The Reality Dysfunction - Unscripted/Unsilenced (Ernesto Todd Mireles, Ph.D.)

Greetings Dysfunctionals in the second part of our conversation on sports mascots the crew is speaking with Karen Schaumann-Beltran, Maria Zavala Paredes, and Monica Washington Padula the leader of a successful 6-year campaign in Paw Paw, Michigan, to rid the local high school of their racist Redskin’s mascot. Their stories are gripping and will give all of us real insight into how a successful anti mascot campaign is conducted and the personal price the people organizing the campaign pay.

 

The cast of dysfunctional regulars appears, Alexandra Lozada, Daniel Soza, Francisco Lopez, Rainer Delgado, Juan Carlos Vega and myself Ernesto Todd Mireles.

 

This is the link to the article referenced several times in the podcast.

Hispanic activist want Chicano Studies classes censored

In this episode of The Reality Dysfunction we trashed the political, and just talked about clothes, belt buckles, health and tattoos. In case anyone was wondering this is what we say to each other before the tape starts rolling. 

Dysfunctionals! Forget the hater hype blasting the latest show about the iconic Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla, you heard it here first. Selena ROCKS!

This special segment of The Reality Dysfunction is a talked given by Apaxu Maiz author of Xicano: a autobiography and Aztlan: birthright or right for birth. This talk was given at Michigan State University in the winter of 1996

We apologize for the sound. A lot of work went into cleaning up the audio to bring you this important lecture on its 25th anniversary. 

 

Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes is Professor of American Culture, Romance Languages and Literatures, and Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and received his BA from Harvard (1991) and his MA and Ph.D. from Columbia (1999). He is author of Queer Ricans: Cultures and Sexualities in the Diaspora (2009), Keywords for Latina/o Studies and of several books of fiction. His most recent book Translocas: The Politics of Puerto Rican Drag and Trans Performance (University of Michigan Press, 2021) is part of the Triangulations: Lesbian/Gay/Queer Theater/Drama/Performance series. Larry performs in drag as Lola von Miramar since 2010, and has appeared in several episodes of the YouTube series Cooking with Drag Queens.  He is the former director of the Latina/o Studies Program at University of Michigan, his grandmother is originally from Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, and he goes by Larry.

Today, we will discuss why Latinx/o/a, Puerto Rican, and Xicano Studies, as well as Queer and LGBTQ Studies are key to US culture and society, his futuros projects as author, artist, and activist, and Larry's new appointment (starting in July 2021) as Chair of the Department of American Culture at UofM-and why this is important in the fight to maintain and nurture Ethnic Studies across the USA.

https://lsa.umich.edu/rll/people/faculty/lawrlafo.html

https://lsa.umich.edu/ac/news-events/all-news/search-news/prof--lawrence-la-fountain-stokes-appointed-as-american-culture-.html    

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~lawrlafo/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_La_Fountain-Stokes

https://www.press.umich.edu/11314788/translocas (30% discount code: UMS21)

https://www.press.umich.edu/flyers/9780472074273.pdf

In this episode of The Reality Dysfunction we talk with Dr. Vanessa Bustamante the Vice Chair of El Partido Nacional de la Raza Unida about her life and activism on behalf of the Xicana/o/x community. About growing up a first generation Xicana in Southern Califas, the educational struggles on her way to a Ph.D., and why she is proud to call herself a chola.

This segment of The Reality Dysfunction is a sound file of the live broadcast we did on Wednesday Feb. 6, 2021 as the US capitol was being ransacked and pillaged by bunch of American "patriots". 

As always, The Dysfunctionals do the best they can to keep the focus on the Xicano/Latino community and what these unfolding events mean for us. 

 

#controlthenarrative

#resistthedysfunction

In this episode of The Reality Dysfuncton we interview Enrique Cardiel a long time Raza Unida Party activist and community organizer in Alburquerque, NM., he recently ran for a state rep position in that state. We talk about his campaign, and the state of Xicana/o/x politics in the United States.

Dr. Ernesto Mireles and Alex Yanish discuss the Kristen Williams pamphet "Whither Anarchism" and how anarchist politics, particularly preformative politics have moved into the Xicana/o/x movement mainstream.

 

  

The Reality Dysfunction presents the classic lecture of the 1990s by Daniel Osuna the intenational secretary for the Raza Unida Party. This recording october 19, 1992 at Michigan State Univeristy. Produced by Beatrice Peters (Tsimphean/Nicola Anishinawbe) and Brian Sorbo. The video was produced at WELM Public Access Television. Music is by Antawara. The video which can be found here https://youtu.be/ucZLOzhxL5Y.

 

The copyright is El Partido Nacional de la Raza Undia.

 

Everyone here on The Reality Dysfunction podcast hopes you are being safe as the world works to bring this pandemic under control. We're getting out shots and we truly hope that when you opportunity arises you will too!

This special segment, the Dysfunctional Crew is pleased to present Dr. Javier Sánchez, who talks with us about why the Covid 19 vaccine is critical for the Xicano/Latino community. Dr. Sanchez is a family practice doctor for Southern California Kaiser Permanente and is an Associate professor at the University of California, Riverside Medical School. The crew talks with Dr. Sanchez about the COVID-19 vaccines, what we can expect from them and when we can expect to get back to ‘normal.’ Dr. Sanchez is also part the National Campaign #ThisIsOurShot which seeks to spread knowledge on the COVID-19 vaccines and how people can get it.

