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Estacion Libre - Death... and REBIRTH!

The Orange House, headquarters for Estacion Libre in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chis., MX, home base for all delegations to Zapatista Liberated Territory from the U.S. since 1998, safe-space for people of color... will cease to exist after August 2007.

from the Estacion-Libre listserv:
"Dear Sisters and Brothers,
We are writing to you after a long silence to officially let you know that we will be closing down the Orange House that has served as our home in San Cristobal. The house has served as a container for beautifully frustrating and productive struggle. In the beginning, as you all may know, we opened our home to address the need for a People of Color space in a revolutionary setting. Our goal has been to learn from the Zapatista struggle about rebellion and how to bring these lessons to our communities in the United States and Canada. It served as a space for movement building, fostering connection, popular education, strategizing, refining our political analyses, transcending limitations, transforming how we relate to each other, healing, art, love-making and celebrating our discontent, hope and resistance."

The Orange House was where many of my conflicting paths intersected and confronted each other. It was a powerful space for me, even if maybe I wasn't really ready for it. I regret the ways in which I have not been able to transcend my limitations, or fully bring the lessons I learned back to "my community." I hope to continue "bringing back" and I hope that this writing exercise will allow me to do it. One of the reasons I started this blog is that I have been walking around recently with Estacion Libre's impending Death in mind, and I needed to write about it. I needed to call back the me that experienced all the learning, growth, and paralysis that happened in Chiapas in the winter of 2005. This is my way of celebrating and mourning.

I am somewhat overwhelmed by the Death of Estacion Libre, so I won't be able to talk about Rebirth yet. I am hoping against hope that I will somehow find a way to attend either the Death/Rebirth meeting in Brooklyn on July 22 or one of the Final Delegations in August.

In either case, I hope that there will be something that moves you or something that you willl find useful.

with peace & respect,

Que Viva Estacion Libre!
Long Live Estacion Libre!
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Comments

Dojiang said…
huh! we've been so busy house hunting that i havent heard about this from you! did you write the "Dear sisters and brothers" letter? who wrote it? is it just the orange house dying? or EL in general?! fill me in!
July 16, 2007 at 8:58 PM
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