Healing Cartographies: Weaving Memory, Movement, and Embodied Testimonios Across Imaginary Lines

Carla Macal is an interdisciplinary anti-colonial feminist scholar dedicated to community-engaged research that addresses the intersections of state violence and intergenerational healing. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Critical Theory and Social Justice at Occidental College and is currently working on her book-in-progress, Healing Cartographies: GuateMaya Feminists Weaving Transformative Memory across the Hemisphere. In this talk, Dr. Macal presents the case studies of two GuateMaya feminist groups that are challenging state-dominant narratives of the Guatemalan 36-year war (1960-1996) and foregrounding counter-memory through art, Maya cosmovision, and gendered embodied memory production. The groups also denounce contemporary feminicide cases through the cosmo-political praxis of cuerpo-territorio, declaring the body our first territory and advocating for a communal subject agency. Dr. Macal examines how GuateMaya feminist groups challenge the state’s hegemonic memory by actively engaging in embodied transformative memory experiences, or what she describes as healing cartographies, that contribute to hemispheric decolonial solidarity.