 

You can check it out here: https://www.nam.org/thisisourshot/ https://www.cvs.com/immunizations/covid-19-vaccine

This recording is from the 2024 National Association of Chicana/Chicano Studies held in April 2024 in San Francisco. The three presenters are Brinley Carrillo, Demi Garcia and Violette Valencia. I have broken their presentation in to three separate podcasts to make it easier to listen. The abstract for the presentation is below.

Three years after the passing of Cesar Chavez in 1994, the United Farm workers under the direction of their new president Arturo Rodriguez began organizing Strawberry Workers in Watsonville. The Watsonville Strawberry Campaign followed the same organizing model the UFW had implemented during the grape campaigns of the 1960s-1980s. Taking on the Watsonville grower establishment through worker strikes and demonstrations This panel will talk about the power dynamic between the growers, the UFW and the national community. Strikers and union members were treated poorly simply protesting and demanding their collective bargaining rights. The workers fighting in this campaign were known to be some of the most socially and economically exploited in the country. Workers in Watsonville were fighting for a wage of $4.25 an hour and basic human necessities such as drinking water and clean toilets in the fields. This campaign was the biggest one for the UFW since the 1970s when it came to organizing farm labor. In addition, strawberry workers endured workplace conditions that made them even more susceptible to injuries, including no health insurance, which is especially serious when considering the amount of pesticides the workers were exposed to, and the health issues that arose from exposure. Through interviews with public action organizers from several different states working for the United Farm Workers on the Strawberry Campaign as well as the President of the UFW at the time Arturo Rodriguez we will explore the perspective of those who were directly involved in the community organizing campaign and the reasoning behind their participation. What they saw as organizers across the country and what contributions they believe the Strawberry Campaign made to bettering conditions for workers in Watsonville.

In this episode of The Reality Dysfunction I am speaking with two exception young scholars Candelario Moreno and Selah Hernandez. We are discussing their recent presentation at the National Association of Chicana Chicano Studies conference in San Francisco. Its a good talk.

Third and final part of a conversation with leaders of the Xicano Studies/Ethnic Studies movement in California. Sean Arce, Lupe Carrasco Cardona and Elias Serna give their final opinions on the state of the movement and the necessity of gente from across the country to engage in local mobilization and national activism. 

In this episode of The Reality Dysfunction, our dysfunctional gang talks with three term state of Michigan House representative Vanessa Guerra. Representative Guerra, (D-95th district) won the August 4, primary against four time incumbent Saginaw County Clerk Michael Hanley. Guerra won by a landslide 6000 votes in largely rural county in which Mexicans make up eight percent of the population. The gang has many questions for Guerra and she has lots of advice for young people (and old) about running for office and how and when to get involved.

In addition to Rep. Guerra our usual dysfunctional crew of Alexandra Lozada (NY), Juan Carlos Vega (Washington DC), Rainer Delgado (MI), Daniel Soza (MI), Francisco Lopez, (CA), Carlos Hernandez (TX) and Ernesto Mireles (AZ). Also joining us for the podcast are Maria Zavala Paredes, Carolina Sanchez and Cecilia Olvera.

In the episode of The Reality Dysfunction: X/L Edition our panel of dysfunctional experts on the Xicano Lation community take on the issues of gentrification. As the children of white flighters find their way back into the inner city Xicanos/Latinos find themselves faced once again with physical, emotional and economic displacement from neighborhoods that have generational significance. 

Perhaps a part of the solution to gentrification can be found in the development of political, economic and educational strucutures that push the Xicano/Latino community beyond our colonized relationship with the United States.

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@alexandralozada

 

 

Today we are talking about the recent rebellions taking place across this country as reactions to the deaths of Geroge Floyd, Breona Taylor and Auhmad Arbery. Black men and women visciously murdered by the police all within the past month. 

Our dysfunctional crew of experts takes on the topic and how it applies to the Xicano/Latino community and what we need to be doing in our own communities to support and validate Black lives while preparing politically to end the mass incarceration of children on the border, men and women in prison, and the disregard the colonial system has for Black and Brown lives. This episode was recorded on June 3, 2020.

In this episode we mention a few different links. You can find them below. 

Sign the petition to reinstate the Raza Unida Party Facebook page. https://www.change.org/REINSTATERAZAUNIDA

Also, if you get a chance check out my latest blog post You Say You Want a Revolution? 

Abolish the police has been the battle cry across the country for the past couple of weeks. This abolitionist movement is not new and has been working for decades to achieve this goal. This week, our gang of dysfunctionals talks about their own hopes around abolishing the police. 

We are joined again by Dr. Cirien Saadeh of Minneapolis who is talking about some of the push back by the non profit sector to stop the total disbanding of the police. 

This presentation was given on August 15, 2024, over Zoom. It is a collaboration between the Chicano Liberation Committee of Denver, CO., and the Partido Nacional de la Raza Unida. Below is a description of the talk. This file is the presentation. Another file with the discussion will also be uploaded. The video of this meeting will be uploaded to YouTube and we will put the link to that in this description when it is.

