About the cartography of the conversation

The process of mapping the conversation between Rosa Maqueda Vicente and Joanne Arnott questions how we understand and relate to space through a text. It could be said that the map is an interpretation, a reading, of the conversation between these two authors. It is a process of translation, or synthesis, where a series of places in their respective countries, mentioned in the texts, are selected to contain both the lives of the authors and their work. Creating a cartography of this conversation allows us to visually represent the spatial separation between the territories inhabited by the authors. While this resource presents us with the opportunity to understand a conversation, a poem, in a different way, it also raises certain questions that lend themselves to some final thoughts.

• First is the question of the map itself and its history as a tool to create identity. The map helps not only to place the authors’ conversation in space but also allows for the travellers to place themselves within the territory that the conversation is bringing forth. Questions such as: which lines cross the multiple spaces from which this map can be accessed? or, which places are excluded from this conversation?
• The map also allows us to see the priority given in the representation of the urban over the rural in default maps found on line. We see the streets and avenues of the different cities mentioned although they are not necessarily relevant, while the Juxmaye mountain is not visible within the map. What other representations of the territory can help us to locate a place? In what other ways can we draw cartographies that do not use streets and avenues?

About the book of poems

• When organizing the book, several questions arose, among them how the poems were going to be organized. After several discussions we decided to organize them in alphabetical order in Spanish. This order was chosen for practical reasons in order to be able to manage and upload the material to the website. In addition, since we are not Hñahñu speakers, Spanish helps to bridge Hñahñu language, Spanish and English.
• Also, when transcribing the poems in Hñahñu, we realized that many fonts did not have the appropriate phonemes to adequately represent this language, so sometimes certain letters stand out in an uncomfortable way in the text. This is because the fonts are not designed to hold these words. This denotes a major problem in the writing of indigenous languages, a problem that this book of poems highlights.