Xicana Tiahui Podcast: Recent Episodes
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In this special episode, the podcasters from the Sandovalian Semillero Collective share their SWAPA responses based on "Conclusion: Differential Manifesto, Trans-Languages, and Global Oppositional Politics" of Methodology of the Oppressed by Chela Sandoval. The SWAPA circle expresses what Sandoval calls the "naguala-witness-naguala ceremony." SWAPA is an acronym for Storytelling/Witnessing Wor(l)d-Art & Performance as Activism. It is a spiritual activist or nepantlera method in the spirit of differential social movement and consciousness from Methodology of the Oppressed. These special episodes are responses to the book and offer a practice of creative close reading and what it means to bridge worlds with others.
For scholarly references on SWAPA, here are some suggested essays:
- Alvarez Jr, Eddy Francisco. "Jotería pedagogy, SWAPA, and Sandovalian approaches to liberation." Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies 39, no. 1 (2014): 215-227.
- Vasquez, Kristian E. "The Decoloniality of Feeling: On Sandovalian Praxis, Ceremony, and Emancipatory Politics in the Classroom and Beyond." Regeneración: A Xicanacimiento Studies Journal 1, no. 1 (2024): 5.
Intro & Outro song: "La calandria” by Raíces Oaxaca.
In this episode, hosted on the Xicana Tiahui podcast platform, the Sandovalian Semillero Collective delves into the conclusion of Methodology of the Oppressed. The collective offers their final synopsis of the book and reflections on the content of the entire text, as well as its relevance for today. Here, the idea of the book, on coalition, becomes a continued conversation that signals not the end but an opening. To read Sandoval's Methodology of the Oppressed today is to conjure new dialogues about what the conditions of the world are and how to imagine a world where we might be free, together.
For more on this text, see Xicana Tiahui Scribes writer Kristian E. Vasquez's new blog post on the twenty-five years of Sandoval's book: https://xicanatiahui.substack.com/p/theory-uprising?r=3abq8l
In this special episode, the podcasters from the Sandovalian Semillero Collective share their SWAPA responses based on "Chapter 7: Revolutionary Force: Connecting Desire to Reality" of Methodology of the Oppressed by Chela Sandoval. The SWAPA circle expresses what Sandoval calls the "naguala-witness-naguala ceremony." SWAPA is an acronym for Storytelling/Witnessing Wor(l)d-Art & Performance as Activism. It is a spiritual activist or nepantlera method in the spirit of differential social movement and consciousness from Methodology of the Oppressed. These special episodes are responses to the book and offer a practice of creative close reading and what it means to bridge worlds with others.
For scholarly references on SWAPA, here are some suggested essays:
- Alvarez Jr, Eddy Francisco. "Jotería pedagogy, SWAPA, and Sandovalian approaches to liberation." Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies 39, no. 1 (2014): 215-227.
- Vasquez, Kristian E. "The Decoloniality of Feeling: On Sandovalian Praxis, Ceremony, and Emancipatory Politics in the Classroom and Beyond." Regeneración: A Xicanacimiento Studies Journal 1, no. 1 (2024): 5.
Intro & Outro song: "La calandria” by Raíces Oaxaca.
Delving into Methodology of the Oppressed, the Sandovalian Semillero Collective offers their musings on Chapter 7. As a chiasmus, the chapter returns to U.S. third world feminism, examining how this vein of thinking prompts a methodology of the oppressed. Sandoval turns to the work of Donna Haraway, science and technology feminist scholar, to outline how feminist of color through critique “womanhood” and provide new proposals for examining the desires of citizen-subjects. Harraway’s oppositional cyber-consciousness opens the possibility of the citizen-subject's desire to unravel and, through decolonial love, forge a revolutionary politics and force. The collective ruminates on Haraway’s cyborg feminism, considering its utility as a differential consciousness, and takes seriously how our desires can be reality.
