Abra J. Espitia Gist: Mexican Indigeneity and the Multidimensional Self
Windward Review are honored to highlight Volume 22: Revolution contributor Abra J. Espitia Gist, a writer, teacher, and multimodal creative born and raised in Texas.
Gist holds her MFA in Poetry from Texas State University. Her poems, short stories, and songs are cross-genre, multilingual pieces that explore both this world and the ancient worlds of her Mexican Indigenous ancestors. She loves to write about the complexity of identity and the wandering journey of exploring the multidimensional self. She draws much of her inspiration from the years she spent in West Texas working alongside her grandma practicing curanderismo as traditional native healers.
Photo of Bandera, TX, United States by Braden Collum.
Her works can be found in the Houston Chronicle, Porter House Review, RED INK Journal, and Pour Vida Zine, among others. She loves exploring the outdoors and nature, practicing and teaching yoga, raising her two sweet pups, and being a closeted bedroom musician.
Gist will be published in Volume 22: Revolution which will be available October 29th, 2024. Enjoy a sample of her breathtaking poetry below.
Coyolxauhqui Takes Back Her Dance
Oh! Great Mother
they are staring at me in the Aztec Templo Mayor en Tenochtitlan.
I ring my coyolli bells | enter their dreams | carry their wishes up to the Milky Way
they call me evil sister | ruthless one | defeated one
but they are staring at my dance | down the steps watching
my hips | belly | breasts | shoulders shapeshift
they enter conocimiento | initiating
healing trabajos with
each eye on me
in my wounds
they have fallen
under my serpent spell
soon they will enter the night | search
the skies | mark calendars | count days
holler coyote gritos | name my moons | purr canciones
for planting | harvest | talk spirits
dance naked with me
align the blood of their
women with me
enter my
body mind
soul
forever
mesmerized little
luna-souls
Photo: Palo Duro Canyon outside Amarillo, TX, July 2022 by K. Mitch Hodge.
Mitztemoa Noyollo³ the song of tonalli, teyolía, tinnitus, and ihiyotl
I will close this circle
with a remedy
for the ringing inside me
Grito: Mitztemoa Noyollo!
my head – my heart – my liver
my lost luna spirit soul
calls out to you
across the cosmos
Grito: Mitztemoa Noyollo!
time is a spell
I will learn to listen
I will learn to see
I will dance with my body
to escape it
Grito: Mitztemoa Noyollo!
Can you feel me pull your heartstrings?
I will shapeshift until you find me
I will search the cenotes and dark caves
Can you heal me with your heartstrings?
Grito: Mitztemoa Noyollo!
If I don’t find your heart today
Grito: Mitztemoa Noyollo!
I will find your heart tomorrow
³Nahuatl for “My heart is looking for your heart”.
Photo of Guadalupe Mountains by Leonardo Corral, 2020.