The Desert is no Lady. Women artists of the American South West - ACE275.2

Highway, railway, etc. Pat Mora, poet, describes herself as a native El Pasoan; her mother was born here, her father came over from Chihuahua when he was a small boy. Her work is inspired by the meeting of two cultures, one wealthy and powerful, one struggling to maintain its identity. View across the border into Mexico; Mora VO continues about where she might have been born if her grandparents hadn’t come over at the time of the Mexican Revolution. Mexican family. VO of Sandra Cisneros, writer, saying that it’s schizophrenic for people who can’t see themselves reflected in the dominant culture in which they live. Cisneros: a split between the private language spoken at home in the Mid West, and the public language she was educated in. Cisneros VO over high angle shot of town: moving to the South West enabled her to use both voices, Spanish and English. Cisneros VO continues: street scenes and culturally mixed images. Cisneros says her work borrows from the mixture of phrases from both languages and allows previously invisible (in Texana and North American literature) to speak. Reconstruction with narration over, begins "Dear San Antonio of Padua, Please help me to find a man …", and continues of shots of buildings, night streets, etc. Wind chimes, house. Luci Tapahonso, poet, driving along desert highway. Her VO says the sources for her writing are here, particularly in the Navajo nation in general. Tapahonso VO continues over shots of desert landscape and features, buildings and people, about use of Navajo language as well as English and the different perceptions of language among Navajo and English-speakers. Tapahonso in car says that Navajos will talk about people having almost the whole atmosphere within them, their activities thus being blessed with, for example, different kinds of wind. What one says is not just personal; it’s like the whole world is talking, and it has to do with honouring language. Shots of streets and people. Tapahonso VO recites poem about connection between people and the world around them, particularly the winds. Shots of children, desert landscapes. Rock paintings. Contemporary paintings showing influence of such work. Emmi Whitehorse, painter, talks about the closeness of Indian art with nature, and the different viewpoint this produces, a different view of the connections between everything, animal and human. Whitehorse at work; her VO says she needs "chaos" while working; moves the paper around continuously so has no fixed idea of what is top and what is bottom; this gives her a "roundness".