In this special interlude episode, we offer our naguala shape-shifting reflections on Chapter 6, “Love as a Hermeneutics of Social Change, a Decolonizing Movida." From the responses to quotes across the chapter, each collective member present offers a gift of emotion produced through the process of deep listening. SWAPA is an acronym for Storytelling/Witnessing Wor(l)d-Art & Performance as Activism. It is a spiritual activist or nepantlera method in the spirit of differential social movement and consciousness from Methodology of the Oppressed. These special episodes are responses to the book and offer a practice of creative close reading and what it means to bridge worlds with others.
In this episode, hosted on the Xicana Tiahui podcast platform, the Sandovalian Semillero Collective delves into Chapter 6 of Methodology of the Oppressed. The collective has a serious conversation about love. What exactly animates one to pursue "social justice," "liberation," or "freedom dreams" in a world where, as Sandoval puts it in her classroom, the social physics of war is the norm? To fall in love, not as a romantic or revolutionary (though these are also important), as a decolonizing movida is to take to task love as a hermeneutic. To be committed to the social movements today, against capitalism, colonialism, and patriarchy, one must confront love.
In this episode, we have an extended and second conversation with a compa about the latest communiqué and zine from Re-Existir Media, titled We Are All Illegal: An Intro to Brown Anarchy. As they describe it, Re-Existir Media is "a new community info-project coming to the Inland Empire." We do a close reading of the content of the zine, elaborating on the themes of anarchy, brown insurgencies, and how to confront the question of autonomy in local geographies. Our main concern becomes the how of responding to material conditions and the ways communities struggle against capital and the state toward another world.
We Are All Illegal: https://reexist.noblogs.org/zines/illegal/
On the recent Los Angeles ICE raids:
"Revolt and Representation" | https://heatwavemag.info/blog/revrep-061625/
"Defend the LAnd" | https://spectrejournal.com/defend-the-land/
"Los Angeles, or the End of Assimilation" | https://illwill.com/los-angeles
"Fuck I.C.E. City-Wide" | https://ineditas.noblogs.org/post/2025/06/18/fuck-i-c-e-city-wide-los-angeles-goes-up/
In this episode, we have a conversation with a compa about the latest communiqué and zine from Re-Existir Media, titled We Are All Illegal: An Intro to Brown Anarchy. As they describe it, Re-Existir Media is "a new community info-project coming to the Inland Empire." With a seasonal bulletin, zines, "how-to" manuals, and resources, the project aims to share with its local geography an analysis of political economy, US politics, anarchist praxis, and oppositional ideologies rooted in Latin American or brown autonomous projects. In the conversation, many topics emerge, bubbling from We Are All Illegal, determined to ask more questions without shying away from some proposals. Here, some might be inspired to think about the recent waves of ICE raids in their local geographies and developing methods to confront the Trump administration's mission for mass deportation.
We Are All Illegal: https://reexist.noblogs.org/zines/illegal/
On the recent Los Angeles ICE raids:
"Revolt and Representation" | https://heatwavemag.info/blog/revrep-061625/
"Defend the LAnd" | https://spectrejournal.com/defend-the-land/
"Los Angeles, or the End of Assimilation" | https://illwill.com/los-angeles
"Fuck I.C.E. City-Wide" | https://ineditas.noblogs.org/post/2025/06/18/fuck-i-c-e-city-wide-los-angeles-goes-up/
In this special interlude episode, we offer our naguala shape-shifting reflections on Chapter 5, “The Rhetoric of Supremacism as Revealed by the Ethical Technology: Democratics." From the responses to quotes across the chapter, each collective member present offers a gift of emotion produced through the process of deep listening. SWAPA is an acronym for Storytelling/Witnessing Wor(l)d-Art & Performance as Activism. It is a spiritual activist or nepantlera method in the spirit of differential social movement and consciousness from Methodology of the Oppressed. These special episodes are responses to the book and offer a practice of creative close reading and what it means to bridge worlds with others.
In this episode, hosted on the Xicana Tiahui podcast platform, the Sandovalian Semillero Collective delves into Chapter 5 of Methodology of the Oppressed. The collective explores how Chela Sandoval examines dominant ideologies, as well as white consciousness, and how beings perpetuate systems of supremacy through rhetorical poses. Sandoval draws from Roland Barthes and Frantz Fanon to analyze the mechanisms that sustain oppressive power structures and to investigate “the language of supremacy.” Throughout the episode, the collective breaks down the rhetoric of supremacism and offers examples. Identifying these rhetorical poses is the first step to confronting the world and invoking the technology called democratics.
