[SWAPA Interlude] Circle #0

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.