 

"Aztlan represents more than a political stance; it is a declaration of Xicano identity and a call for resistance against settler colonial oppression. Aztlan embodies Xicano heritage, struggle, and a political vision for a future where our people are free from the constraints of a system never designed to serve us."

Once again The Reality Dysfunction takes on an often overlooked aspect of this election. The noise around post election violence is becoming more and more strident everyday but what does that really mean for the Xicano/Latino community. Its to the point words like civil war are being thrown around like it may be an inevitability. Recent the questions was posted by Dr. Roberto Cintli Rodriguez if white supremacist declare a civil war and secede from the United States will POC follow their example? (you can read his article here) It's a provocative subject and one that deserves consideration within the realm of Xicano politics. Included here are jpegs of a letter that is being passed around in the Prescott, AZ., area from the leader of the local milita. Read the messages below. 

Like The Reality Dysfunction on Facebook.

 

 

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Music:

Kid Frost "This if for La Raza"

Rebel Diaz "Which side are you on" 

This short episode I talk about the idea of existence as resistance within a settler colonial political world. This one is a little different. It's just me.

On April 4, 2020 Jose Diaz a masters student in NYU’s social and cultural analysis program and student services coordinator for the NYU prison education program was released from Rikers Island after being put there on a technicality. It was through an epic effort lead by the director of NYU’s prison education program Dr. Kaitlin Noss worked to bring together a number of organizations who joined in the effort to get Jose Diaz released. 

Jose was incarcerated at Rikers on the same day NYC’s Mayor De Blasio publicly stated there would be no more people sent to Rikers. Rikers Island has long been under scrutiny and calls from the public for its shuttering. Rikers is also infamous for being a warehouse for black and brown folk who are there in one of the US’s most notorious prisons because they are unable to pay their bond.

Join myself, Drs. Kaitlin Noss and Zoe Hammer, along with Jose Diaz for a far ranging conversation about the conditions inside Rikers Island, the far reaching implications of quarantine for Black and Brown communities and what Latino Studies brings the table in terms of understanding and making sense of the era of Covid19.

 

For another excellent discussion from Jose Diaz check out this podcast by the Beyond-Prisons.com crew.

https://www.beyond-prisons.com/home/released-from-rikers-island-nyu-student-speaks-out-about-covid-19

The Reality Dysfunction is pleased to invite you to listen to a special presentation by Dr. Rogelio Saenz, a professor of demography at UT San Antonio, who has done remarkable work reporting on data that reveals the inordinate impact on Mexican Americans from the coronavirus pandemic. "More than 100,000 Americans have officially died of coronavirus complications. Researchers believe that number could be higher. AMP Research Labs show that the numbers of COVID-19-related fatalities among Black Americans is 2.4 times higher than that of white Americans. The same research shows the number of Latino fatalities is slightly greater than that of whites. Dr. Saenz examined COBID-19 data dashboards of 38 states and said these questions surrounding race result in scattered and incomplete information about Latinos. "So Latinos, a high proportion identify racially as white, so their infections and their deaths are included in the white population," said Dr. Saenz. "So, that becomes extremely difficult to compare, for example, whites and Latinos because Latinos are double counted." (written by Norma Martinez and Lauren Terraza for Texas Public Radio) Read Dr. Rogelio Saenz's report: What do we know about COVID-19 infections and deaths among Latinos?" Also presenting is Dr. Julian Perez, with Sea Mar Community Health Centers, has accepted our invitation to speak and present along with Dr. Saenz. Dr. Perez is on the ground working daily with patients with COVID-19. He has been an excellent spokesman for Sea Mar Health Services on the topic of COVID-19 and its effect on the Latino population.

In this episode of The Reality Dysfunction we talk with Mark Anthony Torres a 3 decade Chicano Michigan activist about his new book, his clothing line and his run for congress.

In this episode we talk about how to build power as colonized people within settler colonial society.

In this episode of The Reality Dysfunction the Dysfunctionals get jiggy with the question of how do we get power?  They also get a little jiggy with each other over the issue of immigration and how Xicana/o/x's should pick the top political issues facing the Xicano Latino community. It is an interesting discussion. 

This week Dr. Ernesto, Pauline and Adan talk about the recent election of Donald Trump and among other things his promise to end the Department of Education.

In this episode of The Reality Dysfunction we talk with Veronica Garcia the Texas state director for the Partido Nacional de la Raza Unida. We talk about plans for Raza Unida to expand across the country and in the great state of Texas.

This episode of The Reality Dysfunction has us talking to Dr. Cirien Saadeh and Cruz Rodriguez, both of them are organizer/activists in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This conversation was recorded on Friday May 28, the day after the Minneapolis Third Police Precinct building was torched by protesters demanding justice on behalf of the murdered George Floyd. 

Floyd was choked to death by Derek Chauvin a Minneapolis police officer with a history of violent behavior toward people of color. In the last few days spontaneous uprisings have occurred in cities across the United States all demanding justice and an end to the murder of black and brown people by the police. 

Below you will find links to a number of organizations that are doing important work on the ground in Minneapolis. Donate if you can. 

 

*note* do not include “BLM” in your payment note, some are getting blocked. Also many orgs listed below are in immediate need as well, please check out that section.

