Alejandra Oliva
@olivalejandra.bsky.social
writer, embroiderer & translator | RIVERMOUTH out now | she/her
Pinned
Books — Alejandra Oliva
Olivalejandra.com
Happy #internationaltranslationday2023 -- I wrote a book about immigration, God, and how translation can change your life while changing someone else's 🧶
Olivalejandra.com/books
Olivalejandra.com/books
Reposted by Alejandra Oliva
“The work I do in front of the stove, the daily care I take with meals—this isn’t just about sustenance or being healthy. It is an expression of my morals and concerns, reminding me that the smallest of my actions is performed in a web of mutuality and care.”
– @olivalejandra.bsky.social
– @olivalejandra.bsky.social
Cooking when the world is on fire
These days, daily tasks can feel like a...
www.christiancentury.org
July 2, 2025 at 2:09 PM
“The work I do in front of the stove, the daily care I take with meals—this isn’t just about sustenance or being healthy. It is an expression of my morals and concerns, reminding me that the smallest of my actions is performed in a web of mutuality and care.”
– @olivalejandra.bsky.social
– @olivalejandra.bsky.social
new newsletter on the 100th anniversary of mrs. dalloway and reading it from a less-than-generous lens born of my own frustrations
open.substack.com/pub/ojosdesa...
open.substack.com/pub/ojosdesa...
Getting the Flowers Yourself
On a Wednesday in Mid-June
open.substack.com
June 11, 2025 at 11:43 PM
new newsletter on the 100th anniversary of mrs. dalloway and reading it from a less-than-generous lens born of my own frustrations
open.substack.com/pub/ojosdesa...
open.substack.com/pub/ojosdesa...
Reposted by Alejandra Oliva
Appropriate, because one of the worker survivors of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire was then deported as part of the first Red Scare.
April 9, 2025 at 2:58 PM
Appropriate, because one of the worker survivors of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire was then deported as part of the first Red Scare.
Reposted by Alejandra Oliva
"It has become clear to me in the past few months that the immigration legal system has dropped even the slightest pretense of its orientation toward justice."
@olivalejandra.bsky.social: 'A Way in the Wilderness'
www.commonwealmagazine.org/lent-reflect...
@olivalejandra.bsky.social: 'A Way in the Wilderness'
www.commonwealmagazine.org/lent-reflect...
A Way in the Wilderness
Lent is a season of reflection—but also a season to prepare for the work ahead, to sweep aside everything that has not worked and find new ways through the desert.
www.commonwealmagazine.org
April 5, 2025 at 11:52 AM
"It has become clear to me in the past few months that the immigration legal system has dropped even the slightest pretense of its orientation toward justice."
@olivalejandra.bsky.social: 'A Way in the Wilderness'
www.commonwealmagazine.org/lent-reflect...
@olivalejandra.bsky.social: 'A Way in the Wilderness'
www.commonwealmagazine.org/lent-reflect...
Reposted by Alejandra Oliva
This is an endemic problem, by the way. Geo Group and CoreCivic regularly deny folks in detention their meds. I witnessed this practiced systematically at Krome for the 5 years I used to visit and communicate with guys there
🚨UPDATE: Rümeysa Öztürk has now suffered three separate asthma attacks while in DHS custody.
She has not received her required asthma medications—a violation of her fundamental right to medical care.
This is cruelty, it is neglect, and it is a damning moral and legal failure.
She has not received her required asthma medications—a violation of her fundamental right to medical care.
This is cruelty, it is neglect, and it is a damning moral and legal failure.
April 4, 2025 at 12:48 AM
This is an endemic problem, by the way. Geo Group and CoreCivic regularly deny folks in detention their meds. I witnessed this practiced systematically at Krome for the 5 years I used to visit and communicate with guys there
Reposted by Alejandra Oliva
For the Injustice Report today, my colleague @olivalejandra.bsky.social wrote a jaw-dropping, must-read post: "Yes, the El Salvador 'Deportations' Are Really Bad'
open.substack.com/pub/injustic...
open.substack.com/pub/injustic...
Yes, the El Salvador “Deportations” are Really Bad
and not just for the innocent people who got deported
open.substack.com
March 28, 2025 at 1:10 PM
For the Injustice Report today, my colleague @olivalejandra.bsky.social wrote a jaw-dropping, must-read post: "Yes, the El Salvador 'Deportations' Are Really Bad'
open.substack.com/pub/injustic...
open.substack.com/pub/injustic...
Reposted by Alejandra Oliva
This post has gotten so much traction & I’d just urge everyone to check out Pitzer’s history of concentration camps: we want these things to shout out their evil, to glow red w malign intent, but they begin as seemingly pragmatic, almost ordinary answers to mass containment & transport/transfer.
March 18, 2025 at 3:51 PM
This post has gotten so much traction & I’d just urge everyone to check out Pitzer’s history of concentration camps: we want these things to shout out their evil, to glow red w malign intent, but they begin as seemingly pragmatic, almost ordinary answers to mass containment & transport/transfer.