In this episode Ashley and Leo, tenant organizers from Union de Vecinos-Eastside Local of the LA Tenants Union discuss how wellness is embedded in housing justice work.
To learn more about their work, follow @uniondevecinos on Instagram
In this special interlude episode, we offer our naguala shape-shifting reflections on Chapter 4, “Semiotics and the Language of Revolution." From the responses to quotes across the chapter, each collective member present offers a gift of emotion produced through the process of deep listening. SWAPA is an acronym for Storytelling/Witnessing Wor(l)d-Art & Performance as Activism. It is a spiritual activist or nepantlera method in the spirit of differential social movement and consciousness from Methodology of the Oppressed. These special episodes are responses to the book and offer a practice of creative close reading and what it means to bridge worlds with others.
In this episode, hosted on the Xicana Tiahui podcast platform, the Sandovalian Semillero Collective delves into Chapter 4 of Methodology of the Oppressed. Here, they unpack how Chela Sandoval engages the work of Martinican psychiatrist Frantz Fanon and French cultural theorist Roland Barthes, extending a conversation about semiotics (the study of signs), the conditions to link language with revolution. In particular, the collective tackles what Sandoval calls "the methodology of emancipation" and its five technologies of power: semiotics, deconstruction, meta-ideologizing, democratics, and the differential movement of consciousness. These theoretical threads of social praxis for the concrete practice enacting the social movement's differential mode come alive. The practitioner of the methodology of emancipation becomes, in the process, the one to enable this "move of energy" for the possibilities to struggle against dominant ideology.
Decolonizing Epistemologies: Conversation with Latinx Philosophers (UC Berkeley Latinx Research Center): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCV6Veg-eYo&ab_channel=LatinxResearchCenter
In this special interlude episode, we offer our naguala shape-shifting reflections on Chapter 3, “On Cultural Studies: The Apartheid of Theoretical Domains." From the responses to quotes across the chapter, each collective member present offers a gift of emotion produced through the process of deep listening. SWAPA is an acronym for Storytelling/Witnessing Wor(l)d-Art & Performance as Activism. It is a spiritual activist or nepantlera method in the spirit of differential social movement and consciousness from Methodology of the Oppressed. These special episodes are responses to the book and offer a practice of creative close reading and what it means to bridge worlds with others.
Natalia and Gustavo from Xicana Tiahui hang out with Dr. Silvia Soto, professor of Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies and Native American Studies at Sonoma State University. Platicamos about her recently published book “Carocoleando Among Worlds: Reconstructing Maya Worldviews in Chiapas.” We learn about her journey in the Zapatista struggle and her literary movida to bridge Maya Literature, Zapatista thought, and Chicanx and Native Studies. Get her book through the University of Arizona Press or your local library.
In this episode, hosted on the Xicana Tiahui podcast platform, the Sandovalian Semillero Collective delves into Chapter 3 of Methodology of the Oppressed, discussing disciplinary divides in knowledge, what Chela Sandoval calls "the apartheid of theoretical domains." The collective considers Sandoval's notion of power and how it operates between the horizontal and vertical axes, suggesting how we must attune ourselves to both, not choosing either/or. By focusing on one's position, the collective also thinks how the personal is political.
In this special interlude episode, we offer our naguala shape shifting reflections on Chapter 2, “U.S. Third World Feminism: Differential Social Movement I”. From the responses to quotes across the chapter, each collective member present offers a gift of emotion produced through the process of deep listening. SWAPA is an acronym for Storytelling/Witnessing Wor(l)d-Art & Performance as Activism. It is a spiritual activist or nepantlera method in the spirit of differential social movement and consciousness from Methodology of the Oppressed. These special episodes are responses to the book and offer a practice of creative close reading and what it means to bridge worlds with others.
Tune into this episode of the Wellness Segment where Kim interviews Carla, creator of Ixoq Arte.
