Madrigal, Stephanie (Extra Credit: Manifesto Armado)

 This is the first webinar I have ever attended and it was a very fun and interesting experience, especially since it was held in Spanish. I learned about La Revuelta, a group of women working from Central America creating space and community. I got to hear from the founders of La Revuelta, Jimena Galan Dary and Renata Alvarez and watch the performance Mujeres Armadas which happened almost a year ago. The performance called on feminist women where they encourage us to bring a cutting arm to whatever we would like to destroy, a racial cut, collective of armed women. They begin to talk directly to riotters, fighters and how they are coming together on Friday, November the 13th closed in their homes for the last 8 months.They state, "poetry is not a luxury, love and be armed because the revolution will be feminist and will happen" because our bodies are weapons we will use now. I like how they mentioned that although art and meditation may not solve the problem we can make our voices heard. Even more powerfully, they state that although they will not deliberately use arms, disterbance is the language of those who are not listened to. Their overall message addressed what we want to cut today, that no matter the time, cutting is also a process to bring growth and we must cut to grow a better tomorrow for all women. This is why during the performance we see the women handling knives and cutting items. I also enjoyed Renata and Jimena's powerpoint presentation about how history of art narrarated and protagonized by men is not the true history of art, this is why we must bring a revolution and write this history ourselves in order to be included. They explain what is La Revuelta, which are spaces to tell stories of art and establish dialogues of art where women are able to be represented in the art world. Mujeres Armadas began with four women looking for spaces during the pandemic to share dialogue, they had to figure out how to do performances on zoom but this also gave them the ability to share across social media platforms like facebook. They explained how there was no space for women to enter in the art world so they decided to create it. Out of something like the pandemic, valuable connections were able to be formed, these women did not know each other in person and were able to connect via the internet to creat space and share dialogue. Having this space is vital because we have our own experiences and so do other people, so it is important to talk to one another and share our stories about our art because there is not a single narrative and avoid speaking for others in the diaspora.