into the landscape of Latinx experience and a testimonial to community efforts to heal them. A multi-genre anthology rooted in the deep desire to not only acknowledge and name the various forms of pain and trauma Latinx people experience regularly, but to do so in the service of imagining new futures and ways of being that prioritize healing and justice not just for Latinx people, but for Queer BIPOC communities and, ultimately, for all people.
The book’s vision and understanding of Latinidad is broad and expansive. It centers Black, Indigenous, Queer, Trans, and Feminist Latinidades. By advancing an unapologetically radical antiracist, anticapitalist, feminist, and queer politic Sana, Sana holds creative and defiant space for identifying economic, social, political, emotional, and spiritual strategies to forge individual and collective healing and justice.
“Praise forever to the warrior healers who transform the world by opening their hearts. This anthology models the self-compassion that we need to live as our complex evolving selves. These writers are now my teachers for life. May we understand our healing as creation, reclamation, and multi-generational love. This book is here to bless you in all directions.” —Alexis Pauline Gumbs, PhD, author of Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals and Dub: Finding Ceremony
“With Sana, Sana: Latinx Pain and Radical Visions for Healing and Justice, editors David Luis Glisch-Sánchez and Nic Rodríguez Villafañe have ushered forth a timely, biting anthology of Latinx perspectives on contemporary social and historical culture; as the social and the historical are framed by settler colonialism, capitalism, the violence of individual and collective trauma, antihuman phobias and other structures of dominance. The question raised here, grounded in Latinx, feminist and queer thought, in the idea that ‘healing requires witness,’ is, simply put, how can those of us who have been harmed intergenerationally and across worlds, across time, create and define what we mean by reparation(s). Sana, Sana arrives at a critical moment in twenty-first century abolitionist practice.” —Alexis De Veaux, author of JesusDevil: The Parables
“Sana, Sana is a transformative anthology that mixes raw emotions, trauma, self-awareness, politics, spirituality, and sometimes even humor. Shared narratives of pain and collective transformation are expressed through poetry, storytelling, and testimonios, envisioning a different kind of world. It is a manual for Latinx hope.” —Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes, author of Translocas: The Politics of Puerto Rican Drag and Trans Performance
“First you have to name it. Say it. Unearth it. Then stomp it. And scream. Twirl it. Open to the Sky and howl it. Cry. Step into the Circle. It’s ritual. Sacred Openings that beckon us to dance and laugh and Love and feel and heal anyway. This is what Sana, Sana gives us. Mirrors. Pathways. Shimmering Light. All of this and so much more. Now is the perfect time to read this book. And Receive.” —Sharon Bridgforth, writer, performing artist, and author of bull-jean & dem/dey back
“Without apology, the voices in this anthology reveal the complexities of living with pain while simultaneously pursuing healing and justice. Whether exploring the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, or class, these works remind us that we are never alone in our pain and do not have to be alone in our healing. These stories are rooted in the power of community, connection—and ultimately love. Sana, Sana demonstrates that we all have healing tools at our disposal whether that be music, prayer, Vicks VapoRub, sewing, or simply taking shots with a friend over Facetime. The poems and essays in this collection define the reclamation of our power to heal ourselves and our communities as holy work. This work is necessary, bold, unflinching, and a timely addition to contemporary Latinx literature.” —Elisabet Velasquez, author of When We Make It: A Nuyorican Novel
David Luis Glisch-Sánchez is a queer feminist antiracist healer, and is the founder of Soul Support Life Coaching, an individual and organizational coaching practice rooted in the queer Black and Latinx feminist tradition. They are also an interdisciplinary sociologist working in the areas of emotion, race, genders, and sexualities. They currently teach in the Department of Global Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University at Buffalo (SUNY).
Nic Rodriguez-Villafañe is a non-binary transmasculine Boricua poet, writer, and DJ. They are currently an adjunct professor of American Studies and Writing Arts at Jefferson University in Philadelphia. They have been an organizer for over 15 years and are a researcher with the Philadelphia Participatory Research Collective (PPRC). Their poems have been described as an "eclectic blend of spanglish hip hop rhythms and Puerto Rican jabería, born out of the southern swamps of Florida." Their writing has been featured in The Gordian Review, Philly Inquirer and N.A.S.W Journal. They are a 2012 Leeway Foundation Arts & Change grant recipient and hold an MFA in Creative Writing from Rutgers Newark. Like most writers they have three jobs to pay bills and six side hustles to stay busy but their main love is always the poems.
Introduction
PART I: PAIN: SPEAKING THAT WHICH WANTS TO REMAIN UNSPOKEN
Cynthia Estremera Gauthier
Reporting Live
Self Care
Aja Y. Martínez
Counter Story As Catharsis: Alejandra’s Deepest Wound
Sinai Cota
Rebirth
Daisy Munoz
Reflections On Childhood Verbal Trauma
Mental Illness In Spanish
Daniel Shank Cruz
What Words Can I Use For This?
*Susana Victoria Parras
The Collective Body
*Jennifer Lankford
You’re Not A Regular Mexican
Lysz Flo
How to tell my Novio, Mama, Abuela
Frankie A. Soto
I wasn’t born where the earthquakes are hitting
Christian Bracho
Grieving in Spanglish: A Glossary of Loss
PART II: HEALING: MAKING OURSELVES WHOLE
Kate Foster
La Luz
Gabi Navas
andrea and i do shots over facetime
Raquel Reichard
How Latin Trap Helped Me Heal From The Biggest Heartbreak Of My Life
Edyka Chilomé
Her·me·neu·tics
Maribel Martinez
It Changes You
Esperanza Luz
Paciencia: How sewing a shirt helped me heal
Gisselle Yepes
for when our blood runs motherless
Mars C. Rivas
Today I
Sofia Quintero
Pyrite
PART III: JUSTICE: DEFIANT WORLDMAKING
Edyka Chilomé
A Recommendation
Amaris Castillo
Altagracia
Hector Rivera
Time Travel
Ana Miramontes
I Come From Dreams
Biany Pérez
“Do you see me?”: Musings on the pain of anti-Blackness or Black Denial
/Rejection in Latinx Spaces
Gabi Navas
ode to the upside-down flag stamp on every letter i mail
Lysz Flo
Ode to Amara La Negra
Marcela Rodriguez-Campo
Mariposa
Dafne Luna
Fierce Gorditx Coming Home: Fat Identity Formation Rooted in Queerness
Nic Rodriguez
Bregando
Afterword