Immediate Need (updated 5/30 6:00pm) :

• WFPC Direct Action and Rapid Response Spreadsheet (consistently updated, supply drop offs, sign ups, donations, etc.) centralized frontlines fund: https://secure.everyaction.com/fxrNs65SYEiFw59Zegwcnw2?fbclid=IwAR0PYYLjqSscr1uK6dbru074-Tih8tsMlbsKEGDqLJ0A49Cl7oI7BaAlcUQ

• @melly3141 on venmo (on the ground, food and supplies)

• $Isakdouah on cashapp (buying gas masks for protestors) 

• zelle number: 6125989366, $yhaante on cashapp (on the ground, supplies/first aid)

• @cypress-kenney on venmo (warm meals for organizers and frontliners)

 

Listed on 5/29 (have not been updated of status but most likely still accepting funds)

• @gabisoglam on venmo, $sapphireluxxe on cashapp (Black trans woman in need of funds for medical attention w/out insurance coverage and funds to support a care team sending out supplies and care)

• $notmuna on cashapp, https://www.paypal.me/munaahmed (Black woman protester in need of funds)

Listed on 5/28 (have not been updated of status but most likely still accepting funds)

• $voxpayne on cashapp (on the ground, supplies and hospital bail fund)

• @femmeempowermentproject on venmo (on the ground, supplies/herbal medicine care)

• @cassidyminarik on venmo (on the ground, supplies)

• @miasolange on venmo (on the ground, supplies)

• $CarmenMeans on cashapp (donations for local food bank, also accepting items for donation: https://twitter.com/prozacandblunts/status/1266068258572111876)

• @sonianeculescu (on the ground, funds for unhoused folks) 

Organizations and Groups (consider making monthly donations!!):

• Minnesota Freedom Fund (bail funds): UPDATE 5/29 2:49pm, MFF asking for donations to also be directed to other orgs listed below!! They have received a flood of support, please share the wealth!!! Keep donating here as well!!!

• Reclaim the Block (organizing)

• Black Visions Collective (organizing and mutual aid)

• Northstar Health Collective (medical donation): 

• MN Healing Justice Network / Spiral Collective (long haul care, ongoing trauma response, immediate funds to healers on site at Cup Foods and Moon Palace Medic Relief)

• Unicorn Riot (on the ground independent media)

• Lake St Council (help clean and rebuild lake st. businesses): 

• Women for Political Change Mutual Aid Fund (mutual aid and resource coordination) 

• Women for Political Change Frontline Fund (protestor supplies and redistributed funds to direct protestors) 

• Divine Natural Ancestry (free food for the people, local farm led by Black womxn) 

• Minnesota Youth Collective (organizing and space) 

• Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en La Lucha, CTUL_TC (organizing and space) 

• Twin Cities Recovery Project (Grief and trauma support, long haul care, ongoing trauma response, immediate funds to healers on site at Cup Foods and Moon Palace Medic Relief)

• Twin Cities DSA (groceries for meals for community members) 

Individual Funds: 

• @gabisoglam on venmo, $sapphireluxxe on cashapp (Black trans woman in need of funds for medical attention w/out insurance coverage and funds to support a care team sending out supplies and care)

• $notmuna on cashapp, https://www.paypal.me/munaahmed (Black woman protester in need of funds)

Lawyers:

 

• BEST # FOR PROTESTORS TO WRITE ON THEIR BODY: 612-444-2654 National Lawyers Guild MN Chapter: https://nlgmn.org/, https://www.facebook.com/nlgminnesota, contact is Michelle Gross  nlgminn@gmail.com 

• Noah M. Johnson “I am willing to give free legal advice to anyone associated with tonight’s protests”: noah@uptownlawyer.com , 612-827-6781 (office), 763-213-9068 (cell) 

• T. Zathras “If anyone is in need of legal representation due to their participation in tonight’s protests, DM me. I may not have criminal law experience but I will represent you for free”.: https://twitter.com/TZath/status/1265488843534467080?s=20 

• Criminal and Juvenile Defense Clinic at University of St. Thomas is offering free legal representation, probably will have to leave message but team will respond quickly: 651-962-4960

• Legal Rights Center: 612-337-0030, AFTER HOURS: 612-444-2654 (Nat’l Lawyers Guild)

• Rachel Crane “IMMIGRATION SPECIFIC - Not an attorney, but work with many immigration attorneys. I can put people in touch with attorneys who will do pro bono immigration work for those whose participation in these protests has an impact on immigration status”: 805-815-6209 or rachelleahcrane@gmail.com 

• Martine Law “If any peaceful protestors were wrongfully arrested and need pro bono representation please invite them to call” 612-208-8076

George Floyd Family/Memorial Fund: https://www.gofundme.com/f/georgefloyd

NATIONAL LIST:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CjZMORRVuv-I-qo4B0YfmOTqIOa3GUS207t5iuLZmyA/edit

 

POWER HOUSE EPISODE!

First Gen Podcasters Pauline and Adan talk politics and belonging in their most recent podcast. Their take on the impending (threatened) ICE raids and deportations. This one is a banger. Share far and wide.

In this episode the dysfunctional crew talks to Jennifer Allen Aroz, League of Conservation Voter's (LCV) senior vice president of community engagement who founded Chispa in 2014.

Chispa is the community organizing/engagment arm of LCV that is staffed by Xicana/o/x and Latina/o/x organizers in barrios and cities across the country creating community based committees that are addressing environmental justices issues. 

