Tierra Narrative

Excited to share this editorial project that has been published digitally by Fence Magazine today: a folio of works by six women writers from El Salvador, spanning the years of the Salvadoran civil war through the present. “I celebrate my permanence in the eye of the beast” features works by Lourdes Ferrufino, Ana Maria Rivas, Jacinta Escudos, Krisma Mancia, Lauri Garcia Dueñas, and Amada Libertad. These translations are––of no small significance––thanks to the work of three translators of Salvadoran heritage: Nestor Gomez, Alexandra Lytton Regalado, and Yvette Siegert. These works are extraordinary. They span combatant poetry, short story, and lyrical monuments of endurance. As we share in our introductory note, these writers share a lineage of sybilic protest in the face of social abjection in El Salvador. And these texts and translations exist as women and gender minorities continue to resist state oppression in the present, from ongoing gender violence and strictures on reproductive rights to the collateral effects of the nation’s current state of exception. Some context: in 2022, by invitation of poet and guest editor-in-chief Edgar Garcia, Óscar Moisès Díaz and Maryam Ivette Parhizkar agreed to rep Tierra Narrative as co-editors of Fence’s inaugural translation section. (While Fence has long included translation in its capacious curation of writing along and against the grain, this was the first time in its two-decade history that the journal has had a dedicated translation section.) This digital folio is cleaved out of our first print issue, to feature these works more expansively. If you read, engage, and/or circulate this work: we are honored. Likewise, if you include it in your teaching, or share it with students, community members, and/or colleagues who would find something in it. Our immense gratitude to the poets, translators, estates, and editors for entrusting us with their language. To Edgar, managing editors Emily Wallis Hughes and Jason Zuzga, digital editor Nik Slackman, and the rest of the Fence team for making room for the work. And to artist Myra Barraza, whose 2008 drawing, El sueño de la razón, graces the introductory page.

Announcing “Descending into Motion” This program explores indigenous thought and cosmovisions through innovative short film animations. Part of Cinefilmu’s annual program Midwest Movements where we invite midwest curators and organizations, this year invites Génesis Mancheren Ab'äj, currently rooted in Detroit and a member of Tierra Narrative, a film and literary production house dedicated to counternarratives emerging from the Central American isthmus and its diaspora. This program was originally meant to premiere at the Queens Museum in New York City. Due to the museum's complicity with the genocide in Palestine, Génesis and Tierra Narrative, in collaboration with the filmmakers, pulled the program. In solidarity with Palestine and all indigenous people, we will screen it at Cinefilmu on November 22nd. 🎬 Screening: 1) Angakusajaujuq - Shaman's Apprentice, 2) Baigal Nuur - Lake Baikal, 3) Biidaaban / The Dawn Comes, 4) NANGULVI , 5) The Things You Know But Cannot Explain 🕐 Screening Time: 12:30-1:30PM 📍 Dress Shop, Indigenous Roots 788 E 7th St, St. Paul, MN 55106 RSVP now — link in 🅱️ℹ️⭕.

🙏📽️truly honored to have had this conversation with dear friend Robin DG Kelley @rdgkelley on the @criterioncollection ‘s journal — 𝘊𝘜𝘙𝘙𝘌𝘕𝘛; about the processes, life lessons, and collaborations that made this body of short films possible. Read via 🔗link in profile. Thank you @wenyeow for all your editorial insights. It was profound to reflect on this decade long journey and how through these films, these characters; I’ve been able to forgive my parents, let go of the performance of the model minority & come to terms with the transience of this life. Perhaps we only have these brief moments, but cinema lives forever. We may never look the same as we did that one day on the other side of the shutter—be struck by the same revelation twice, or witness sunlight fall the same way upon a grandmother’s wrinkled hand on our homeland on the other side of the Earth. After we return to the soil, film allows these moments to be frozen in time, for generations to come. I can’t wait for you all to see my forthcoming features one day on the big screen. 💓🎐 🤞 thank you robin for the generous intro, and thank you @_ash_clark @xiao.qing.a for finding a home for my shorts. 🌀 Big shout out to all the friends and collaborators who went on this journey with me and had the patience to let me learn and discover with them. I wasn’t able to shout everyone out, but this conversation specifically mentions my time working with @sheldonchau @zamarinwahdat @jinjabrew @theillustriouspearl @poppyliu @ohyunglia @treyalam @traciakemi1 @sueann.leung @jeremyaleung @tierranarrative @frislysoberanis @son.noelia @joecar.hanna @su.zhoou @prehistoricjerk @shirleylchen @cialikethey on the short films you can now watch on the Criterion Channel. 🐉 Featured image by DP @_eileeny_ of me and producer @fruit.sutra on the set of I Wanna Become the Sky.

Really honored to be able to bring the poetry of Kim Eon Hee translated by @sojeflux to @theoffingmag . Go check it out and spread the word. The translation department next month in April will focus on poetry as well so stay tuned! I’m excited at what I have coming in terms of that and also wanna give a heads up that we open for submissions in April as well so get your packets together, I’d love to consider your translations.

