People are sharing their immigration pictures and stories and so here are mine.
Yes, I am an immigrant and one who chose California as a place where I felt I would be more respected as a single mom at the time who wanted to access a professional line of work.
I was raising my daughter in Rome, Italy, and rent was more expensive than anything i could earn in one month. UC Riverside offered me a teaching assistantship and admitted me to their graduate program. I got a student visa that way. My daughter Paola Coda joined me the second year and stayed until the end of my doctorate. At that point I had a big dilemma. Would I go back or stay? The answer came when Vanderbilt University in Nashville offered me a job as Assistant Professor, and processed a green-card for me. The job was discontinued a few years later, but the green-card stayed. That’s when I moved back to California to be an activist in the LGBT community and practice holistic health. I came to Puerto Rico about 20 years ago to resume my academic career. All these decisions were very difficult to make at the time, and involved many inner conflicts and painful choices.
Some of these are narrated in my memoir, Eros: A Journey of Multiple Loves. Where I explain that because my father was an independent senator elected in the PCI, I was always afraid that the FBI would at some point catch up with me. When I finally got my green-card it was a big relief. That’s when I felt I could really be myself. A few years later an anti-immigrant proposition passed in California. Like many others, I woke up and applied for citizenship so I could vote next time around. And I have ever since.
When I hear about the allegations that 3 million undocumented people would have voted, my mind jars. Being a “legal alien” is hard enough. One constantly feels like on a watch list. On special surveillance. One can only imagine what being undocumented can be like. Why would anyone in that situation want to even get near a voting booth? Just to get arrested and deported? It’s like offering one’s wrists for the handcuffs. Who could ever believe these allegations? The fact that they are even made is evidence that so many people are totally unaware of what the immigration system is like. Of how complicated it is to even go from a temporary visa to a permanent one, if you come in as a “legal alien” to begin with. If you cross without papers, it’s even much more difficult to be recognized. And often people who do so are desperate, with no place to return. How could they possibly risk the little niche they found to try and cast a vote that isn’t even likely to have any effect? It’s just baffling that anybody could believe that an en-masse action like that could ever be orchestrated.
There is more that I want to say. In Italy people also talk a lot about the influx of “foreigners.” They call those from poor countries “extracomunitari/e” which alludes to them being from outside the EU. They are afraid of them, and avoid them. There is a difference though. In Italy there really isn’t an immigration system, as in, say, ICE or the former INS. They way people become “documented” is by waiting enough years as undocumented, until an amnesty comes, at which point their years as “clandestini/e” count. So one would think that there the act of voting without the right to do so could be interpreted as an act of civic presence, as in, say, I’m here, see, I want to perform my responsibilities as a citizen.
In the US any act of brushing against the law, even civil disobedience, as in, say, a march or a demonstration, is a risk when you are not a citizen. It’s a risk even when you are documented on a temporary visa or a green-card. Imagine if all those people who live in constant fear, in this pall of special surveillance, would ever dream of committing voter fraud.
I really feel for those people who are in fact deprived of their right to vote, and are now also accused of having had an effect on the election, or at least on public opinion about it, they could not possibly have had. I remember, as the child of an honest political family, that I felt very invisible during the period when I was not in a position to vote. That was hard enough. And I understand how infuriating it can now be to feel accused of a fraud one could not possibly have been part of.
And all this just because a woman won the popular vote! Hard to believe.
Here I’m sharing some pictures from the years of the big dilemmas. Lol. Speaking as if they were ever resolved.
What really brought peace is the practice of #EcosexualLove. May the partner we all share protect us.
Love and blessings.
aka Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD
Professor of Humanities and Cinema Convenor of Practices of Ecosexuality: A Symposium
We know you’re stressed out around this thing that has happened and that is the unnameable of our time.
We at #Ecosexuality encourage you to look at the wider horizon. We asked ourselves: What kind of transformations may this bring about, what new zeitgeist is emanating out of us, together?
Here we share our answer:
Toward and Ecosexual Zeitgeist: Transforming Fear into Courage
Diversity is the nature of being.
All nature, human and non human, is an aggregate of interconnected ecosystems.
Difference and repetition are the fractals that mirror the world of life where symbiosis drives evolution.
Respecting those different from us is a way to get to know ourselves more deeply, more fully.
It is done by practicing open mindedness and good listening. It leads to a wider and deeper truth.
A way to embrace diversity in all its enchantment, beauty, resilience, joy, sustainability, collaborativeness is to practice ecosexual love:
What is #EcosexualLove? The love that reaches beyond genders, and race, and ages, and origins, and species, and biological realms, to embrace all of life as a partner with important and enduring rights.
Now that the illusion of “American exceptionalism” is shattered is the time to act.
Before the second debate I posted: “Vote as if your life depended on it.”
Why?
“This may be the last time you vote if Trump is not defeated. Really? Really! Can you imagine Trump running an election? He will claim that “Mexicans” cannot vote because they are biased against him. He will claim that women are not fit for voting either, but rather for being “grabbed by the &{a9d64f7890d157e71e6efcce19e215a5f853c7f4151cde0b7bf7aada464173f6}#@@*.” It s now or never, folks. Republicans hope he drops out. But we can do better. Let s not miss the opportunity to strongly elect the first president who is a woman. Some might think it’s indirect to come to that position via the “first lady” thing. Let s be honest. If the US had had 42 “first gentlemen” and no first lady yet, don t you think that men interested in political careers would use the “first gentleman” position strategically to access the exposure need to qualify for it? I look forward to a republic where the first “first gentleman” comes into existence. It s about time folks! I’ll trade that any time for a dictatorship where women are “grabbed by the &{a9d64f7890d157e71e6efcce19e215a5f853c7f4151cde0b7bf7aada464173f6}#@@*.” Won’t you? Say YES if you agree. And make sure you vote!”
But I was perplexed after the debate and posted this to Facebook. It generated a long thread you can find here.
People helped me. And finally, what really helped me was looking at the issues. Not sure how to vote yourself? Here are my reflections, and the links.
Post-Debate Reflections
“I’m not sure how to vote. To me it s very simple: get the billionaire class to fund the green economy, get the mass incarcerated out and pay them to produce solar panels, get out of all oil wars, stop all pipelines. It s a simple plan that resolves several problems.
But for any of the main candidates it seems too difficult to grasp.
I want to vote for Hillary but I by far prefer the program of Jill Stein.
Hillary went for the right. She wants to be elected by the Republicans who repudiate Trump.
I don’t think that s very honest or wise.
She did well in the debate. She held her ground, ruffled his feathers well enough. She came across as mature and wise.
Modeled presidentiality in a woman s body, which I like.
But she didn’t talk about police violence, she included fracking as a “transition” to the green economy, and wasn’t clear at all about Isis.
The debate was very narrow. Nobody even mentioned Haiti w over 800 victims of a super hurricane enhanced by global warming.
I don’t think there is much hope.
I like the plan of Jill Stein.
If I could be sure that Trump is defeated i would give my vote to Jill Stein.
Can you help me think through this?”
Many many comments poured in, and what really made a difference for me was looking at the websites where I could educate myself about the issues. I do wish Jill Stein a lot of good things, and I do respect the position of those in the blue states who will vote for her.
For me, as an immigrant, I want my vote to go to a person I can believe in. I acquired this right. I was not born with it. I acquired it by working, not from allowing billionaires to “grab me by the &{a9d64f7890d157e71e6efcce19e215a5f853c7f4151cde0b7bf7aada464173f6}#@@*” and then call me a “gold digger.”
The Issues
Debates may not help. But when you look at the issues, you know there is a difference. Roe and Wade. Marriage Equality. Global Warming. Health Care. Criminal Justice. Green Economy. Many more . . . They’re there. There is a position, a plan.
I need a GOOD reason to vote for a certain candidate. Fear is not enough. If you feel the same, go to the sites too. Educate yourself about the first former first lady ready to become president. Viva the first “first gentleman.” Let’s hope he initiates a long line of men of a gentle nature who proudly support women. And viva Hillary.
This post documents the experience that ended the most torturous year in my academic career, 2014-15, and its subsequent effects. The documents I filed at the time are on record in the highest offices of the campus.
When mobbing is legal people will resort to it to attack those weaker than themselves. In Puerto Rico, I learn, the only female governor, Sila Calderon, tried to introduce legislation against it. But. You guessed right: she was mobbed.
When mobbing is legal, people will use ideas and opinions in the public domain to feel that they have permission to act violently against those who represent perspectives different from what those ideas represent.
For example, when I first presented my proposals for hybrid modalities to my department, a pandemonium erupted. Several colleagues started yelling in Spanish, “you’re not qualified,” others started nervously pacing the room to assuage anxiety, others yet tried to ask questions in English and their voices were covered up by the yelling ones. Some female faculty went to the hallway to breathe fresh air. I was cornered on the stage, feeling lynched while the chair fell silent. The proposals were never considered at that time.
I wrote an Affidavit in Spanish that described the scene in minute detail and filed it with the highest authorities on campus. Then I filed another with more background. One year later it was finally possible to consider my first proposal in a calm and respectful manner.
One of the philosophies whose effects are visible in the mobbing I suffered is, as I’ve more recently learned, the philosophy of cercania, nearness, which privileges the local and the presential at the expense of everything else.
On a small island where people are per se afraid of novelty and foreigners, this can be very damaging. The geophysical nature of islands is what creates that sense of being surrounded by waters which makes everything non isleno muffled and remote.
The mobbing I suffered impaired my mental capabilities for quite sometime. It made my body/mind reactive to Spanish, a language I otherwise use quite well, because that’s the language against whose violence I could not defend myself.
For quite sometime, it made impossible for me to sustain the long-term attention required of peer-reviewed research.
Finally, it weakened my personal ecosystem to where I suffered a fall while traveling to Rome, Italy, one of my research arenas where I also visit family, to the point that I fell on top of myself, with the left arm extended under my own weight.
The fracture of the radial head that resulted in the affected elbow turned out to be irreparable. The entire movement of the elbow was at one point blocked. Eventually, some 65-70 percent of this movement was recuperated via Tuina Chinese therapies and India’s Auyrvedic therapies, all at my expense for about $ 7000.
Back view. Limited flexibility of left elbow.
The remaining percentage is not subject to recuperation, orthopedic doctors tell me. The difference can be observed in these images. It is a permanent disability that’s not severe per se, but quite substantial nonetheless.
I am now in the process of having the entity of this disability verified by the authorities, so I can receive the proper protections and respect. I am also observing my own inner transformation as I accept my new body and its mild deformation as a result of my work. It is a humbling and sensitive process.
As I am in this process, I am also tremendously enjoying the new relationship with students made possible by the hybrid modality.
Front view. Limited extension of left elbow.
I love the vibrant discussions when we get together presentially and discuss the texts we’ve read. It’s analytical observation at its best.
And I love how they learn how to learn online as they attend modern history lectures on You Tube and engage in taking complex, probing, soul searching, wide ranging, and profoundly thought provoking tests.
When I teach the Humanities from the Point of View of Love, I want the experience of students in the course to match the universal theme chosen. I’ve practiced that thematic approach for over ten years. Ever since we reformed the course from an all-out canonical, Allan Bloom type of litany of works by the (in)famous “dead white males,” to one that accommodates for the diversity of human experience and endeavor.
I chose the theme of love back then, when we opened up to thematic approaches as recorded in the document at this link. And now with the hybrid modality, that alignment of theme and experience of learning is coming to fruition. Yay!
First Set. Hybrid Section. Students in H-Huma 3112: The Humanities and Love
There are practical advantages as well. How relaxing for my half crippled elbow not to have to gesticulate over and over repeating the same lectures till I sound like a broken record. Students can refer to a standard version and be sure that exams correspond to what’s been really taught!
The series of online lectures on modern history from the point of view
Gaia: The Blue Dot.
of the people and the Earth is available at this link to the entire world. Talk about cercania. It’s a small planet after all! The blue dot.
With my mental joy restored, my creative energies have resurged as well. Amorous Visions is the study of Italian cinema that took me to Connecticut some four years ago. The first chapter came complete in early September, when I felt some peace was achieved around me in relation to my choices. I miss all the foreign colleagues who’ve been bashed to silence or have left for more friendly shores where cercania does not reign.
“Ecologies of Love and Toxic Ecosystems” is perhaps my favorite among all my studies of an academic nature. I contacted the editor of a Deleuzian journal. It’s peer reviewed and open source, my favorite style because it is scientifically reliable and accessible to all.
Folded arms view. Left hand unable to touch shoulder.
She got excited and asked for the submission. I said, “it’s over 14,000 words, are you prepared?” She said “yes.” I sent it. Two days later here’s what I got: “We read your essay with great interest and like it very much!” After one round of blind review, they “intend to include it in the next issue.” Wooow!
I felt: “Well Serena it was worth while to live to be over 62 years old even with a half deformed elbow, and be active in research and scholarship for over 30 years, if you’ve learned your job so well!” “Can the energy of love survive in toxic ecosystems? ” asks the article’s meta-question. The answer is “yes, as it becomes love for love or erotophilia.” They got it. “Your fountain, Serena,” I told myself, “is still pulsating with vital energies.” It was an overdue joy!
The Isla del Encanto where mobbing is legal is full of adventures, academic and not, that reverberate in the distance and presentially with the energies of life around the globe. Can we welcome the energies that will make that encanto sustainable?
As an educator, I love to share knowledge. ABE: always be educating, as my sex-positive educator friends say. Here are my lessons for the day:
I have angels. Mobbing can be avoided when administrations are aware of what it is and how it happens. When I was mobbed, angels sent me a manual about it so I could identify it. The manual is available at this link. Enjoy!
