A Xicana Codex of Changing Consciousness features essays and poems by Cherríe L. Moraga, one of the most influential figures in Chicana/o, feminist, queer, and indigenous activism and scholarship. Combining moving personal stories with trenchant political and cultural critique, the writer, activist, teacher, dramatist, mother, daughter, comadre, and lesbian lover looks back on the first ten years of the twenty-first century. She considers decade-defining public events such as 9/11 and the campaign and election of Barack Obama, and she explores socioeconomic, cultural, and political phenomena closer to home, sharing her fears about raising her son amid increasing urban violence and the many forms of dehumanization faced by young men of color. Moraga describes her deepening grief as she loses her mother to Alzheimer's; pays poignant tribute to friends who passed away, including the sculptor Marsha Gómez and the poets Alfred Arteaga, Pat Parker, and Audre Lorde; and offers a heartfelt essay about her personal and political relationship with Gloria Anzaldúa.Thirty years after the publication of Anzaldúa and Moraga's collection This Bridge Called My Back, a landmark of women-of-color feminism, Moraga's literary and political praxis remains motivated by and intertwined with indigenous spirituality and her identity as Chicana lesbian. Yet aspects of her thinking have changed over time. A Xicana Codex of Changing Consciousness reveals key transformations in Moraga's thought; the breadth, rigor, and philosophical depth of her work; her views on contemporary debates about citizenship, immigration, and gay marriage; and her deepening involvement in transnational feminist and indigenous activism. It is a major statement from one of our most important public intellectuals.

Drawings by Celia Herrera Rodríguez xiiiPrólogo: A Living Codex xvAgradecimentos xixA Xicana Lexicon xxiOne. Existo YoA XicanaDyke Codex of Changing Consciousness 3From Inside the First World: On 9/11 and Women-of-Color Feminism 18An Irrevocable Promise: Staging the Story Xicana 34Two. The Warring InsideWhat Is Left of Us 49MeXicana Blues 51Weapons of the Weak: On Fear and Political Resistance 54California Dreaming 73Cuento Xicano 76Indígena as Scribe: The (W)rite to Remember 79The Altar of My Undoing 97Three. Salt of the EarthAguas Sagradas 105And It Is All These Things That Are Our Grief: Eulogy for Marsha Gómez 107Poetry of Heroism: A Tribute to Audre Lorde and Pat Parker 111The Salt That Cures: Remembering Gloria Anzaldúa 116Four. The Price of BeansSouth Central Farmers 133The Other Face of (Im)migration: In Conversation with West Asian Feminists 135Floricanto 146Modern-Day Malinches 148What's Race Gotta Do With It? On the Election of Barack Obama 151This Benighted Nation We Name Home: On the Fortieth Anniversary of Ethnic Studies 163Still Loving in the (Still) War Years: On Keeping Queer Queer 175Epílogo: Xicana Mind, Beginner Mind 193Appendix: Sola, Pero Bien Acompañada: The Art of Celia Herrera Rodríguez 201Notes 209Bibliography 229Index 237