BOING BOING….Xeni Jardin, mysterious presence behind Boing Boing, has apparently decided that today is the day to finally tell her story to the LA Times:
Xeni Jardin, pronounced SHEH-nee zhar-DAN, isn’t her given name. Jardin doesn’t reveal that, she says, because she wants to avoid dangerous people from her past. “Xeni” comes from “Xeniflores,” a word with origins in Guatemala’s native culture. Jardin means “garden” in Spanish and French.
It was a nickname that stuck during her travels through Mexico and Guatemala with her mentor, Dr. Munir Xochipillicueponi Quetzalkanbalam, a writer, performer, director, composer, entrepreneur and Mayan expert whom Jardin considers her adoptive father.
From here, the tale gets complicated and painful, she says. Still, Jardin agrees to recount it for the record for the first time. Ultimately, everyone wants to be understood, she says. Everyone wants to tell their story.
“Blogs are like a combination of those early fanzines and volunteer punk rock fliers and a big international party and a phone line where the international calls are always free,” she says. Well, some blogs, anyway….