Mobbing results from conflict–unresolved conflict. Conflict can be resolved by applying the process of generating consensus from conflict itself, as explained in the manual On Conflict and Consensus, by C. T. Butler and Amy Rothstein, two founders of the horizontal democracy movement Food not Bombs. The book is available at this link. May it bring the genuine consensus that makes agreements sustainable to our learning communities. Enjoy!
Memories come back. My loving friend C.T. Butler used this book when he came from far away to lead the first retreat the Humanities Department ever had, a two-day, in 2005, or was it 2006? He was an angel from afar I called here to save us as I saw the disarray. I was new. The chair then took the credit. That retreat was really a blessing that energized everyone as the department found its true north and kept the steady direction for a good while.
This time others are planning a retreat, or Coloquio. Humanities, they call it. I feel terribly scared that the scapegoating will continue. I want to duck the attacks and save myself.
Or, I want to be treated like a human being and not a criminal under special surveillance or a scapegoat.
“How would that look like?” you may ask. It will look like a space where the current chair and direction take responsibility for creating safety for everyone. For example: It will look like the event takes place in a space where
They establish a space of communication based in freedom of expression in language choice.
They take charge for openly recording all meetings in the Coloquio and for providing online access to the audiofiles thereof in a timely way?
They take responsibility for publishing all submitted syllabi and other relevant documents to the department’s website well before day of the Coloquio.
“How would that encourage you to participate?” A legitimate question.
I would know that the freedom of expression of ALL those who choose to practice academic freedom will be protected and valued as the essence of what dialogs, or colloquia, are about.
I would know that there will be freedom of expression in ideas as well as in language choice, between, for example, English and Spanish, as we did at that time by virtue of a translator.
I would know that people will put their cards on the table: what are colleagues teaching in their courses, what is the content of their syllabi, how can I study that content as detenidamente (attentively) as my syllabi have been studied when, after ten years of practice that went unobserved, it was found that, lo and behold, the theme I’ve chosen for my approach to the Humanities is Love!
“Is that just for your protection?” Good point.
These measures will, I believe, make the Coloquio safe for all those colleagues who choose to practice academic freedom and not only the “prominent” members whose fears keep the department from evolving. My presence requires them and other genuine educators will appreciate them.
“Hopefully, that’s exactly what will happen.” I’ll stay tuned for this manifestation.
“But education is more than just a bunch of courses. No?”
As a member in good standing of the sex-positive education community and movement, and as a leader in the Ecosexual movement, I naturally also want to bring to students the know how, the skills, the arts to practice love in their lives to the extent that it feels safe and healthy at any given moment to do so.
I can manifest a whole bunch of angels who will fly to our shores to teach the arts of truly conscious and aware consent and negotiation in interpersonal relationships.
I’ve negotiated the exclusive for a special type of event called Practices of Ecosexuality at UPRM. We had a very successful first run last year. This year the call is out for Practices of Ecosexuality and Sex-Positive Education. I get inquiries all the time while we wait for the proper venue to host the event. Do I have to tell them we’re scared of angels who come from far away? I hope not.
This while the millenials–here like everywhere else–speak English better than their professors because they learn online and are branching out through the social media to the entire globe. Would college be a way to scare them about the world? Ridiculous, no? I love the millennials because they are a game-changer generation. They won’t adjust. They’ll make change happen. It’s a pleasure to teach them how, with love.
They tell me the department is seeking its “true north” after a crisis that was endemic, deeply seated, and devastating. In Puerto Rico we’re in a debt restructuring situation where throughout the UPR system we’ve been asked to get rid of expensive red tape and bring our curriculum into the 21st century. The AGB Report is here. Crises are powerful opportunities for change. Are we going to take it? I hope so.
A department that sheds its fears can become capable of imagining a sustainable future for itself. I presented a plan for action when given a chance. It’s available at this link for everyone to access and enjoy.
Instead of being trapped in fear we can be a source of learning for love. Shall we?
Bernie Sanders gave the United States and the world a great gift. He modeled the behavior of an honest politician. One who is more interested in the common good that in his power or prestige. This is a very valuable gift because people have lost faith in the idea that politicians can be honest and honorable people. By modeling this Bernie Sanders has rekindled the interest of people in politics, in being active participants in the processes and movements that make democratic systems what they are. This is an amazing gift to his country and the world.
I envision this gift to attract so many people to the polls in November that both dreams can come true: defeating Trump and energizing the 99 percent movement (with all its aggregate movements) so that Hillary will have to govern from the left of center.