 

Here is a link to learn more about Chispa and the work they are doing across the country. https://www.lcv.org/chispa/

This week on The Reality Dysfunction Dr. Ernesto, Alex Lozada, and Juan Carlos Vega talk with Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez, the author of the seminal Xicano essay "Who Declared War on the Word Xicano" and "Our Sacred Maiz is our Mother" and "Yolqui: Testimonios of Violence"

Dr. Cintli talks about his experiences writing his last books, what drives him to write and what brown folk can do to come together for a better world. 

In this episode of The Reality Dysfunction, the dysfunctionals talk with Pete Vargas the Resturant Organizing Center Michigan director who is raising money and moblizing Black and Brown organizers to help defeat Donald Trump in the fall. 

First in a series of conversations bringing different voices from the Latino community around the in to talk about daily life in a pandemic. Our goal is to publish daily.  

This segment of The Reality Dysfunction is a conversation with Somos en Escritos editors Scott Duncan and Jenny  Irizary and the forthcoming book El Porvenir, Ya! Joining us in the conversation two of the authors Rosa Martha Villareal who is recently retired as an Adjunct Professor at Cosumnes River College in Sacramento, California, and the author of several novels including Doctor Magdalena, The Stillness of Love and Exile, and Chronicles of Air and Dreams. She writes a periodic column, Tertulian’s Corner, for Somos en escrito. Also Ernesto Hogan who is the author of High Aztech, Smoking Mirror Blues, and Cortez on Jupiter. Those novels, along with his short fiction have won him the reputation of being the Father of Chicano Science Fiction. His mother’s maiden name is Garcia, he was born in East L.A. His work has appeared in Amazing Stories, Analog Science Fiction and Fact, and Aztlan: A Journal of Chicano Studies, and other magazines and anthologies.

El Porvenir, Ya! Citlalzazanilli Mexicatl: A Chicano Science Fiction Anthology.  ​Established and upcoming Mexican American writers of Science-Fiction and Fantasy come together in one place to offer visions of raza futures and indigenous otherworlds. Included works by Martin Hill Ortiz, Carmen Baca, Frank Lechuga, Lizz Huerta, Kathleen Alcalá, Rosaura Sánchez and Beatrice Pita, Pedro Iniguez, Rosa Martha Villarreal, R. Ch. Garcia, Nicholas Belardes, Ricardo Tavarez, Ernest Hogan, Michelle Robles Wallace, Scott Russell Duncan, Rios de La Luz, and Mario Acevedo.  

In this episode of The Reality Dysfunction Dr. Ernesto and crew talk about their vaccines, how and when will the Xicano Latino community go back to work, work expectations, what they plan on doing this summer, and how issues of pay have been impacted by the past year. 

Biden or Bernie? What does our panel of Xicano/Latino experts say on the matter? Only one way to find out! Listen now!

In this special segment of The Reality Dysfunction we are posting a recent discussion that took place with MeXicanos 2070. This discussion centered on the Xicano Insitute for Teaching and Organizing (XITO) and it's emergence from the Tucson Mexican American Studies struggle. How is XITO carrying on the legacy of the MAS struggle in the teacher training work it is doing across the country? 

In this episode of The Reality Dysfunction Dr. Ernesto speaks with Chair Pro Tem of the La Raza Unida Party Ernesto Ayala and James Ortega a Raza Unida member about the weekly study group, why it is a requirement for membership, and how important it is to develop the organic intellectual side of the Xicana/o/x movement. 

 

Click on the link below to get more information about the weekly study group.  

https://form.jotform.com/202060962074045

This episode of The Reality Dysfunction Podcast talks with three young emerging scholars at Northern Arizona University. These three women will be presenting at the 2024 NACCS conference in San Francisco on the Public Action aspect of the Watsonville Strawberry Campaign in the late 1990s.

In this segment of The Reality Dysfunction we talk with Sean Arce, Lupe Carrasco Cardona and Elias Serna. Three leaders in the struggle for Xicano Studies in California K12 schools. Arce was also a leader in the struggle for Mexican American Studies in Tucson after the state of Arizona passed HB 2281 outlawing the teaching of MAS in public schools. Please listen to the first part of this conversation as these three layout the recent history of struggle for Xicano studies and the issues surrounding the fight in Califas. 

This second part continues the conversation with California Xicano Studies educators Sean Arce, Lupe Carrasco Cardona and Elias Serna. In this part of the conversation the group turns toward the preservation of Xicano studies and the role it plays in educating our community for self determination. 

This episode we are talking with Dr. Jerry Garcia vice president of Education Services, Sea Mar Museum, and Sea Mar Housing is talking with us about his passion for Xicano history, his work creating a Xicano history museum in the Pacific Northwest and how happy he is to be back in his home state of Washington.

This segment of The Reality Dysfunction is hosted by Juan Carlos Vega. He and the crew talk with organizers Shakeara Mingo and Julian Zepeda from the Cancel the Rent DC and Forget the Debt Phoenix and the role their respective campaigns are playing in trying to bring relief to covid weary communities. 

 

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Musica

Revolution has come - Rebel Diaz

This is for La Raza - Kid Frost 

In this episode Pauline and Adan talk about their backgrounds and the support of their families as the began their journey through higher education. 