To learn more or get in touch with Carla of Ixoq Arte, visit: ixoqarte.com
or follow on IG: ixoq_arte
Interested in being on the wellness segment? Direct message us on IG at: xicana_tiahui or reach out to Kim directly at: @kimethyst
In this episode, hosted on the Xicana Tiahui podcast platform, the Sandovalian Semillero Collective delves into Chapter 2 of Methodology of the Oppressed, where they unpack Louis Althusser’s theory of ideology and the ways Chela Sandoval extends his theory to consider how people can break with and rupture hegemonic ideologies. The collective moves through two of the main threads of the chapter, first engaging with the critique of hegemonic white feminism, and second, thinking through the possibilities and limits of differential consciousness in the U.S. third world feminist movement and our current context.
In this special episode, the podcasters from the Sandovalian Semillero Collective share their SWAPA responses based on "Chapter 1: Fredric Jameson" of Methodology of the Oppressed by Chela Sandoval. The SWAPA circle expresses what Sandoval calls the "naguala-witness-naguala ceremony." SWAPA is an acronym for Storytelling/Witnessing Wor(l)d-Art & Performance as Activism. It is a spiritual activist or nepantlera method in the spirit of differential social movement and consciousness from Methodology of the Oppressed. These special episodes are responses to the book and offer a practice of creative close reading and what it means to bridge worlds with others.
For scholarly references on SWAPA, here are some suggested essays:
- Alvarez Jr, Eddy Francisco. "Jotería pedagogy, SWAPA, and Sandovalian approaches to liberation." Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies 39, no. 1 (2014): 215-227.
- Vasquez, Kristian E. "The Decoloniality of Feeling: On Sandovalian Praxis, Ceremony, and Emancipatory Politics in the Classroom and Beyond." Regeneración: A Xicanacimiento Studies Journal 1, no. 1 (2024): 5.
Intro & Outro song: "La calandria” by Raíces Oaxaca.
In this episode, hosted on the Xicana Tiahui podcast platform, the Sandovalian Semillero Collective delves into Chapter 1 of Methodology of the Oppressed, ‘where they critically examine Frederic Jameson’s perspective on postmodernism as a neo-colonizing force. Sandoval argues that Jameson's pessimism stems from his inability to recognize the subjectivity of colonized and oppressed groups. She proposes a "differential cognitive mapping" that allows for a mobile, flexible oppositional consciousness. The collective also discusses the relevance of postmodernism today and the role of social media in reflecting and perpetuating these conditions.
In this episode, we report back on our experiences from the 2024/2025 Zapatista encuentro internacionales de “resistencias y rebeldías.” We provide a brief accounting of the current struggles in Zapatista communities and engage with their notions of la pirámide invertida, lo común, migration, autonomía, and the storm. This episode is in Spanish and English.
In this special episode, the podcasters from the Sandovalian Semillero Collective share their SWAPA responses based on the "Introduction" of Methodology of the Oppressed by Chela Sandoval. The SWAPA circle expresses what Sandoval calls the "naguala-witness-naguala ceremony." SWAPA is an acronym for Storytelling/Witnessing Wor(l)d-Art & Performance as Activism. It is a spiritual activist or nepantlera method in the spirit of differential social movement and consciousness from Methodology of the Oppressed. These special episodes are responses to the book and offer a practice of creative close reading and what it means to bridge worlds with others.
For scholarly references on SWAPA, here are some suggested essays:
- Alvarez Jr, Eddy Francisco. "Jotería pedagogy, SWAPA, and Sandovalian approaches to liberation." Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies 39, no. 1 (2014): 215-227.
- Vasquez, Kristian E. "The Decoloniality of Feeling: On Sandovalian Praxis, Ceremony, and Emancipatory Politics in the Classroom and Beyond." Regeneración: A Xicanacimiento Studies Journal 1, no. 1 (2024): 5.
Intro & Outro song: "La calandria” by Raíces Oaxaca.
