from ‘TRIPAS’

from ‘TRIPAS’

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Conduzco y conduces
—carpoolers & Catholics—
conduction wires to Latin.
 
“Brought together”
—heads bowed as if praying—
these women make
 
strange communion—
wafer after wafer,
paper-thin shavings from
 
ingots of germanium.
Solder-stitch to populate
breadboard to motherboard
 
or read ohm resistors
—by their bands of color—
in circuit board syntax.
 
Solid state switches—
a nascent ancient rotary
& tin can to starlight.

Chicana Cherríe Moraga writing
on her mother’s ‘piecework’
for the nearby electronics plant
 
explains how her mother nightly
sat before the TV ‘wrapping
copper wires into the backs of
 
circuit boards.’ Braiding, I thought,
to parse & plait those wires
that would light the very images
 
she watched. I then looked up
in Cosmo that knot-work.
French, Dutch, Halo, Fishtail,
 
Milkmaid, Spiral, & Braid to Bun
—those chongos my nana made
over the years—the yank
 
& tugged-tie, the brush-work
through the hair of sus hijas
that sometimes produced a spark.

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

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Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

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