Foreword (Prefacio) / Katherine Warren -- Acknowledgments (Agradecimientos) / Amy Conger -- Compañeros de Meìxico : women photograph women (Compañeros de México : mujeres fotografiando mujeres) / Amy Conger -- Some women photographers of Mexico (Algunas fotografas de Meìxico) / Elena Poniatowska.

Compañeras is the untold story of women's involvement in the Zapatista movement, the indigenous rebellion that has inspired grassroots activists around the world for over two decades. Gathered here are the stories of grandmothers, mothers, and daughters who became guerilla insurgents and political leaders, educators and healers—who worked collectively to construct a new society of dignity and justice. Compañeras shows us how, after centuries of oppression, a few voices of dissent became a force of thousands, how a woman once confined to her kitchen rose to conduct peace negotiations with the Mexican government, and how hundreds of women overcame ingrained hardships to strengthen their communities from within.

Telling the affecting stories of eighty gay, bisexual, and transgender (GBT) Latino activists and volunteers living in Chicago and San Francisco, Compañeros: Latino Activists in the Face of AIDS closely details how these individuals have been touched or transformed by the AIDS epidemic. Weaving together activists' responses to oppression and stigma, their encounters with AIDS, and their experiences as GBTs and Latinos in North America and Latin America, Jesus Ramirez-Valles explores the intersection of civic involvement with ethnic and sexual identity. Even as activists battle multiple sources of oppression, they are able to restore their sense of family connection and self-esteem through the creation of an alternative space in which community members find value in their relationships with one another. In demonstrating the transformative effects of a nurturing community environment for GBT Latinos affected by the AIDS epidemic, Ramirez-Valles illustrates that members find support in one another, as compañeros, in their struggles with homophobia, gender discrimination, racism, poverty, and forced migration.

Originally published in 1987 and revised in 2004, Compañeras speaks with the voices of Latina lesbians who are puertorriqueñas, chicanas, cubanas, chilenas, hondureñas, brasileñas, colombianas, argentinas, peruanas, costarricenses, mexicanas, ecuatorianas, bolivianas, dominicanas, and nicaragüenses; women who met to speak about what it implies to be both Latina and lesbian in our communities, whether we live in Latin America or the US. Each time a woman begins to speak, a liberating process begins, one that is unavoidable and has powerful political implications. In these pages we see repeated the process of self-discovery, of affirmation in coming out of the closet, the search for a definition of our identity within the family and our community, the search for answers, for meaning in our personal struggle, and the commitment to a political struggle to end all forms of oppression. The stages of increasing awareness become clear when we begin to recount the story of our lives to someone else, someone who has experienced the same changes. When we write or speak about these changes, we establish our experience as valid and real, we begin to analyze, and that analysis gives us the necessary perspective to place our lives in a context where we know what to do next. Compañeras becomes an instrument of unity, a political tool. Compañeras habla a través de la voz de lesbianas latinoamericanas, chicanas, puertorriqueñas, cubanas, chilenas, hondureñas, brasileñas, colombianas, argentinas, peruanas, costarricense, mexicanas, ecuatorianas, bolivianas, dominicanas, y nicaragüenses; mujeresque se encontraron para hablar sobre lo que significa en nuestra comunidad ser ambas cosas, latinoamericanas y lesbianas, sea que vivamos en América Latina o en los Estados Unidos. Cada vez que una mujer comienza a hablar, comienza el proceso de liberación; es algo inevitable que tiene implicaciones politicas ponderosas. En estas paginas vemos repetido nuestro propio proceso de descubrimiento, la afirmación al asumirnos ante los demás, la búsqueda de una definición de identidad dentro de la familia y de nuestra comunidad, la búsqueda de repuestas significativas a las muchas personales y el compromise en la lucha politica para acabar con toda forma de opresión. Las etapas de crecimiento o de desarrollo de nuestra conciencia se hacen claras cuando comenzamos a reecontar la historia de nuestras vidas en alguien más, alguien que ha experimentado los mismos cambios. Cuando hablamos sobre estos cambios afirmamos nuestra experienca como válida y real, y ese análisis nos da la perspectiva necesaria para colocar neustras vidas dentro de un context que nos permita saber cuál es el próximo paso que temenos que dar. Compañeras viene a ser un instrument de unidad, una herramienta politica.

An upsurge in women's activism across Latin America over the past decade has provoked vigorous discussions about feminism, machismo and the whole process of social change in this diverse continent. The 25 essays in Compañeras: Voices from the Latin American Women's Movement present a unique overview of current debates amongst Latin American women activists.--Back cover.

Jane Duran's Worlds of Knowing begins to fill an enormous gap in the literature of feminist epistemology: a wide-ranging, cross-cultural primer on worldviews and epistemologies of various cultures and their appropriations by indigenous feminist movements in those cultures. It is the much needed epistemological counterpart to work on cross-cultural feminist social and political philosophy. This project is absolutely breath-taking in scope, yet a manageable read for anyone with some background in feminist theory, history, or anthropology. Duran draws many comparisons and connections to Western philosophical and feminist ideas, yet avoids facile or imperialistic over-universalization. Her book is powerful, comprehensive, Pnd brave. It will prove an enormously useful resource for scholars in women's studies, philosophy, anthropology, religious studies and history.