This weekend San Antonio will celebrate the lives and accomplishments of chingonas, powerful women of color, at the city’s first ever Chingona Fest, organized by four chingonas and community artists: Cristina Martinez, Rebel Mariposa, Bonnie I. Cisneros, and Denise Hernandez. Created for women of color to come together, empower each other and network with other chingonas, the festival, as Cisneros puts it, “is a way of celebrating how far we’ve come and reinvigorating our spirits as we continue down the paths our ancestors forged.” Hernandez, the youngest of the Chingona Fest organizers, says she hopes the festival will continue for years to come “so chingonitas have these spaces to grow in for the future.” Mariposa, who co-owns and operates La Botanica, where the event will take place, says the weekend-long gathering will be “celebration, party, plática, baile, honoring, storytelling, it’s a vortex.”
Chingona Fest will feature art, music and poetry from women of color, such as Linda Minivans, Floja Life, Malu Berumen, Raquel Torres, Liza Garza, Laurie Ann Guerrero, and Yesika Salgado.…