 

Producer: Ernesto Mireles

In this episode of The Reality Dysfunction we talk about national politics and how we can get past our own egos, drop the fingerwagging (name shaming), identity boxes and what it will take to build a politcal persona in the Xicano/Latino community across the country. 

This is a recording of a talk I thought I had lost. I gave this lecture on Nov. 15, 2014, at the Prescott College Masters Symposium. They never asked me back? The title of the talk is "Why Peace is Impossible."

 

I hope you enjoy it.

One of the main topics that constantly come up in discussion like the one we are having is how our community has very little sense of history. We are very clear about the historical myths that found the United States. These myths are taught to us from the moment we walk into school as babies (literally) and are then relentlessly pounded into our heads for the next 12 years. For many of us our first contact with Xicano/Mexicano/Indigenous history of any kind does not happen until we get to college. Therein lies the rub – most of us never make it to college.

We have our Sheroes/Heroes, martyrs, and minstrels/jokers. The epic figures that stand above all as beacons of resistance to Anglo oppression and we fixate on them as we have been taught to do. The truth is every one of us has benefited from the love and mentorship of someone from our community both in and out of our families.

Let’s talk about those people. Let’s talk about the example they have set and how our forgotten ancestors have dragged the very notion of being Mexican, Puerto Rican, Colombian, Xicano into the present/future. The more we name our Sheroes/Heroes, martyrs, and minstrels/jokers the more we can put to rest the idea we are disorganized, and the movement is dead. Because clearly it is not. 

In this episode of The Reality Dysfunction the crew takes on the issue of sports mascots and the deeply ingrained anti-indigenous nature of so called "respect" in the naming of sports teams. 

 

In this final segment of The Reality Dysfunction the crew talks about their year, what they hope for the next year and how much we appreciate all of you being a part of this with us. We can't wait to do it again in the 2021.

 

Para La Gente!

 

#controlthenarrative

#resistthedysfunction

 

In this segment of The Reality Dysfunction Dr. Ernesto talks with Mexica internet sensation Kurly Tlapoyawa and Dr. Ruben Arellano about their new podcast Tales from Aztlantis where they talk about their own experiences within the contemporary Mexica movement, and the need to question "tradition." 

They're smart, they're skeptical, they know what they are talking about, and they are down for their people. Please listen in to this very interesting conversation and definitely check out Tales from Aztlantis. 

This special presentation from Mexicanos 2070 presents the history of Radio KDNA in Seattle, Washington. Here is a description of the segment and some of the people talking. 

KDNA, also known as Radio Cadena, La Voz del Campesino, has served The Yakima Valley in western Washington for 40 years, facilitating not only information and entertainment but community development as well. For the last four decades KDNA has created specialized programs for the Chicano audience and motivated community organizations and campaigns related to the AIDS and COVID pandemics, the census and electoral politics. Its program, MIGRA WATCH, inspired United Farmworkers Union co-founder César Chávez, who in 1979 visited KDNA-FM and marveled at the radio station’s farmworker-oriented operations, which in 1983 developed KUFW Radio Campesina, equally convinced that radio was the most efficient means of reaching farmworkers toiling in the fields.   Rosa Ramon is the only female co-founder of KDNA and served as the station manager from 1979 to 1984. She represents the radio station’s historical significance as a producer but specifically as a Chicana feminist. Ramon’s contribution to the foundation of KDNA reveals the important and central role women thought played in the founding and development of this station, particularly in its focus on programming for, by, and about women.   Gilberto Alaniz runs the Northwest Community Education Center which houses KDNA. As the station’s special projects director, he sees expanding the building to provide more services to the community through KDNA. He focuses on needs of the population they serve and require more “pesticide research, scholarships for adult education, English as a second language classes, and to learn how businesses are managed in the United States.   Monica De La Torre is an Assistant Professor in the School of Transborder Studies at Arizona State University. De La Torre’s interdisciplinary research and teaching practices bridge Chicana feminist theory, Latinx feminist media studies, radio and sound studies, and women’s and gender studies. A former community radio producer and member of the Los Angeles based radio collective Soul Rebel Radio,

In this episode of The Reality Dysfunction I am talking with Daniel Soza III, a dear comrade from my MEXA/Brown Beret days who now lives in his hometown of Saginaw, MI., where he runs a community center that is still open and provides essential services to the people in the neighborhood surrounding the center. 

Danny comes from a long line of Midwest Xicano activists, his father Daniel Soza II was a long time city councilman in Saginaw and member of the Brown Berets in Saginaw during the 1960s. In the 1990s when me and Danny were at Michigan State University fighting for a Xicano Studies program Danny was one of six students that undertook what turned out to be a six day hunger strike to force the University to honor the united farm workers grape boycott.

As the events of 2021 continue to unfold one thing is for certain. A certain segment of the Xicano Latino community is openly embracing white seperatism, white supremacy as their political ideology. As the protest ramp up around the country it is clear a group of us have bought into our own colonization to such a degree they actually believe their "rights" are threatened to such an extent they are compelled to defend the very system that has disenfranchised indigenous people from our history, culture and political self determination. Mass delusion - the foundation of any settler colonial society.  

The question of normalization is important in terms of how we want to see ourselves on the big screen and the little screen. That question, as several of our crew puts forward, is, do we mean normalize brownness within white society, an action, which has a multitude of implications around assimilation and the perpetuation of a colonialism or normalized within a pro-indigenous decolonial frame where Xicanos and other Latinos take creative control of the storytelling process and make stories by us for us.

