Xicana Tiahui Podcast

Travesía por la Vida: U.S. from Below & to the Left Encounters Tierra Insumisa

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.

Chicana Por Mi Raza: Archives, Memory, and Community

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.

Europe from Below: The Zapatistas Travel to the 5 Continents

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/

La Lucha Por La Vida: Megaproyectos en México

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. 

Agua Querencia: New Mexico Acequias and the Struggle for Environmental Life

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. 

Xicanista Radicalisms: Bridging Together Multiple Worlds

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.

Xicanacimiento: Chicanx Studies as a Life-Giving Force

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. 

Heart to Heart: Third Cinema, Postcolonial Theory, and Critical Inquiry

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. 

México Negro: La Lucha Por Historia, Cultura, y Comunidad

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.

White Supremacy Strikes Back!

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).