I felt a lot of personal sympathy for Sanders when his face appeared on Democracy Now! as Hillary was thanking him. He was moved. She was moved. It was a sincere moment of authentic admiration and empathy. When people trash politicians as crooks, I always tell them it’s not true. I was born to an honest and honorable politician, Sen Luigi Anderlini of Italy, who, like Bernie Sanders, ran as independent in the major party of the left in Italy at the time, the PCI. He was elected in that party. He bought constituencies to that party. But he never carried a card. He was the leader of the Sinistra Indipendente, or Independent Left.
In a system of parliamentary democracy, as opposed to the presidential style of democracy that characterizes the US, my dad’s unique position managed to intermediate between the government party (the DC) and the opposition (PCI) so that the major reforms Sanders advocates today and that Italy needed at that time (the 1970s), could be done.
It struck me how Sanders managed to play the presidential democracy system so well as to acquire this pivotal yet somehow less glamorous position, and did so successfully enough to really shift the perspective of the actual nominee. As an honest politician, my father preferred the legislative branch of government to the executive.
The executive branch requires shrewedness. It requires strategizing and changing positions in the face of forces much stronger than any politician can be. It’s a good position for Hillary. She’s much more accustomed to it. Sanders must have channeled some awareness of this at the Convention. Hence his priceless gift. Modeling honesty as a political figure of such momentum and restoring faith in the process and system. This will call people to the polls in great numbers in November and put the GOP and Trump supporters in great difficulty.
Bravo Sanders. I’ll vote for Hillary. (Or maybe I’ll change my mind and vote for Jill if it really feels SAFE to do so, as I vote in California.) And I hope enough people will show up to elect Hillary and also prove that the Democratic Party has a significant left to recon with.
A vote for Hillary in November is the only vote that guarantees another election in 2020.
Neo-fascists don’t believe in elections. Let history be the teacher. The last election in pre-fascist Italy was in 1922. Then Fascism came. The subsequent election was in 1945!
I want to vote again in 2020. That’s why I’m voting for Hillary. Bernie knows this all too well, that’s why he shifted.
American democracy may be rigged just like most other systems. Still, this primary season we’ve seen a momentous display of diverse political perspectives and positions.
Do you value this? Protect it for next time!
A vote for Hillary is a vote for tanacity, a vote for resilience, a vote for wisdom in women’s golden years.
It will be the first time that an empire of the US magnitude is lead by a woman ever in human history, and we cannot estimate what that might bring.
Hillary has many virtues.
Including not flinching when she could have played victim of cuckoldry.
Including allowing Sanders all the room he needed to build the progressive movement.
Including galvanizing Republicans who take pride in the legacy of Lincoln and break away from traitors of this legacy.
A vote for Hillary is a vote for women proud of our wrinkles and the wisdom written one the face of our golden years.
A vote for Hillary is a vote of power for all of those who believe in the wisdom of love!
I have to admit that my ecosexual dream would have been to see Hillary AND Bernie run together on the same ticket. That would have been a front populaire, French style fascism-prevention move. The Kaine move can break the GOP and be effective too.
A big wooow for this plant. Love of plants is a form of ecosexual love. And it’s good to love many plants that heal and bring joy in different ways. I’m so glad the industry is flourishing. It’s great that the shadow of criminality is being lifted. One sad news is that people who’ve been arrested for pot are now barred from getting into the industry. How could this be fair? These people often gifted others with their pot and took all the risks, including the extra risk of structural racism if they were black. They might have been mentors and initiators. NOW that it’s legal and profitable, the road is closed for them. That’s NOT fair at all!
It’s an interesting industry for one to get involved in. Where I get my info? The Democracy Now! segment is available at this link.
Is mass incarceration ecosexual? No. Is the “war on drugs” ecosexual? No.
What is then? Devotion to the virtues of plants. Freedom to appreciate their power serenely and with joy. Awareness of their presence as partners with the lover we all share. Moderation in their use as medicine.
A new “Jim Crow” is of course not ecosexual, but being aware that it’s happening largely on account of plants is. Awareness of how this affects young people of color, immigrants, their families, and communities under the current police regime is ecosexual as well.
Thanks Michelle Alexander. Your interview with Democracy Now! is great. I remember your book and your presentation two years ago in Hartford, CT. It made me cry, and helped me to understand my own predicament and the predicaments of those I love.
Remember: It’s time to make love the ecology of our life. It’s time to allow nature to inspire the arts of love. Namaste,
aka Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD
What is then? Devotion to the virtues of plants. Freedom to appreciate their power serenely and with joy. Awareness of their presence as partners with the lover we all share. Moderation in their use as medicine.