We’re honored to share that the shorts filmography of our brilliant friend and collaborator @jessxsnow is now available on the @criterionchannel . 🌱“Roots That Reach Toward the Sky” produced by our Tierra Narrative producer @frislysoberanis is now streaming, alongside “Little Sky” (2021) also independently co-produced by @Frislysoberanis . We’re so incredibly proud and to see these films now live alongside some of our favorite bodies of work 🤩✨ Huge congrats to all crew involved! All four shorts are live now. Watch via Criterion, link in our bio! 𝑳𝑰𝑻𝑻𝑳𝑬 𝑺𝑲𝒀 (2021) starring @theillustriouspearl @jinjabrew @fenton_li @theyiqingzhao cinematography @zamarinwahdat 🎵score @ohyunglia songs @jinjabrew @ohyunglia @tutengster costume design @sueann.leung produced by @andreas.nicholas @eris_the_wanderer executive producer @andrewahnfilms editors me @yuanyuan_ofcl @prehistoricjerk co producers @frislysoberanis @toneontop @hanyumeng.nyc gaffer @shulives @sammotamedi color @ayumiashleycolor 𝑹𝑶𝑶𝑻𝑺 𝑻𝑯𝑨𝑻 𝑹𝑬𝑨𝑪𝑯 𝑻𝑶𝑾𝑨𝑹𝑫 𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑺𝑲𝒀 (2024) starring @shirleylchen @cialikethey @pearl_wu_woo co-writer @middleagedtransguy DP @sheldonchau producers @akemilook @frislysoberanis @hanyumeng.nyc @eris_the_wanderer editors @guangweiddd @andrew.migliori original score @treyalam production design @priscachoe + more

🎞️ 2025 ends with my short films on the @criterioncollection channel for five years starting in 2026. 🎉 This is the first time they are publicly available in north america. Seven years went into the making of these four films. They were only possible due to every actor, crew member, post production worker, crowd-funding donor and programmer who took a chance on me and gone on this journey with me. This write up on Current (link in profile), is so kind. 🥲 Thank you @_ash_clark @xiao.qing.a for the work you do & finding a home for these films amongst the company of auteurs who first inspired me on this journey ten years ago. 🪺 Independent shorts are oftentimes a director’s most personal and formative works, flawed, yet full of lessons and wonder. I made these films because they helped me free myself & feel a little less alone. I hope they can help you too. 🫶 Over the next few days I’ll be sharing some reflections on this body of work and the collaborators who have helped me bring each story to life.

Read “Selections from The Garden of Poets,” a poem by Leónidas Lamborghini, translated from Spanish by Anayvelyse Allen-Mossman. Visit my link in bio to read the full piece. Thank you Anayvelyse, Adriana Hildalgo editora, and the Lamborghini estate for the trust with these poems. This kicks off my role as Poetry in Translation Editor at The Offing and I couldn’t think of a better way to do that than with this incredible work and I hope we have an entire book in the future. My co-editor Jacqueline Leung who handles Prose in Translation and I have so much in store for 2026. Please share widely and enjoy. It brings me so much joy to see this out in the world today.

🌱 We’re thrilled to share that Roots That Reach Toward the Sky will make its North American premiere at the San Francisco International Film Festival on April 25! 🌱 Produced by our own @frislysoberanis and Directed by @jessxsnow this moving short film screens as part of the Mid-Length: On Healing Land, Birds Perch program, alongside We Were the Scenery. You can also catch it screening as part of the Can I Borrow a Feeling Shorts Program at LAAPFF May 3rd! ROOTS THAT REACH TOWARD THE SKY (USA 2024, 15 min) After her mother’s traditional Chinese medicine shop is vandalized, Kai draws on the resilience of her local community and the healing remedies of her ancestors to contend with her deepest anxieties. North American Premiere at SFFILM 🕕 April 25 | 6:15PM PST Can I Borrow a Feeling Shorts Program 🕕 May 3 | 2:00 PM PST 🎟 Grab tickets via @Sffilm and @vcmediaorg

¡Hoy dio inicio el Festival Enjambre 2024! Estamos muy emocionades de anunciar que nuestra producción ¿Qué hora es en el reloj mundo? ha sido seleccionada y será proyectada mañana, 6 de diciembre en @espaciomemoria 🤩 Gracias @fundacionkunayan y felicitationes a todes quienes compartieron sus palabras e imágenes tan reflexivas e impactantes! 💜 @loveloaf_ @mybluedress @nerita_gz @ridingwiththepoet @amilsa_s @vivomae @luserrano_ @amadatorruella @fathervenusmusic ❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥 ¿Qué hora es en el reloj mundo? Es una pieza audiovisual multicanal creada con las contribuciones de nueve activistas, cineastas, artistas y escritores de toda América, quienes compartieron reflexiones en torno a la pregunta que da título a la obra. Esta pregunta fue planteada por primera vez por Grace Lee Boggs y James Boggs en Revolution and Evolution in the Twentieth Century (1973). Al estilo de un zine, en Tierra Narrative seleccionamos y ensamblamos fragmentos de las obras de los colaboradores para crear una pieza audiovisual compuesta por elementos asíncronos que toman el pulso del momento contemporáneo. ¿Qué hora es…? fue encargada por la Association of the Study of the Arts of the Present (@asap_artsnow ) como instalación destacada en el @parkavearmory el pasado 19 de octubre de 2024, y posteriormente adaptada para su proyección. —