In this new series hosted by Xicana Tiahui, the Sandovalian Semillero Collective introduces the labor, analysis, and background of the U.S. decolonial feminist philosopher Chela Sandoval. This episode introduces the year-long study of Sandoval's debut theoretical and praxis book, Methodology of the Oppressed, published in 2000. The collective discusses how the series will unfold and why the book, Methodology of the Oppressed, or MoTO, is an important intervention in the U.S.-based conversation of politics, philosophy, and practice. MoTO is a manifesto or manual for social emancipation, equipping the reader with a toolkit for analyzing the social world, constructing new ideologies, and building a practice toward "egalitarian" social relations. The collective will embark on close reading and providing an analysis of the book in subsequent episodes, guiding the listener to each chapter's arguments, provocations, and significance.
Link to purchase the book | Link to the PDF
Tune in to learn about Dr. Carrillo's experience in academia and what it means to be an educator.
Tune into this episode where XT co-host kim and Black education historian, Michael @findyourrhythmm discuss wellness and practicing solidarity through radical grace
To learn more about Aire and inquire about collaboration, follow them at: @aire.eternal or email them at: airemusic.eternal@gmail.com
Tune in to learn about how mysticism, art, and intergenerational wisdom inspires Brujita artist, Ren Conde!
In this episode, Dr. Ceci Caballero shares her writing practice and the importance of spirituality for intuitive growth. Tune in to learn about Ceci’s writing workshops for BIPOC spaces.
Follow Ceci's work on Instagram: @writingourwellness
Kim checks in with a brief update on the Wellness Segment. What themes around wellness, community care, and politics are you interested in hearing more about? Write to us and let us know!
Kim checks in with a brief update on the Wellness Segment. What themes around wellness, community care, and politics are you interested in hearing more about? Write to us and let us know!
In this episode, the Xicana Tiahui crew was joined by Dr. Pablo Gonzales, a distinguished continuing lecturer at UC Berkely in the Department of Ethnic Studies, to discuss Zapatismo and the Zapatista experience with its influence on the Chicana/o/x struggles at the turn of the twenty-first century. Pablo shares his personal history of his experiences seeing and practicing the bridges forming between Zapatista autonomous territory and the urban struggle in Los Angeles. He captures these moments as the spirit of autonomy and how Zapatismo translates into the classroom setting. Together we reflect on these radical genealogies of struggle that continue to shape our world-bridging practices today. Pablo continues to be an important interlocutor in this bridge-work toward dignity.
Joined by Em and Zacarías, Maritza and Kristian from the Xicana Tiahui crew reflect on their experiences at the 2022 Revolutionary Organizing Against Racism (ROAR) conference that took place on Ohlone lands (Oakland) alongside the Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair. We explore the topics of whiteness, radical organizing, and how Zapatismo thinks through some of these issues in the United States.
In this episode, Gina Hong (she/her), community rights lawyer, discusses her personal practice with permaculture, intergenerational connection through seedlings, and call to action in regenerating the land.
In this episode, we share an audio recording of a roundtable presentation that the co-hosts of Xicana Tiahui gave at the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies 2022 conference that was held virtually. This roundtable was a collective reflection of the last five years of Xicana Tiahui's existence and the speculative power of thinking with each other about the future of the Chicanx World-Making & Futurities Project. We invite listeners to reflect on the questions we pose as we think through our own collective process in creating projects that invite, agitate, and imagine new worlds.
In this episode, the Xicada Tiahui compas check in with each other and share exciting updates about our upcoming personal/collective projects!
In this first episode of the Wellness segment, Kim checks in with artist Maritza Torres about her upcoming sola art show, Respawn. They both discuss Maritza's process and inspiration behind her new work with natural earth materials, working through imposter syndrome, and planting seeds. Follow Maritza on IG: @maritzatorresart
TUNE IN TO OUR WELLNESS SEGMENT AND STAY CONNECTED TO LEARN HOW FOLX ARE COLLECTIVELY PRACTICING AND ENVISIONING COMMUNITIES OF CARE.