Reposted by Alejandra Oliva
if you find yourself reluctant to support the guy at Columbia because you find some of the politics he espoused distasteful or even abhorrent, you should know that this is exactly the reaction that they hoped for in choosing him as a target for unlawful detention based on political speech.
March 10, 2025 at 7:33 PM
if you find yourself reluctant to support the guy at Columbia because you find some of the politics he espoused distasteful or even abhorrent, you should know that this is exactly the reaction that they hoped for in choosing him as a target for unlawful detention based on political speech.
Reposted by Alejandra Oliva
Since Obama administration, at least, leftists/radicals repeatedly warned that Dems pouring cash into ICE and militarized police was not just evil in its own right, but laying the groundwork for open fascism.
We were dismissed, with various degrees of vitriol, for pointing this obvious fact out.
We were dismissed, with various degrees of vitriol, for pointing this obvious fact out.
March 10, 2025 at 2:11 PM
Since Obama administration, at least, leftists/radicals repeatedly warned that Dems pouring cash into ICE and militarized police was not just evil in its own right, but laying the groundwork for open fascism.
We were dismissed, with various degrees of vitriol, for pointing this obvious fact out.
We were dismissed, with various degrees of vitriol, for pointing this obvious fact out.
Reposted by Alejandra Oliva
I think the more horrifying thing to sit with is this: the every-day operations of the jail, prison, and immigration detention systems are and have been dehumanizing, and we built them, and they lend themselves seamlessly to the fascist business of stealing and caging even more people
March 10, 2025 at 3:43 PM
I think the more horrifying thing to sit with is this: the every-day operations of the jail, prison, and immigration detention systems are and have been dehumanizing, and we built them, and they lend themselves seamlessly to the fascist business of stealing and caging even more people
Reposted by Alejandra Oliva
This is why we must fight for everyone. Whether they’ve been incarcerated or have had contact with the criminal legal system or are merely undocumented. When you accept that some people are deserving of detention and deportation the scope of who is eligible is always under threat of expanding.
re the previous repost: if they can disappear permanent residents they can disappear citizens
March 9, 2025 at 11:48 PM
This is why we must fight for everyone. Whether they’ve been incarcerated or have had contact with the criminal legal system or are merely undocumented. When you accept that some people are deserving of detention and deportation the scope of who is eligible is always under threat of expanding.
every time i sit down to write a letter to a new pen pal in ICE detention, im struck mute. what could i possibly say to someone in such a place? here’s a reminder to myself, and an invitation to you.
open.substack.com/pub/ojosdesa...
open.substack.com/pub/ojosdesa...
Nature writing for ICE Detainees
Figuring out what to say to a pen pal
open.substack.com
March 6, 2025 at 4:22 PM
every time i sit down to write a letter to a new pen pal in ICE detention, im struck mute. what could i possibly say to someone in such a place? here’s a reminder to myself, and an invitation to you.
open.substack.com/pub/ojosdesa...
open.substack.com/pub/ojosdesa...
i wrote about the remnant prairie behind the artist residency where i work
www.christiancentury.org/article/call...
www.christiancentury.org/article/call...
The call of a remnant prairie
I’ve seen artists enchanted and haunted by the prairie, their work changed by spending time in the...
www.christiancentury.org
March 4, 2025 at 7:49 PM
i wrote about the remnant prairie behind the artist residency where i work
www.christiancentury.org/article/call...
www.christiancentury.org/article/call...
Reposted by Alejandra Oliva
“The biodiversity of the prairie, its changing face across the seasons: this ecosystem is a community, living and breathing and renewing itself, older than the houses and the trees around it.”
– @olivalejandra.bsky.social
www.christiancentury.org/article/call...
– @olivalejandra.bsky.social
www.christiancentury.org/article/call...
The call of a remnant prairie
I’ve seen artists enchanted and haunted by the prairie, their work changed by spending time in the...
www.christiancentury.org
March 3, 2025 at 4:27 PM
“The biodiversity of the prairie, its changing face across the seasons: this ecosystem is a community, living and breathing and renewing itself, older than the houses and the trees around it.”
– @olivalejandra.bsky.social
www.christiancentury.org/article/call...
– @olivalejandra.bsky.social
www.christiancentury.org/article/call...
I wrote about the ways that the Trump admin has been purposely fucking with the visibility of ICE enforcement/the increased invisibility of undocumented people in daily life/feeling called into visibility as a neighbor
www.commonwealmagazine.org/ICE-immigrat...
www.commonwealmagazine.org/ICE-immigrat...
Visibly Invisible
The Trump administration hopes not only to deport migrants, but also to make them feel so unsafe they no longer participate actively in our communities.
www.commonwealmagazine.org
February 25, 2025 at 12:25 AM
I wrote about the ways that the Trump admin has been purposely fucking with the visibility of ICE enforcement/the increased invisibility of undocumented people in daily life/feeling called into visibility as a neighbor
www.commonwealmagazine.org/ICE-immigrat...
www.commonwealmagazine.org/ICE-immigrat...