 

According to Dan Soza here are the top ten brown shows on Netflix:

1. Como Caido del Cielo
2. I’m no longer here
3. 1994
4. Lorena -light footed woman
5. Rosario Tijeras
6. You’ve got this
7. Si mi amor
8. Los tigres del Norte at Folsom prison
9. Narcos
10. Mr Iglesias

You be the judge. Leave a comment and let us know what you think.

 

In this segment of The Reality Dysfunction the crew takes on the challenges of navigating post election fallout especially concerning the emerging narratives of the conservative "Latinos" voted for Trump when it's clear Xicanos and Puerto Ricans enmass and across the country voted against Trump. What gives? Clearly, its time to revisit the term Latino and make some decisions about who we want to be affiliated with. 

This special episode of The Reality Dysfunction is a recording made May 14, 2020 in a Zoom/Facebook live webinar hosted by Mexicanos 2070 an organization I have been working with for close to a year now. 

The moderators on behalf of Mexicanos 2070 are Daniel Osuna and Ernesto Ayala. The three Brown Berets present are Connie Gonzalez of San Bernardino, Sergio Lujan of El Paso, Tx, and Argelio Grion of Northern Califas. They are speaking on behalf of their own chapters and La Mesa a national organizing structure for Brown Beret chapters all over the country.

This is a fascinating discussion,  especially for anyone wanting to know more about the current state of the Xicano movement.

This episode of The Reality Dysfunction is a special presentation of Mexicanos 2070. The description for the talk is below.    Mexicanos2070 will host Elena Herrada, a Detroit activist to talk about the issue of the repatriation of Mexicans after the Great Depression.   The U.S. used the Mexican community as a convenient scapegoat from the economic devastation of the Depression. No other immigrant groups were being targeted for repatriation. By enacting laws depriving Mexicans of employment, mandating restrictive immigration policies and supporting deportation at the federal, state and local level, Americans became reassured in their endeavors of a more open job market. Due to these conditions in the U.S.   The reason that this topic holds importance among the other aspects of Latino history is that it is something that the U.S. has chosen to forget. The vitality of this topic also poses the idea that something like this could happen again regarding the future of Mexican immigrants in the United States. It is the goal of Repatriation history to reveal the dynamic relationship of our past with modern day.     The video featured at the beginning of the podcast can be watched here.

In this episode of The Reality Dysfunction: X/L edition the crew takes on where we get our news and how important it is to maintain those open lines of communications in our respective communities. One way to combat misinformation is to double check your facts. Social media gives a whole new perspective on the practice of chisme so we have to ask ourselves, how can we use the advances of modern technology to push a social, political and economic agenda forward for our community? We talk about this and more. 

 

This is a recording of Leif Khan aka the Desert Rat signing his original The Ballad of Emiliano Zapata at an open mic session during Tucson Freedom Summer in 2012. We hope you enjoy it. 

This week the Dysfunctionals talk with Michigan State University professor Dr. Yomaira Figueroa. This converstation got so interesting it went long and we had to break it into two parts. Listen to the first part here. Below is a link to Dr. Figueroa's website. 

And as always mad respect to The Fugees.

 

http://www.yomairafigueroa.com/

Guantanamera by The Fugees

Join Ernesto Ayala is the Vice Chair for the Partido Nacional de la Raza Unida. Join him as he checks in weekly to talk about the Partido, organizing, activism and growing up in the Movement.

 

This special segment of The Reality Dysfunction presents Dr. Ernesto Mireles speaking at the San Antonio Palo Alto College's Hispanic Heritage Month Sept. 2020, with Dr. Lori B. Rodriguez the director of the Chicano Studies program. Their conversation centers on Dr. Mireles' book Insurgent Aztlan: the liberating power of cultural resistance. 

If you haven't got your copy of Insurgent Aztlan yet, contact me directly at ernesto.mireles@prescott.edu to purchase. 

Like The Reality Dysfunction on Facebook 

Follow us @realitydysfunk on Twitter

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2020 Hispanic Heritage Month Event Author Talk/Plática with Ernesto Todd Mireles Insurgent Aztlán: The Liberating Power of Cultural Resistance (2020 International Latino Book Award - Nonfiction: Best Political/Current Affairs) Webinar link: https://alamo.zoom.us/s/93966667325 Wednesday, September 30, 2020 10:30 – 11:30 am

 

Music:

Revolution has come - Rebel Diaz

This is for La Raza - Kid Frost

Bad Ass Latinas are in full effect on The Reality Dysfunction in this episode. We are talking to NYC education activists Lilah Mejia, Naomi Pena and Los Angeles area teacher activist Consuelo Frausto, about the complexities of navigating the public education system as women of color and outspoken advocates for their children and children in general. These women are destroying through their organizing and advocacy work the long held stereotypes of the submissive, compliant Latina. Although as many of us already know that stereotype is one dramatically out of touch within the reality of the Latinidad.   

