VivirLatino

I began this post while I was on my way to the Allied Media Conference and now hours later I am here, being pulled into conversations about the our ideal media and how to get there. In between women are learning how to make their own media from t-shirts to blogs, to photos and films. I’m having amazing conversations on how we raise our children, how we handle our personal relationships and how we take care of each other.

I pride myself on being an independent blogger with strong activist leanings. As we come into our own here at VivirLatino, it’s important to align ourselves with the right bloggers and media activists and always learn new things to make us better. When I say us, I don’t just mean VivirLatino, I mean you the reader, and the larger blogosphere I am privileged to be a part of.

It is with great excitement that I sat in Laguardia airport, with no internet connectivity, watching a near riot when the Starbucks opened 15 minutes passed it’s scheduled time (don’t fuck with people’s cafe, especially at 4:30 am). Why? Because I was headed to Detroit to the Allied Media Conference. Thanks to the generosity of many internet friends, so many people with whom I have been tied to for years via the world wide web, some whom I have never met in real life but interact with on a nearly daily basis, I am able to make this trip, to be part of the Incite! Track for women and trans people of color. To learn new skills and share experiences on how not to fix the media, but how to change the media at its core and be the media.

Too many conferences, claiming to be proponents of Democratic values are inaccessible to indy bloggers like VL. Conference fees in the hundreds of dollars, make these events elite events. I mean if you have $700 to drop on a conference (not including airfare and hotel) then more power to you. But how Democratic is that really?

Stay tuned for more updates. I’m heading into the keynote speech for the event.