This
semester, I have the honor of being the Teaching Assistant for Ana Castillo and
her class “Writing Spiritual Memoir.”
Castillo, as I wrote in my application for this TA position, is one of those writers for me. Reading her work changed my life, and I
remember the first time I read her novel So
Far From God, which is set in a
part of New Mexico where I have motherline roots. I remember where I was
both locationaly and contextually in my life when I read this story: Monterey, California; an undergrad at an
evangelical Christian university in love with Keats and the Romantics; 21 years
old. With nuevo mexicana roots myself, I read Castillo’s revision of the “Way
of the Cross” to Chimayo (sacred Earth in NM) with her character la Loca, and I felt intimately connected
to the procession! If you haven’t read this novel, I can’t
recommend it enough, particularly this scene in Chimayo. Indeed, reading So Far From God over ten years ago, I was so affected that it
lingered with me, so much, in fact, that the novel plays a key part in my
dissertation.
Altogether, this
class is unique to me (even though I have been a TA before in other really exciting
classes) both because the teacher and her writing are key figures in my life
and because of the focus of the class as well.
My studies align with “Writing Spiritual Memoir”; in particular, I am
attempting to integrate spiritual memoir writing into the academic framework of
a dissertation. Thus, for all these
reasons, I feel a synergy in being Ana Castillo’s TA, additionally because it
is my final semester at CIIS. I mean,
how perfect is that?
To give a
brief overview: Castillo’s “Writing Spiritual Memoir” is a hybrid class. We met face to face in January for a weekend,
and now the class discussions and assignments are continuing online. Although a hybrid class can be tricky – we
must have different expectations on caucus than in face to face classroom
settings – the class topic is perhaps ideal for this situation. Writing spiritual memoirs takes a lot of
solitary time to self-reflect and then put it all on paper.
Maestra
Castillo’s exercises and assignments encourage the students to think about
their lives as a whole and then to dive into a particularly poignant
memory. Her words free memoir writing
from having to be objective or chronological.
Her suggestions call students into more depth and intimate engagement
with their stories. Then, too, Castillo asks students to (re)consider their definition of spirituality
with assignments to read a memoir of their choice along with Castillo’s
anthology, Diosas de las Americas
/Goddesses of the Americas.
Overall, from
a TA’s perspective, “Writing Spiritual Memoir” has been both affirming as well
as challenging. Through this class at
CIIS, there is great opportunity to both learn from Castillo as well as to
learn from ourselves through the spiritual memoir writing process. I am excited to see how the semester
continues.
Moreover, I
am excited to connect with Castillo more having been given this great chance to
work with her. Castillo offered the
class the chance to join in on her writing workshop in Chimayo in April for
Holy Week. I will be there along with
another student in the class. Last,
being there for Holy Week, I will have the opportunity to actually walk the “Way
of the Cross” procession with this amazing writer. I would never have thought it possible as I
was reading So Far From God so long
ago; however, I am not so surprised.
Truly, mine
is a story of much synergy, or good luck, in the WSE program, and I am grateful
to have been a part of this community of sister scholars for the last four and
half years.
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