the terrain she describes in the book is very familiar to me. I wanted to put myself in Anzaldúa’s position — the protagonist forging a new way, the multilingual speaker switching languages without missing a beat, the outsider critiquing an oppressive system. But Anzaldúa’s history lesson at the very beginning of the first chapter made it clear where my family’s place was in our shared history of Texas. That’s exactly her point. “You’re gonna go out and search for groups that accept you where you can do the work that you want to do, but you might not necessarily find that immediately. I’ve had to fight just as hard in some progressive spaces as I fight in centrist or Republican spaces just to get taken seriously. If you’re trans in politics, you have to do twice the work for the issues you want to fight for, and then you also have to fight to have your own voice heard. Make sure you’re ready to fight all of those fights and also take care of yourself at the same time. You’re not going to be able to do the work if you’re not taking care of your body and your material needs like your housing and your health care. Go to the doctor for that pain that’s been hurting you for months; go buy a bed if you need a new bed. Take care of your material needs first so that you can be there for the people who are counting on you to do the work.”TV Voting registration nationwide and in Tennessee spiked by thousands of new voters just 24 hours afterTaylor Swift This Dog's Howling Sounds Just Like Britney Spears's "Toxic"