Rachael
asked
Julia Alvarez:
Do you think that when we have identified an injustice or problem in our world or in our family, we have a responsibility to address it? Like Antonia, how do you decide the balance between taking care of yourself and taking care of others?
Julia Alvarez
Like my character, Antonia, I struggle with that balance, and I often get it wrong, going too far in one or the other direction, and needing to--as with Antonia--recalculate. I do know that we don't need to build another wall, one dividing art and activism. Doing what we love and doing it in service to our communities is the most profound and transformative activism. (Howard Thurman, the Civil Rights activist, once remarked: “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.�
I am also well aware that having that choice is a privilege, one that is denied you if you live in the "wrong body" (in terms of gender, race, class) or in oppressive regimes which we, Americans, can no longer think of as happening over there in other countries only. So, part of the struggle is to create communities that allow for this choice, as it shouldn't be a privilege but a right: the right to be fully human! And while this lack of equality exists, we are bound to address it.
Let me end with another favorite quote, this from the incomparable Toni Morrison: The function of freedom is to free someone else. If I'm going to get the balance wrong, I'd much rather "err" on the side of generosity.
I am also well aware that having that choice is a privilege, one that is denied you if you live in the "wrong body" (in terms of gender, race, class) or in oppressive regimes which we, Americans, can no longer think of as happening over there in other countries only. So, part of the struggle is to create communities that allow for this choice, as it shouldn't be a privilege but a right: the right to be fully human! And while this lack of equality exists, we are bound to address it.
Let me end with another favorite quote, this from the incomparable Toni Morrison: The function of freedom is to free someone else. If I'm going to get the balance wrong, I'd much rather "err" on the side of generosity.
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