Newsletter Four; May 31, 2021

 Welcome to our fourth “Women’s Work” newsletter. How encouraging to publish this one in a new post Covid era when many of us can return to some of the lives we lived pre pandemic. I hope this finds you and your loved ones safe and well.

This newsletter features the writer, Cynthia Chin-Lee, and the artist, film maker, photographer, Catherine Herrera.  Each traces their roots to their ancestors and to their origins of what led them to become the creative artists and writers.

Cynthia begins her essay with her mother, Nancy. Nancy, while a talented visual artist and a story teller, was not allowed the freedom of her daughter. Despite winning prizes for her art and a scholarship to art school, she was asked to turn it down and support her brother’s ambition to attend college. Cynthia acknowledges her easier path to becoming a writer and growing up in her Chevy Chase area outside of Washington D.C.   She describes the discrimination her family faced in buying a home, or fire being set to her brother’s car.  Yet, despite and because of prejudice, she writes: “ As a writer, I’d like to share the stories of my community and others who don’t fit in.”  We honor her story and her tribute. 

Catherine Herrera pays tribute to the spirit of creativity and her Ohlone roots in her essay, and the journey that it takes her, step by step. She describes her excitement the first time she was paid to exhibit her work and paid for a portrait. Illness changed her life and her journey, however. It challenged her creative spirit which struggled to stay alive. Creativity showed her a way to explore her family roots. As she writes, “I began making movies about my family and my journey, broadening out to make movies and art no longer just about me or my family; with permission and participation of Ohlone community members, and sacred sites.”

Please feel free to respond to the essays and their work as our community of women artists and writers grows and thrives.