Denise Padín Collazo - Thriving in the Fight: A Survival Manual for Latinas on the Front Lines of Change

Copyright 2021 by Denise Padn Collazo

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First Edition
Paperback print edition ISBN 978-1-5230-9250-5
PDF e-book ISBN 978-1-5230-9251-2
IDPF e-book ISBN 978-1-5230-9252-9
Digital audio ISBN 978-1-5230-9253-6

2020-1

Book producer and text designer: Happenstance Type-O-Rama; Cover illustration: Ana Teresa Rodriguez; Cover design: Alvaro Villanueva

To my bizabuelita
Gregoria Goyita Miranda

During the war,
Uprooted from your land,
You found a way,
To raise your girls.

In the fourth generation,
One returned,
To reclaim what was taken.

Your fire and love live on in me.
Because of you, I can thrive.

SONIA SANCHEZ

T o watch Denise create this book was like living in this quote from Sonia Sanchez. There are so many powerful messages that Denise loved and shared in her homage to Latinas, and to all those who are Thriving in the Fight.

Denise is the perfect narrator to illuminate the fight for equity and justice. She has been in this fightand knows about Thriving in the Fight because she has been there. Denise is an activist, a strategist, a campeona. She is a woman of firstsintegrating family and work as a pioneer leader in a national faith-based organization. We know that the first is the one who pushes the boundary, who blazes a path for her sisters on the road behind her. As Denise is in the fight, we see so many of her strengthsher resilience, foresight, and bravery. These strengths are all aspects of Denise that are drawn on as she creates this powerful homage to brave Latinas.

Thriving in the Fight speaks directly to and about the experiences and lives of Latinas. Our sisters have been ignored; more than that, they have been made invisible in the larger discourse. This book fills an important gap, shines a light on a space that many didnt know existed. As I read the book, I was drawn in by three messages that I continuously encountered. There were themes that spoke to me: using voice, acting authentically, and being strategic. Denise speaks of the necessity for Latina women to raise their voices, to make sure that they are visible, to move to the center from the corners to which they have sometimes been relegated. Denise also shares the importance of authenticity, of not letting your true self be smothered, covered over. I was blown away by Denises integrity in her acknowledgment of the racism against Blacks that is present in the Hispanic community. This kind of authenticity, this willingness to tell the truth even when it is difficult, is one of the distinctions that characterizes Thriving in the Fight. Denise is incredibly ardent in her resolution that those who are successfully progressing are strategic in acting as champions against battles and conflicts that adversely affect their communities. In each chapter, Denise talks about the importance of not surrendering, of not giving uppushing through when the road seems incredibly treacherous.

Another amazing mujer sabia, Elizabeth Acevedo, offers the following words:

With her literary contribution, Denise provides both a window for and a mirror to the many Latinas who are drawing from Thriving in the Fight to strengthen their armor and prepare to win well in the battle for justice, equity, and freedom.

DR. STACY BLAKE-BEARD,
Visiting Professor,
Tuck School of Business
Dartmouth College

M y first fight lesson happened when I was in elementary school. Daddy gave me an important piece of advice. He said, If a girl ever calls you out to fight after school, just punch her in the nose right then and there. Dont wait until after school where she will have all her friends and family to make the fight unfair. This might seem to you like strange advice to give a little girl. He was passing along hard-earned intel hed gathered from his childhood growing up as one of the first Spics to move to the South Bronx, New York, in the 1940s. He ran fast from the neighbors hate for the new, big, loud Puerto Rican family on the block.

Hermana, Im telling you this story because while, thankfully, Ive never had to act on Daddys schoolyard advice, I have spent most of my adult life fighting on the front lines of change to make our communities places where Black, Latino, and all children of color and their families can thrive. This work of activism and organizing communities is critically important for the success and survival of our children and families. Because of how important this work is, we need you to be part of the fight for social, racial, economic, and political change.

Throughout the book, I will mostly use the word Latina to mean people who identify as women and are of Hispanic or Latino descent. Most people of Hispanic/Latino descent first identify by their country of origin. I will mostly default to Latina, but will occasionally use the terms Hispanic, Latino, and Latinx. Latinx is a gender-neutral term designed to acknowledge and honor the intersectionality of our people and our culture.

A great many of the people doing the work in the fight for social, economic, political, and racial change are women of color.

Black women, Latinas, Asian sisters, Pacific Islanders, First Nations women, Southeast Asians, and many others serve as the bones that hold the flesh of our families, communities, and institutions together. You serve as room moms, school board members, clergy members, elected officials, spiritual guides, community organizers, activists, and healers who serve daily in countless unnamed and often unpaid positions of leadership.