Surviving a Massacre

A massacre is the killing of several people at one time. Sometimes, these horrendous events follow civil rights movements. Why do massacres happen? What happens to the survivors? How do they recover and live with the trauma? How does a society recover from these horrendous events? In Teresa Ortiz’s presentation, she will share her experience as a survivor of a massacre when she was a young student activist, in Mexico City, in 1968. She will also talk about how in 1997 she listened to and reproduced the testimonials of the survivors of a 1997 massacre of indigenous Maya people in southern Mexico, while she was doing research for a book on the Zapatista movement in Chiapas.

Teresa Ortiz – Bio / Artist Statement

Teresa Ortiz, an immigrant from Mexico, is a published writer and poet. In her writing, Teresa aims to portray her identity, the land where she has lived and the lives that have touched her own. Her published work has included her book of testimonials of indigenous Maya women Never Again a World Without Us: Voices of Maya Women in Chiapas, Mexico (EPICA 2001), short stories “El Rio” in Lake Street Stories (Flexible Press 2018) and “The Children’s Mountain” in Home (Flexible Press 2019), and she just published with Lupe Castillo the poetry collection Alma y Corazon: Writing in the Rhythm of Life (Flexible Press 2026). A founding member of the Latine spoken word group Palabristas, Teresa has performed in many venues throughout the Twin Cities and participated in many festivals and cultural events and she has facilitated poetry workshops for youth and adults.