Reposted by Alejandra Oliva
I think most people are intuitively aware of this but something like the official White House account posting an “ASMR” video of shackled immigrants is not just cruel for its own sake, it’s intentional envelope-pushing to ramp up to desensitization over inhumane detention, camps, and deaths
February 19, 2025 at 1:34 PM
I think most people are intuitively aware of this but something like the official White House account posting an “ASMR” video of shackled immigrants is not just cruel for its own sake, it’s intentional envelope-pushing to ramp up to desensitization over inhumane detention, camps, and deaths
Reposted by Alejandra Oliva
I spent most of the past three years not writing and doing a lot of sewing and somehow becoming a public mender and sewing teacher—I wrote about how it changed my sense of community today in my newsletter. hedhouseman.substack.com/p/taking-you...
Taking Your Time is the Point
And it turns out, so are other people.
hedhouseman.substack.com
February 18, 2025 at 7:12 PM
I spent most of the past three years not writing and doing a lot of sewing and somehow becoming a public mender and sewing teacher—I wrote about how it changed my sense of community today in my newsletter. hedhouseman.substack.com/p/taking-you...
well, fuck ICE i guess
ICE is citing “an increase in threats” to agents and leadership as the reason for seeking a contractor to monitor negative social media posts about the agency, its personnel, and operations.
Report: ICE Is Expanding Surveillance of Its Critics on Social Media
It cites “an increase in threats” as the reason for seeking a contractor to monitor the public’s social media activity.
truthout.org
February 18, 2025 at 5:08 AM
well, fuck ICE i guess
Reposted by Alejandra Oliva
“We have a choice, these days, to be reborn into these times, to consent to change with them not in resignation to the fascist values …but in resignation to our truer, wilder selves, to shake off the mores of our time and to walk into the prairie.”
wow, @olivalejandra.bsky.social
wow, @olivalejandra.bsky.social
i wrote about dying and being reborn ungovernable
also perfume and prairies and jackson pollock
open.substack.com/pub/ojosdesa...
also perfume and prairies and jackson pollock
open.substack.com/pub/ojosdesa...
Something Rich and Strange
A sea change, a perfume, and Virginia Woolf's Orlando
open.substack.com
February 18, 2025 at 2:24 AM
“We have a choice, these days, to be reborn into these times, to consent to change with them not in resignation to the fascist values …but in resignation to our truer, wilder selves, to shake off the mores of our time and to walk into the prairie.”
wow, @olivalejandra.bsky.social
wow, @olivalejandra.bsky.social
i wrote about dying and being reborn ungovernable
also perfume and prairies and jackson pollock
open.substack.com/pub/ojosdesa...
also perfume and prairies and jackson pollock
open.substack.com/pub/ojosdesa...
Something Rich and Strange
A sea change, a perfume, and Virginia Woolf's Orlando
open.substack.com
February 17, 2025 at 9:43 PM
i wrote about dying and being reborn ungovernable
also perfume and prairies and jackson pollock
open.substack.com/pub/ojosdesa...
also perfume and prairies and jackson pollock
open.substack.com/pub/ojosdesa...
every single time jason sits down to read the dog will drag his toy over and stare at him unceasingly until he puts the book away and gets on the floor to wrassle
February 17, 2025 at 4:44 AM
every single time jason sits down to read the dog will drag his toy over and stare at him unceasingly until he puts the book away and gets on the floor to wrassle
Reposted by Alejandra Oliva
Alejandra's writing is so gorgeous and smart.
i am literally out here making collages for my newsletter about Orlando (novel), Jackson Pollock, perfume, gender, Shakespeare and decay, pls subscribe
ojosdesantalucia.substack.com
ojosdesantalucia.substack.com
February 15, 2025 at 9:39 PM
Alejandra's writing is so gorgeous and smart.
i am literally out here making collages for my newsletter about Orlando (novel), Jackson Pollock, perfume, gender, Shakespeare and decay, pls subscribe
ojosdesantalucia.substack.com
ojosdesantalucia.substack.com
February 15, 2025 at 9:29 PM
i am literally out here making collages for my newsletter about Orlando (novel), Jackson Pollock, perfume, gender, Shakespeare and decay, pls subscribe
ojosdesantalucia.substack.com
ojosdesantalucia.substack.com
fully and absolutely bizarre to realize that Wabansia Ave, to Simone de Beauvoir, was one of the most romantic places on earth
February 9, 2025 at 4:32 AM
fully and absolutely bizarre to realize that Wabansia Ave, to Simone de Beauvoir, was one of the most romantic places on earth
re reading Orlando for newsletter research, and i think i love it so much in part because it just…works beautifully as a novel but it’s also packed full of what feel like inside jokes and asides that you sort of grasp but u know are meant for Vita Sackville-West’s eyes only
February 7, 2025 at 3:32 AM
re reading Orlando for newsletter research, and i think i love it so much in part because it just…works beautifully as a novel but it’s also packed full of what feel like inside jokes and asides that you sort of grasp but u know are meant for Vita Sackville-West’s eyes only