On April 30th, las Zapatistas boarded La Montaña, a boat headed towards Europe to commence their planetary tour, La Gira Por La Vida: European Chapter. As is their custom, the delegation received the mandate to carry Zapatista thought far and wide. Most importantly the Zapatistas' journey to Europe aimed to embrace La Otra Europa and those in struggle and rebellion; to learn from the histories, geographies, and ways of being. With this act, the Zapatistas crossed planetary bridges and opened doors for others to follow their path to listen and learn from those geographies closed off to us by the hydra’s desire to divide, isolate, and conquer. Heeding the call of the Zapatistas, Xicana Tiahui alongside our honorary member Quiqui crossed mundos and traveled to Madrid, Spain to accompany the Zapatistas and the compas of La Otra Europa to declare that we, indeed, have not been conquistados. We share memories, reflections, and musings of our journey as witnesses to the Zapatistas' call to listen, learn, and grow.
Check out our new episode with Dra’s Maria E. Cotera and Linda Garcia Merchant. They share with us their collaborative archival, memory and community work being done for Chicana For Mi Raza. Summer of 2021, Natalia Toscano and Gustavo Garcia were part of a UNM Chicana/o Studies field school in Taos, New Mexico with Dr. Theresa J. Cordova. As part of the class, they learned about archival practices and digitized the lifelong work of Enriqueta Vasquez. In this episode, Dr. Cotera and Garcia Merchant talk about the power of community archiving and the importance of sharing strategies for community documentation.
In this special episode, we talk with Linda Quiquivix, a political educator and organizer from Oxnard, California, to discuss the recent arrival of the 421 Escuadrón, a contingent of seven Zapatistas from autonomous territories of Chiapas, México, to the geographies of Spain to encounter those from below. In our dialogue, we discuss the nuances of the misconceptions of the Zapatistas, the reasons for traveling the five continents of planeta tierra, how we understand Europe, and the ways this world-historical engagement will challenge us to rethink organizing from below and to the left. You can follow Linda Quiquivix's popular education work, translations, academic work, and blog of her travel to accompany the Zapatistas in Europe at https://quiqui.org/
Acompañados con las compas Inés y Rocío, dos defensoras de la vida en la lucha contra los megaproyectos in Mexico, exploramos los movimientos de los pueblos indígenas que siguen luchando contra el estado colonial de México y contra las empresas extractivas. Rocío, concejala para el Concejo Indígena de Gobierno (CIG) de la comunidad de Mezcala, Jalisco, nos platíca de los esfuerzos del pueblo Coca para ser reconocidos como comunidad Indígena. También nos cuenta sobre los proyectos comunitarios desarrollados para mantener la identidad Coca y renacer el idioma y costumbres del pueblo Coca. Adicionalmente, Inés y Rocío platican de las varias luchas de los pueblos esforzándose para mantener sus territorios y prevenir la destrucción de la madre tierra.
As the environmental crisis continues, struggles for resources and life continue to persist. In this episode, we are joined by Alejandria Lyons, a Nueva Mexicana water activist and the coordinator for environmental justice at the Southwest Organizing Project (SWOP) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Alejandria shares with us the historical struggle for water rights in New Mexico, commencing with acequias, a traditional water system used to maintain community throughout the state. To the struggle against major development aiming to acquire water rights for the construction of housing development and corporate headquarters. The struggle for water stretches across the world and the battle for water in New Mexico offers insight into the urgency to continue to momentum to protect and preserve environmental life.
In this special episode, the Tierra y Libertad Press zine collective discusses the inspiration for the recently published zine "Xicanista Radicalisms: Bridging Together Multiple Worlds" that was released in April 2021. Tierra y Libertad Press is an autonomous, self-managed, and member-organized zine press that publishes zines connected to Chicanx/Xican@, Latinx/Latin American, Black/Afro-descent, mixed-race, and Native/Indigenous people from Las Américas. We aim to collaborate, design, create, publish, and disseminate zines that draw from various mediums of creative and analytical expressions. We create zines to spark revolutionary imaginations and possibilities in the spirit of do-it-yourself (DIY), rasquachismo, and Punk sensibilities. We desire to create a radical community of creative, cultural, and artistic practitioners and zinesters. In this episode, we invited poets Alé and Mariah on this episode to share the poems that they contributed to the zine. With this reading, the zine collective offers a response and analysis to the poetry that invites all those who encounter this work to feel deeply about the powerful words Alé, Mariah, and others who contributed to this zine shared with courage in our times.
