viva la vida

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guess i’m a coward

“Joshua trees rely on a species of moth for pollination and relied on an extinct species of giant ground sloth for propagation. The Joshua Trees we have now are likely the only ones we'll ever have.” (x)

Joshua Tree National Park, CA

January, 2018

January 2018

I made this zine about how to utilize inclusive language in your Spanish conversation. I made this zine knowing that it was kind of a controversial topic for some people, but the people that I know are interested in learning as my target audience. Yesterday I debuted this zine at the OC Zine Fest, which was held at the Anaheim Public Library.  We set up early and a man approached our table soon. He told me that it was the first table he saw with political content (which like, idk if I would call it that? but it was nice to hear tbh). At first he asked me to explain the content of the zine and quickly interrupted me to complain about how political correctness is hindering free speech. He said he has read about “things like this” online but had never encountered them in real life. While trying to have a conversation with him about it, he kept talking over me. At this point I realized that this zine was not for him. The way I understood the situation was that this was a patron of the library who was there to talk about their opinions and not to be part of the zine community. He was at our table for around 30 minutes, and came back a few several times after that. I am grateful for my partner, who ended up talking to him more because my partner has experience talking to very conservative people. I quickly withdrew from the conversation as I was becoming exasperated and felt my opinions were not being heard. However, every other person at the zine fest who had the opportunity to read the zine expressed their gratitude for making this information available to them and the zine sold out on the first day. It definitively was a different experience but it only inspired me to keep creating more. 

Play with matches if you think you need to play with matches Seek out the hidden places where the fire burns hot and bright Find where the heat's unbearable and stay there if you have to Don't hurt anybody on your way up to the light And stay alive Just stay alive

And I've been a forest fire I am a forest fire And I am the fire and I am the forest And I am a witness watching it I stand in a valley watching it