Rooting around in the hundreds of possible A.K. Reader posts from my storied history, I came upon an interview I had done with Angeles Arrien in August 2007 for the inaugural issue of Crone Magazine (itself a successor to Crone Chronicles magazine).
Oh wow! I see now that the interview was never published! I wonder why. And I certainly can’t remember! In any case, reading through this interview again, I am struck by just how her work in cross-cultural anthropology continues to reverberate through me and others who are devoted to community building in a time of increasing atomization of society. Arrien’s life story, which I coaxed out of her, is itself illuminating. Never did she seem to have doubted herself! Moreover, she seemed innately immune to social programming of all kinds. Or maybe that immunity had to do with the traditional Basque upbringing she received, something I think she would agree with.
I then looked up the date of her death, six years later, April 24, 2014. Today, this very day, is the fourth anniversary of her sudden, unexpected death! This synchronicity was the final note that convinced me to publish this beautiful old interview today.
Arrien Interview
3 thoughts on “A. K. Reader Interview: Angeles Arrien lived and taught traditional values in a disconnected age (2007)”
What a wonderful interview! I wish I had discovered her earlier, but thank you for the introduction. How amazing, too, how much Green Acres has embodied what you were talking about back then.
A fantastic interview. I gained so much reading it, including her description of her divorce and only wanting her name back. That was my experience, too, when I divorced in the early 1970s. Part of my past long buried in my memory.
Wow, Janice! And I presume you are loving this young self of yours who was so generous and trusting!