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59 Spirit journeys generally entail a search for explanations, understandings, and fulfillment. In my own spirit journey, some lessons, even those that were dubious , rendered healing, catharsis, and transformation. And there were others that left me confused, betrayed, and wounded, but also more inquisitive about my spirituality as an Indigenous Chicana. My spirit journey also brought a deepened sense of understanding about Chicana feminism and spirituality. I believed then, as I do now, that naming myself “Chicana” is spiritual in that I am committed to the transformation of my community, the larger society, and myself as a US woman of Mexican Indigenous descent. However, a self-determined identity means little if we do not live up to the significance and integrity of the name with pride. Hence, I wanted to learn to live my life as a spiritual journey in an informed, respectful, and humble way. Like most Chicanas, I have used my own inner resources and creativity to live and express my spirituality, which is Indígena inspired and guided (Medina 1998). At present, I understand spirituality as the essence of living, how we move through life to become human and be human. This form of spirituality requires recognizing and valuing ourselves first and foremost as human beings. Also, we must understand and respect our relationships and “radical interconnections ” to other people, plants, animals, and Mother Earth (Anzaldúa 2000). Spirit Journey “Home” as a Site for Healing and Transformation Elisa Facio “Home” can be unsafe and dangerous because it bears the likelihood of intimacy and thus thinner boundaries. Staying “home” and not venturing out comes from woundedness, and stagnates our growth. —Gloria Anzaldúa, “(Un)natural bridges, (un)safe spaces” 60 · Elisa Facio The spirit journey discussed in the following autoethnographic essay illustrates critical engagements with various sites, spaces, and places regarded as “home.”1 I deploy the metaphor of home to describe physical, spatial, and temporal locations ranging from participation in inipi and temazkalli ceremonies to negotiating my own body as a spiritual medium. The word “home” usually engenders descriptors such as safety, comfort, protection, and stability . The physical boundaries of home are tangible, thus presenting the image of a dependable, reliable site. However, home can also be a site of disappointment , betrayal, violence, anguish, and uncertainty. Home sites, as we know them, usually attempt to negotiate the binary of their energies, but these sites are also in constant flux. Home in this discussion refers to various sites with fluid physical boundaries. Home is not found in one location, but can be found in many places and spaces. The cultural and social boundaries are critically interrogated as I try to understand the multiple identities associated with these various sites, spaces, and places of home. Given this understanding of home, the essay illustrates both my struggles and my catharsis in understanding how the various sites and spaces regarded as home can be spiritual, healing, and transformative. This is significant because interrogation and negotiation of these interstitial spaces can provide opportunities to deploy spiritual activism. The challenge is to unearth the healing properties of these various sites of home. In order to heal and transform in radical fashion, one must also know how we belong to these sites and spaces called home. This is a significant aspect of spiritual journeys. I argue that our interrogation and negotiation of these sites can provide opportunities to deploy spiritual activism as a radical ideology for social change. To complement the character and features of home as described in this essay, I draw from the works of Gloria Anzaldúa and AnaLouise Keating. Anzaldúa used the word nepantla to theorize about liminality or the spaces between worlds. Nepantla is a Nahuatl word meaning tierra entre medio or in-between spaces. Anzaldúa associates nepantla “with states of mind that question old ideas and beliefs, acquire new perspectives, change worldviews, and shift from one world to another.” Accordingly, transformations occurring in this in-between space are characterized as an “unstable, unpredictable, precarious, always-in-transition space lacking clear boundaries” (2002b, 1). Because the sites of home discussed in this essay constantly shift, I draw from Anzalduan thought in regarding home as tierra desconocida: “Living in this liminal zone means being in a constant state of displacement—an uncomfortable , even alarming feeling. Most of us dwell in nepantla so much of the time it’s become a sort of ‘home.’ Though this state links us to other ideas, people, and worlds, we can feel...

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