LFB #1 – Doing Ancestral Work
I’ve been calling it a writing cave, but it’s better described as doing ancestral work.
For months I’ve been deep in the genocide archives of the last 500 years while working on a personal essay on the Mexico/Guatemala border, the line that cut the Maya world in half.
It’s been painful and frightening, and the loving resistances that persist are inspiring. They teach me how to heal in the dark.
That essay has been twenty years in the making and will soon be published, inshallah, Creator willing.
Now, stepping out of the cave, there are many things I need to share with you.
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Reporting Back in Zapatista Territory
Last August, I had the honor of presenting to the Zapatistas my book, Palestine 1492: A Report Back, at their encounter called “Some Parts of the Whole.”
The presentation was in Spanish and live streamed, and it was really well received. You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_h4hMXjBP8
I encourage you to share the link with Spanish-speaking relatives to learn more about the connections between Palestine and us all.
My mother was transfixed the whole time. “Ah, so it’s the fault of the British,” she turned to me at the end.
(So close!)
My nephew was helping with my slides in the background, and we received so many hugs from the Comandantes at the end.
One of the Comandantes wished us both larga vida, “long life,” a blessing I would carry a couple months later when I would cross the painful border into Palestine.
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The Land of Inshallah
Last October, I was invited to visit the West Bank as a guest of the refugees whose camps Israel has destroyed: Tulkarm, Nur Shams, Jenin. The camps are military bases now, and nobody is allowed to return.
And yet, the refugees insist. They are now demanding a return to their camps as well as a return to their villages, both and at the same time.
The West Bank’s “economic reforms” have long collapsed. Even before the Tufan of October 7, Israel had stopped pretending.
Before the Tufan, almost nobody was paying attention to Palestine; after the Tufan, almost nobody believes Israel’s deceptions now.
But that’s the view from the outside. From the inside, Israel’s collapse has intensified cruelty that seems unending. We’ve already seen it in Gaza.
Hopefully the nightmare ends with life still on the other side.
Inshallah.
That is how Palestine was described to me this time by the life that persists: “the Land of Inshallah.”
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An Irresistible Retreat
There’s so much I need to share with you about Palestine that’s not possible through social media.
I feel we need to pause, take a collective breath, and get serious about how Israel is fighting.
Anyone who studies war can tell you Israel is fighting so that the world hates our Jewish relatives on purpose. They are fighting ugly on purpose.
This is unsurprising. Zionism has needed the world to hate Jews in order for Israel to make any sense from the start.
From a strategic military perspective, Israel hopes Jews all over the world will unite around the lie that everybody hates them and that there’s no other place for them.
It wants to make their fight existential to the death, threatening nuclear annihilation if cornered. Just like right now, with Iran.
In Chinese military theory, this is called fighting with a river to your back, making impossible a retreat.
If this is true, it means we need to make the retreat possible, irresistible even.
I wonder what your ancestors would say about that.
In the Maya world, our elders teach that forgiveness is a bridge to the door of death. That bridge was my meditation throughout my travels this time in Palestine.
A bridge over that river to the door of death means the Israelis need to confront the place of fear, cut the illness, and become somebody new in a place that loves them back.
Everyone watching Israeli soldiers taking their lives right now needs to know that a dignified death is possible, just not in the way that they’ve been taught.
I recently learned about the work of Meital Yaniv, a former Israeli solder who died as an Israeli and has become somebody new. Today they are a death doula, someone who found the way to the door and can help show the others the way.
As they describe their work, they want to bring the Israeli identity to a “loving and caring death.”
These words are medicine to me, and their book Bloodlines is an answered prayer.
This is the ancestral work I speak of: painful and frightening yet healing on the other side: bloodlinesbook.com
I hope to share more about this beautiful book with you soon. If you know about Meital’s work or know of others who have similarly died and become somebody new, I’d love your thoughts-feelings on an irresistible retreat.
Irresistible in every sense of the word.
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In Gratitude
As the collapse is threatening to crush us all, and as we build shelter with each other on the other side, I wish for us a web of strength and connection with our greater compassionate power.
If you can keep me in your prayers while doing this work, I would be grateful for the protection.
If you’re in a place to support financially or know somebody who is, any donation is welcome. Below are some ways to give.
Venmo: quiqui-org
Ko-Fi: ko-fi.com/quiquivix
May we all learn to live without capital together.
More soon, inshallah, about a lot of things we need each other for. I am so happy you are here.
In gratitude,
Linda Quiquivix
July 29, 2026 in the Gregorian calendar
13.0.12.14.86 Seed in the sacred Maya calendars
From the occupied territory of the People of the Seashells
Toward a world where all worlds fit
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P.S.
Please feel free to share this letter with anyone who wishes to think-feel together and encourage them to subscribe for free at quiqui.org
P.P.S.
Palestine 1492: A Report Back can be ordered by your favorite independent bookstore, in person and online, and requested at your local public library.
Already it is at the Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Omaha Public Libraries, and at the Multnomah County Library in Oregon – in addition to several university libraries.
Thank you all who requested it in their corners of the world: https://search.worldcat.org/title/1461037644
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