“The price of radicalism in corporate democracy is death,” said Cherrie Moraga, playwright and artist-in-residence at Stanford University.

Moraga co-editedThis Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. Her plays Shadow of a Man and Watsonville: Some Place Not Here won the Fund for New American Plays Award, and Heroes and Saints earned the Pen West Award for Drama in 1992.

She spoke at the University of Oregon as part of the Women of Color Speaker Series: Intersecting Identities.

The award-winning playwright, poet, and essayist said technology was erasing indigenous culture and memory, resulting in a form of social “amnesia.”

In a time when historical culture is fading, it is now “that indigenous memory matters,” Moraga said.

“Cultural incursion was not always the law in this land,” Moraga said. She added that technology was erasing culture.

Moraga said she believed in “making connections transnationally” to solve the problem. She added that women of color should band together and preserve culture.

“I am hardly a prophet,” Moraga said. She added that they must “forge a union among women of color.”

With the oppressive violence towards women in Mexico, Moraga said that peaceful action is necessary and effective.

“We will be able to build a movement from the ground up,” Moraga said. She added protests, such as the ones that helped end Jim Crow laws and the Vietnam War, and the youth vote are important.

Moraga also said she blamed cultural indifference and misunderstanding on a lack of formal education.

“Many of my classes serve as a U.N. with better politics, I hope,” Moraga said.

As immigration continues to be a hot-button issue, Moraga said that many women of color are being forced from their homelands.

“Where is the feminist movement to answer their calls?” Moraga asked. “How do we together contribute to a transnational feminism?”

Moraga’s words were not without action. She has been participating in Fast for Our Future, a movement designed to improve immigration rights.

Moraga received a standing ovation at the end of her speech. The audience also cheered at the mention of Obama’s victory.

Moraga teaches a variety of classes at Stanford, including Latino theater and literature. She has written memoirs on motherhood and sexuality of Latinas, as well as award-winning plays featured in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco.