Writing as resistance: A testimonio of remembering and reclamation

In this essay the author explores divorce and the internalization of the hustle and grind culture in academia from a Chicana lesbian perspective, arguing that writing as resistance (hooks, 1990) using testimonio (Cruz, 2012) provides a bridge of affirmative epistemological exploration into remembering and reclamation that is necessary for healing and liberation. The author elucidates throughout the essay how her social location and relationship to testimonio and writing as resistance situates her within the genealogies of Chicana lesbian writers (Trujillo, 1991) and Black women writers (Morrison, 2020; hooks, 1990; Lorde, 1984) showcasing that writing is an ongoing dialogue with self and others that co-creates connections within and across communities that is necessary for bridges of healing to hold us up. The author asserts herself as a part of a new generation of Chicana lesbian writers who are compelled to explore one's interior landscapes that coalesce with exterior circumstances through writing. The essay ends by focusing on the path of conocimiento (Anzaldua, 2002) to demonstrate how younger generations of Chicana lesbians are taking up a critical engagement of introspection. In doing this, the author showcases that nourishment¹ is essential to interrupt logics of domination (to shift), to change and heal (inner works), and to practice sharing knowledge (public acts).