Living Well / El Buen Vivir / O Bem Viver
Living Well / El Buen Vivir / O Bem Viver is a collaboration between the Latin America Solidarity Centre (LASC) and Channel, created by a volunteer editorial board and made possible through Irish Aid development education funding.
The project takes its title from translations of the Quechuan phrase sumak kawsay, described by Lorena Cabnal, Mayan-Xinka community feminist and sanadora (healer), as: “the organising nucleus of our cosmovision, in our resistance to the rise of neo-liberalism over recent years, with the ultimate objective of establishing a universal cosmic order in harmony with life, where the plurality of cosmovisions-knowledge, self-governance and self-determination of peoples are respected, whether they are indigenous, mestizo or Afro- descendant.” Living Well / El Buen Vivir / O Bem Viver is a collection of writing and visual art from Latinx creators that speaks to this ideal, exploring ideas of resistance, defence of territory, environmental justice, the anthropocene and individual and collective embeddedness in nature.
Submissions of written work were accepted in Spanish, Portuguese and English, with each piece translated by our editorial team and presented trilingually.
Living Well / El Buen Vivir / O Bem Viver launched via YouTube Premiere on Monday 12 December, and the launch video is viewable below.
The collection is now available to order, with prices inclusive of delivery and shipping available worldwide.
Ireland: €13.50
International: €16.50
Contents / Contenidos / Conteúdos
Daniela María Alarcón Flores | Sinergia, El agua es vida no mercancía, Cosmos & Territorios libres de violencia
Zazil Alaíde Collins | Poema Coyote (fragmento) / Coyote Poem (fragment) / Poema Coiote (fragmento)
Daniel Francoy | É Um Sinal de Fogo / Warning of Fire / Aviso de Incendio
Andrea Paola Hernández | Horizonte / Horizon / Horizonte & Sin Título / Untitled / Sem Título
Tania Hernández | Flores Amarillas / Yellow Flowers / Flores Amarelas
Rodrigo Lobo Damasceno | Listo (Tudo o Que Não Sou) / Listing (Everything I Am Not / Listado (Todo lo Que No Soy)
Ma Njanu | dois graus menos que ontem é hoje / two degrees less than yesterday is today / dos grados menos que ayer es hoy
Laís Maria Oliveira | As lavadeiras / The washerwomen / Las lavanderas
Carlos Orfeu | dentes-de-leão / dandelions / dientes de león
Anthony V. Ornelaz | Butterfly / Mariposa / Borboleta & A Letter to Romero / Una Carta para Romero / Carta para Romero
nina rizzi | sigue cayendo el cielo / the sky is still falling / ainda a queda do céu & Traducción-Malinche/ Maria Mulamba
Alex Simões, tr. by Carolyne Wright | 43, 44 & encruzilhada binária / binary crossroads / encrucijada binaria
Eugenia Toledo, tr. by Carolyne Wright | Escribir en soledad / To Write in Solitude / Escrever na solidão & Metalurgia / Metallurgy / Metalurgia
Amanda Vital | horta / vegetable garden / huerto
Cover art: Uisce Beatha by Andrea Badillo Sariñana
Work for Living Well / El Buen Vivir / O Bem Viver was selected, edited and translated by a transcontinental editorial board, including the Channel team along with the following writers, artists and activists:
Johnny Batista is a composer, bandleader, social activist, and content creator. He released “Earth Justice” with his “Johnny Batista Quartet” EP in 2021. Johnny Batista is also part of the “Brazilian Left Front,” an organization of Brazilians in Ireland fighting for social justice.
Aisling Walsh (she/her) is a queer, neurodiverse writer and translator based between Ireland and Guatemala. Her work has featured Púca, Litro, Barren, Rejection Letters, Pank, Entropy Mag, and elsewhere.
Noe Vásquez Reyna (Guatemala City, 1983), is a non-binary mutant being who reads and writes. They have a degree in literature and have specialized in communication. They have published two books of short stories, a short novel for teenagers and a digital poetry book. Their literary essays, journalistic articles, opinion columns and works of fiction and non-fiction have been published in anthologies and magazines in Guatemala, El Salvador, Germany and Norway. They are currently a columnist for the Central American digital magazine of culture and opinion Casi literal; they support the management of the cultural center Casa Cervantes and work for the Association of Relatives of the Detained-Disappeared of Guatemala. Until mid-2020 they participated in Promiscuos ConCiencia, an LGTBIQ group who led collective talks to talk about relationships.
Patricia J. Flores Yrarrázaval is a Cuyuteca trans femme/two-spirit writer, activist, and scholar raised in Santa Ana, California, with family roots in Tecolotlán, México, and Santiago de Chile. She is currently attaining a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at Fresno State, with a concentration in Fiction. In all her work, Patricia is dedicated to imagining new ways to recognize, care for, and value people with disabilities, and to centering trans women and femmes of color in the fight for a world without prisons or borders.
Rafael Mendes is a writer and translator from Brazil who migrated to Ireland in 2016. He’s currently completing a MPhil in Comparative Literature at Trinity College. His work has appeared in Writing Home: The New Irish Poets (Dedalus Press, 2019), Arrival at Elsewhere (Against the Grain, 2020) and elsewhere. His translation of Brazilian poetry has been recently published in Cyphers 91 and Trinity Journal of Literary Translation. He’s a 2021 recipient of The Irish Writers Centre Course Bursary and of the Mentor/Member Programme. He’s a 2022 UpLift: Young Leaders of Colour in Literature Initiative mentee.
