Kāmmam Manām, Welcome to Nakum
1. The year since we launched Nakum has been one of tremendous growth and excitement for both the journal and the Indigenous Cultures Institute. Because of the almost-immediate positive response from readers and contributors, the Institute was able to host many of the authors in this issue at a Native American-Hispanic Heritage Festival and Symposium on October 1st. During the symposium, three of our authors, Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodríguez, Dr. Nicole Guidotti-Hernández, and Margaret Cantú-Sánchez, each presented on aspects of their work to a local San Marcos audience. The papers were enthusiastically received, and we’re happy to present them in full to you in this issue.
2. The weekend of the symposium was capped off with the debut performance of Asawan, a moving collaboration of Native musicians, dancers, storytellers, and singers. “Asawan” means “heart” in Coahuiltecan, and the performance delved into the heart of Indigenous America throughout. But it was during the last number, when the trio that forms the Hakloka Music Ensemble, along with Apache storyteller Emma Ortega and Indigenous Cultures Chair Mario Garza joined Cuicani in Xochitl, the Aztec dance company, that I truly felt the heartbeat in that space. For the entirety of the last song, the audience got up and stomped to the rhythm of the drums and the harmonies of the flute blending with Ortega’s beautiful voice. Anyone who may have walked in at that moment would have known immediately what “Asawan” means; the heartbeat was palpable.
3. The intensity of Asawan continues in this issue of Nakum, as Katie Valenzuela, Margaret Cantú-Sánchez, Roberto Rodríguez, Nicole Guidotti-Hernández, and myself join our voices to that heartfelt chorus. Though from places as disparate as Oildale, California, San Antonio, Texas, and Tucson, Arizona, we gather in this space so that we may, in the tradition of Nakum, share our voices with you.
LF
21 December 2011
Austin, Texas