[SWAPA Interlude] Circle #1

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.