I met with a young filmmaker/performance artist yesterday. His grandfather is a filmmaker. We discussed body art (Stelarc, Ron Athey, Franco B) and the work of Marina Abramovic. When he asked for the name of a good art school for studying performance art, I realized that it was easier to give names of artists than to give a list of art schools. I did not tell him about my own work in much detail (such as crossing the U.S.-Mexico border wearing a wresting mask). After the meeting, I realized that I had not mentioned some of my own work because it would be very difficult to accomplish today without severe political penalties. Although I was held in secondary when crossing the border wearing a mask and a bridal gown (followed by Berta Jottar, who was videotaping this), I was released after showing a portable altar (a glasses case with botanica powders and related objects). One of the agents said that I was a "bruja" and I was allowed to cross. Within the context of the new legislation in Arizona, this piece would be very difficult to repeat.

Anyway, I introduced myself to this artist, with whom I had only communicated by e-mail, by saying that I supported Palestinian rights, and that if that was a problem, we shouldn't continue our meeting. I did this for many reasons (as Peace flotilla news was all over the Internet), including the fact that there are people at my university who have used students to attempt to "get me in trouble" and because I was interrogated for my political beliefs on the campus where I teach (in 2006). I did not want to be spied on or quoted out of context. Why I was interrogated at my university may have to do with: a) anarchism; b) the Pat Washington case; c) petty campus politics; d) the fact that I have supported Palestinian rights since I began working on this campus in 1984. Fifty charges were brought against me. All were dropped. The testimony of some students was used against me (at first, until e-mails exonerated me). My new way of taking security measures, since the investigation, is to meet students in public if I am being interviewed, with witnesses, to keep a calendar as evidence of my whereabouts, and to only say things I would be willing to see published. The rules followed by the press ("off the record") and think tanks ("on the record") don't seem to apply on campuses where activists are harassed, so I have to take precautions.

Ironically, I am now being encouraged (by the dean) at the university where I teach to participate in demonstrations and public statements in support of immigrant rights.

I am now working in the area of policy.

The meeting with this filmmaker/performance artist was interesting in one important way (for women reading this). We did not discuss the work of some male artists with whom I have worked. The names of these male artists did not come up in our conversation. I never thought that I would live long enough to discuss art without having to deal with these names and with sexism in the art world. Because our dialogue was focussed on the filmmaker/performance artist's work, and due to the context of discussion (queer politics/queer theory), issues about credit/fame etc. that would have disturbed me in the past were completely irrelevant.

I write this to encourage women artists not to give up and to concentrate on one's craft. I am not employed in an art department, and yet I was able to have a serious, great discussion about art, with an art student, that somehow managed to be focussed on art (and not openings, who was there, or art world politics). No one whispered to the student that I was not famous enough, or that I wasn't as important as a list of male artists. The massive machinery of the art world broke down for just a couple of hours, during this conversation, and in the margins, at a pizza place, two artists got to talk.