How do we know in Chicanx Studies? In this episode, we are joined by Dra. Irene Vasquez, Chair of the Department of Chicana/o Studies at the University of New Mexico (UNM), to discuss Chicana/o/x Studies. The Xicana Tiahui crew learns about Irene’s educational journey and the origins of her commitment to Chicana/o Studies. From UCLA’s Hunger Strike to the departmentalization of Chicana/o Studies at UNM, Dr. Vasquez has been on the frontlines of the struggle for Chicana/o Studies and reflects on the lessons learned on this path, the hard realities of navigating academic institutions, and the beauty of working with communities seeking justice and knowledge. As a collective, we dialogue about the values and ethics that have emerged throughout the development of the field and meditate on the future directions of Chicanx Studies in the academy and most importantly within our communities.
In this episode, we are joined by compa Targol Mesbah, current Anthropology and Social Change professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies and activist-organizer. Targol reflects on the influences and experiences that guided her interest in photography, Third World Cinema, Post-Colonial Theory, and Critical Inquiry. We learn about Targol’s intellectual trajectory and its critical intervention in theories of representation and visual culture. As a collective, we explore our relationships to learning and academia and discuss the possibilities of spaces of learning for transformation and the meaning of creating community collectives and nourishing spaces.
En este episodio, la Dra. Doris Careaga-Coleman de la Universidad de Nuevo México (UNM), nos acompaña para platicar sobre el movimiento de los pueblos Afro-Mejicanos. Brevemente exploramos la presencia histórica y la fundación de la cultura Negra en la tela de la Mexicanidad. Doris nos comparte sobre los esfuerzos contemporáneos que se han manifestado en varias partes de México. Nos cuenta sobre su experiencia como Afro-Mexicana y las costumbres de su comunidad en Tamiahua, Veracruz que ha reforzado su orgullo de ser mujer Negra. Al concluso de la plática, la Dra. comparta la necesidad de los Estudios Chicanas y Chicanos en promover los Estudios Afro-Mejicanos y Afro-Chicana/os y visualizar futuros Negra/o/xs.
After the white supremacist seizure of the capital in January, the Xicana Tiahui crew alongside the compa NM, reflect on the bubbling white supremacist actions erupting around us. We take a deep dive into the various organizations that promote white supremacy and who have taken a stance that is rooted in politics “from below and to the right”. We ponder on what it means for subversive white supremacy organizations to take anti-capitalist and anti-modern stances. What does it mean for our communities when white supremacist organizations co-op language of the left? What does it mean when white supremacists challenge structures that have been inherently created to benefit them? Music feature credit: Jag Arreola, "Fuerza Guerrera II" (Prod. Accosta the Man).
In this steamy episode, the Xicana Tiahui crew “chap it up” with Claudia Rodriguez as she returns on this special Valentine's Day episode. Sharing her erotic poetry, Claudia creates the space for us to explore the need for pleasure and vulnerability in our sexual encounters and the importance of creating sex-positivity dialogues in our homes and community. Check out more of Claudia’s writing at: http://rodriguezwriter.blogspot.com/
In this episode the Xicana Tiahui crew hangouts with Claudia Rodriguez, scholar, writer, and teatrista. Claudia reflects on her journey as a Queer Chicana writer and her role in creating Butchalis de Panochtitlan, which functioned as space for Chicanas to own, claim, and celebrate their Butch identities. We talk about why theater and Queer theater specifically is overlooked in the field of Chicana/o/x studies and the critical role artists make in producing knowledge for La Chicanada.
In this episode, Xicana Tiahui sits down with Dr. Daphne V. Taylor-Garcia, professor of Ethnic Studies at UC San Diego, to discuss her book, The Existence of the Mixed Race Damnes: Decolonialism, Class, Gender, Race (2018). Centering her mixed background as critical to informing her work, Dr. Taylor-Garcia shares with us her familial background, growing up in Toronto, Canada, and the experiences she faced transplanting to California. We contextualize her work and the impact her book has made on the field of Chicana/o Studies, Ethnic Studies, and coalitional organizing.
