SOBRE MÍ
ME LLAMO MERCEDES ANNAÍS
Soy historiadora, educadora, cuentista, practicante espiritual y activista de tercera generación. Soy una dominicana nacida en Washington Heights y pasé mi niñez entre Nueva York y Santo Domingo. En 2012, decidí arraigarme en la República Dominicana, donde he estado viviendo, trabajando, luchando y creando desde entonces.
LINAJES
Como dominicana de ascendencia mixta afroindígena y colonizadora, a través de mí, mis antepasados cuentan una historia de desplazamiento, resistencia y supervivencia. Nombrar a mi ascendencia es importante para mí, tanto para honrar mi cultura como para indicar a qué comunidades pertenezco y respondo.
Desciendo de de judíos sefardíes obligados a huir de España en el siglo XVI y del pueblo indígena arahuaco de los cacicazgos del interior que resistieron estas primeras oleadas de colonización europea. Es más difícil rastrear mis raíces africanas debido a la esclavitud y la colonización, pero mis bisabuelos eran Cocolos de Santo Tomás que se mudaron a la República Dominicana en el siglo XIX. A lo largo de los siglos, mi familia se ha arraigado en Santo Domingo, Santiago, Samaná, Tenares y Monte Cristi.
Nombrar a mis ancestros es recordar que no llegué aquí sola, por mi propio esfuerzo; me paro sobre los hombros de gigantes, luchadoras, madres, doctoras, maestras, trabajadoras de la tierra, sobrevivientes. Soy un Buen Árbol, ellos son mi bosque; suya es la resistencia con la que he venido a sembrar el mundo..
ACTIVISMO
Me enorgullece formar parte de tres generaciones de lucha y más de 530 años de resistencia. Soy activista de tercera generación y sanadora de segunda. Mi abuela luchó contra la ocupación estadounidense en el 65, y mis padres eran estudiantes activistas que estudiaron medicina (aunque nunca pudieron ejercer tras emigrar). Mi lucha se basa en la descolonización y la historia de Ayiti. Mi activismo cuestiona el verdadero significado de la identidad y la nacionalidad, rechazando la idea de que nos definen banderas y fronteras. Mi trabajo manda a la mierda los colonizadores que intentaron borrarnos, cambiar nuestras historias y hacernos olvidar quiénes somosMi arte, mi activismo y mi escritura son mis herramientas en la lucha contra las mentiras que nos hacen odiarnos a nosotros mismos, a nuestros cuerpos y a nuestros vecinos. Es una declaración de que seguimos aquí; somos pasado, presente y futuro; y no seremos borrados ni olvidados.
My personal history with activism is long, I started my first petition at 8 and went to my first protest at 12. Today, with over twenty years of experience under my belt, I participate in direct actions, civil disobedience, public education, organizing workers, and mutual aid fundraising. In 2014, I was part of direct actions protesting the non-indictment of the police officer responsible for murdering Eric Garner in NYC. For days I used my own body to block bridges, highways, and streets alongside other protestors. I was arrested for my efforts. In 2016, I organized Cabarete's first LGBTQ pride event, raising funds to support local queer organizations in the Dominican Republic. In 2017, after Trump’s election, I left my life in the DR to join the fight for immigrant rights for a year while helping to doula my grandmother as she passed out of this realm. In 2023, I flew to NYC and helped get my friends to the March on Washington for Palestine, protesting Israel’s illegal occupation and genocide of Palestinians. I am proud to tirelessly advocate and agitate for the world I want to live in. I walk with my Dead and Spirits who believe the earth will be inherited by those of us who have been stewarding and fighting for it for millennia. They give me the strength to continue.
PRAXIS
I step to my liberation work without all the answers but rooted in a firm commitment to deep listening and unlearning, to naming and unpacking the areas where I have privilege (proximity to whiteness, global north citizenship, size, etc.) and understanding how they intersect and interact with my marginalized identities (being queer, disabled, and chronically ill, etc). This actively informs my actions, my relationships, and my approach to community-building as I practice non-violent communication, de-escalation, and understanding the ways in which colonial programming can insidiously impact every aspect of our internal world. It is important to me for my politics to live outside of my mind as an embodied practice where core values meet intentional actions. I don't allow the impossibility moving through the world without causing harm or hurt keep me from trying and I believe in radical transparency and accountability, in dialogue, ceremony, and constant learning, as ways to repair harm and do better.
SPIRITUAL PATH
I walk with the vulture and the hummingbird, Death and the Dead, the trees, water medicine, hurricanes, the Virgen de la Altagracia and de las Mercedes, among others. I am a kind of Dominican root worker and card reader, versed in the medicinal and magical properties of plants and curios, and how to harness them for various purposes. This knowledge has been studied, shared in communion with other practitioners, and passed down to me by my Elders, including my mother who is a healer trained both in western and Ayurvedic medicine. I have also spent over a decade practicing and teaching yoga. In 2022, I completed a 200-Hr training with Integral Yoga, a lineage started by a student of Swami Sivananda. I also did a year of study under Susanna Barkataki in her Yoga Class Curator container. My practice is rooted in gentle, restorative movement that draws on all five limbs of yoga, not just physical poses/asana.
GRATITUDE STATEMENT
All glory and thanks go to my Creator, to my land of Ayiti, to my ancestors, and to the spirits who guide and walk with me. I also name and thank my teachers: the Elders, the children, and the Earth kin—the trees, vultures, winds, and waters—whose medicines I am proud to keep and share.