Ambivalence, certainty, singularity and collective construction. A maternal/non-maternal experience framed by feminisms from the global South

Abstract

Gilda Luongo holds a PhD in Literature from Universidad de Chile. She is a writer and educator, feminist activist, critic and researcher. Her research has focused on Latin American writing concerning sexual difference, feminism, memory, art, education and politics. She lives in Santiago (Chile) and has adult children –a son and a daughter. In August 2018 she agreed to a written interview with us, which led to extensive and deep reflections. Here we share an extract of that interview. Our written exchange with the author is part of a larger exploration of motherhood/non motherhood experiences of feminists from the South, through which we seek to reveal isotopes, recurrences, similarities and differences. We are interested in understanding how their feminist activism has been a tool for dealing with the ordeals of hetero-patriarchal motherhood, but also a source of tensions/ambivalence. As feminists raising young children, we are committed to the imperative of (re)constructing feminist maternal genealogies in our latitudes, so that we can envision freer and more fulfilling horizons for our motherhood and non-motherhood experiences.