In this episode, the compas of Xicana Tiahui are in conversation with Chicanx Studies professor Susy J. Zepeda from UC Davis. We engage various topics, ideas, and directions that start from the intellectual and activist thrust of Dr. Zepeda's journey through academia that leads us to questions of worldmaking as La Xicanada in the United States.
In this episode, the compas of Xicana Tiahui foster a space of reflection to discuss our personal growths and understandings of Chicanx World-Making. Engaging in a cyclical discussion, the crew checks in and offers their takes on the possibilities of meaning infused in world-making and the ways a Chicanx world-making can take place in our everyday life.
In this episode, the Xicana Tiahui crew hangs out with Profe Roberto D. Hernandez from the Department of Chicana/o Studies at San Diego State University. Roberto delves into his intellectual origins and inspirations that grew from his experiences along the U.S./Mexico border in San Ysidro. Discussing his current work and projects, Roberto highlights the Zapatista engagement of the civilization of death as a framework to help us understand the systems/institutions of destruction that are rampant in our communities and lives. Profe Roberto however reminds us of the power of world-making and the need for a decolonial imperative as a mechanism to obtain a dignified life. #decolonialimperative
Music: Subsistencia, "Ehécatl," from Nuestra Tierra Anahuac (1998)
The Xicana Tiahui crew members converse with the Mapping Against Power Systems (MAPS) crew, Maritza (they/them), Kim (they/them) and Jaz (she/hers). As a womxn and gender non-binary centered collective, MAPS set out to create a knowledge sharing and co-creating space that disrupts colonial understandings of land and space. In this episode, we learn about why MAPS emerges and how the collective builds an insurgent counter-mapping project and builds new cartographic visions of relating to our neighborhoods and community.
In this episode, the Xicana Tiahui crew linked up with special guests Bre and Carlos from student struggle COLA4ALL at the University of California, Santa Cruz. In this conversation, we learned about the experiences and motivations of graduate students who were unsatisfied with the limited reach of COLA, cost-of-living-adjustment. Graduate students like Bre and Carlos, amongst many, pushed the boundaries of obtaining livable wages for solely graduate students, and instead formulated a relational based praxis that struggles for a dignified wage and life for all students, all workers, and communities who are seen as disposable under the banner of the university. The crew delves into discussions about the role and limitations of unions and the paradigm of labor value. Lastly, we learn about how the collective A Place 4 Us emerges, and Bre shares how this idea blossomed from her relationship with Harriet Tubman and her desire for freedom. Music by Bread and Circuits and La Trova Pank.
In this episode, the Xicana Tiahui crew takes a moment to have an organic conversation about the educational responses to the pandemic and how educators are expected to navigate it alongside the students they teach or facilitate discussions with. We are graduate students learning and sharing the virtual realm, a phenomenon that we think through together as we try to understand our experiences.
In this episode, we discuss the lived experiences and political praxis of Ymoat, a Xicana transborder organizer influenced by Zapatismo who participates in many spaces of rebellion such as El Central Cultural de La Raza, Detention Resistance, and Hormigas Autonómas y Rebeldes. Ymoat is also part of an emerging podcast called Voices of Transborder Resistance.
As a guiding question, we asked ourselves: How do we build autonomy and create networks of resistance? We reflected on the work of Xicana organizers such as our guest Ymoat and the new re-structuring of capitalism with the current pandemic of COVID-19. Intro song is “Generaciones de Odio” by L.A. Punk band Subsistencia. The song at 39:40 is Gustavo playing his jarana to “Chiles Verdes.”
Here is a podcast episode that took place in the late summer of 2019. This episode dialogues on the emergence and struggle of the Congreso Nacional Indígena and the Concejo Indígena de Gobierno. We want to thank QuiQui for sitting down and speaking with us as a collective to talk about the Indigenous struggles in México. Music credit goes to Subsistencia, a punk band from Los Angeles. Songs are "Xochicuicatl" and "Zapatista Guerrer@ Tezcatlipoca."