yesterday at the indigenous theater conference we heard from isabel juarez espinoza, an indigenous actress from chiapas; about her struggles becoming an actress in the face of sexism and how other women are now joining the company and it has become a place of empowerment for the women who come to the city.  they are using theater to address issues of self-esteem, domestic violence.   beth piatote, from UC Berkley read an amazing poem about being taught beadwork - it is one of those stories that might be best heard; as she did it with the rez accent - very cool.  it is published in a book called Reckonings, out of Oxford Press.  Carolyn Dunn sang, as did Roberta Hill Whiteman.  And i believe it was Javier Castellanos who had the translators laughing to the point of tears in their attempts to translate his work about suicide feelings as a political refugee in the north, way north - if i have the wrong name i will post it later; he apparently is hilariously funny - it was one of those times when folks were laughing, trying to translate and i think those of us listening got lost in the laughter.  Today is the last day of the conference.  It has been incredibly powerful to see this reminder of the prophecies about the meeting of the eagle and the the condor.