Follow The Reality Dysfunction on Podbean.com

Follow on Twitter:

Naomi Pena - @naomi325

Lilah Mejia - @motherLeeEarth7 

Alex Lozada - @alexandralozada

Ernesto Mireles - @ErnestoMireles

This episode is a recording of a National Association of Chicana Chicano Studies presentation by Melanie Vega. She is a first year student at Northern Arizona University in the political science department. The title of the panel was Voices Unheard: Accent Discrimination Against Chicanos in the United States.

In this second part the Dysfunctionals finish their conversation with Michigan State University professor Dr. Yomaira Figueroa. This converstation got so interesting it went long and we had to break it into two parts. Listen to the first part here. Below is a link to Dr. Figueroa's website. 

And as always mad respect to The Fugees.

http://www.yomairafigueroa.com/

Guantanamera by The Fugees

Adriana Abundis is a rising star in the Xicanx educational world. Working as a teacher in San Antonio, Tx., for the past eight year Abundis has immersed herself in the life and culture of that city. She is an emerging muralist who is creating visual resistance and opportunities for her students to immerse themselves in the history and cultury of their Xicanx community. She has led and created 3 inspirational murals on the West Side of San Antonio that stretch over 3,000 square feet and continues to create artistic symbols of indigeneity, identity and pride with her art network: Arte de Lush.

Please listen in on the future of Xicanx education in the Occupied Territories. Brave New Voices for a New Century.

 

www.waroftheflea.org

@ernestomireles

@bingbongvictory

In this freewheeling episode of The Reality Dysfunction, the dysfunctionals discuss the subject of Brown on Black prejudice.

The Reality Dysfunction presents the first in a series of collaborations between TRD and the Rene Nunez Political Action Committee of the National Association of Chicana/Chicano Studies. This first discussion is a presentation moderated by Professor Karleen Pendleton Jimenez (Trent University) the national chair of NACCS. The information on environmental justice is presented by Professor Devon Pena (University of Washington) with Professors Reynaldo Macias (University of California Los Angeles), Manuel Hernandez (Arizona State Univesity) and Raoul Contreras (Indiana University Northwest) responding and discussing. This segment was originally produced by Professor Ernesto Mireles and the Youtube  video can be found here.

We hope you enjoy this intellectual and provocative conversation. This exciting collaboration is part of an ongoing effort by War of the Flea Media to bring a Chicana/o/x Studies perspective to the mainstream. 

Please leave a comment and hit that follow button. 

 

Short piece from Dr. Ernesto on the need for claiming political power in a settler election year and beyond.

This week on The Reality Dysfunction, Dr. Ernesto and the crew talk about and remember Xicano super star Jesus "Chuy" Negrete. This LEGEND of the Xicano movement returned to the ancestors this month.  We wanted to take a moment and pay tribute to the man who brought our songs and history to us for over 4 decades. 

 

 CHUY NEGRETE PRESENTE!

Another episode of The Reality Dysfunction’s CoronaVirus WTF! Series. Join our cast of experts as we discuss Xicano Latino image and representation in education, media and literature. The recent American Dirt kerfuffle is just one recent example of how we as a community continue to be defined by the ideologies of settler colonialism and proxy narratives. A conversation about what we might be able to do as a community to take back our image and power.

In this episode of The Reality Dysfunction we have the very real pleasure of talking with Margo Cowan, Lupe Castillo and Gage Stewart. Margo and Lupe are organizers of many decades who have taken on the US immigration system over and over with surprising success. Their secret is building community power through community mobilization. We talked about their ongoing campaign - Justice for All - which takes as one of its central tenets that the right to legal counsel should not depend on charity. It is a brilliant campaign that Castillo and Cowan are heading up through their grassroots “fighting machine” Keep Tucson Together.  These veteranas are on point.

Lupe Castilla is arrested at Tucson MAS protest

Here is the link to the campaign website:

https://sites.google.com/view/justiceforallinpimacounty

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Follow me on Twitter @ernestomireles

Or my blog at waroftheflea.org/laxicanadx

 

This week on The Reality Dysfunction the dysfunctionals are talking with Dr. Carlos Aleman the deputy director of Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama a non-profit organization, created in 1999, which aims to improve the quality of life for Latinos living in Alabama. In addition to these duties Dr. Aleman recently ran for Homewood, Al., city council and won with a resounding 58% of the vote. It is important to note that Homewood is 80 percent white. A truly impressive win. 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week we're back with a conversation on media, Latina reporters and how important it is to fight for responsible brown voices in our mass media. 

On March 27 of this year Lizarraga published a piece about her two year's working as a reporter at Denver's Channel 9 (an NBS affiliate) . The opinion piece, which unfortunately is more likely the rule to the exception starts like this, "It was during my second week as a new reporter in Denver that I remember first feeling concerned about discrimination in my newsroom." In this episode Dr. Ernesto and Alex Lozada talk with Lori about her experiences at Channel 9 and what has happened since then. You can read Lizarraga's opinion piece at the link below. 

https://www.westword.com/news/9news-latina-reporter-kusa-media-discrimination-diversity-11925702

 

Update on this situation

"The fallout continues from former 9News reporter Lori Lizarraga's essay detailing the exit of three Latinx reporters from the station in a year — including her. Now, following a federal filing from a major investor in TEGNA, 9News's parent company, alleging "a broad pattern of bias and racially-insensitive behavior" at its outlets, TEGNA has issued guidance to news directors telling them to stop using the term "illegal immigrants" in their reporting."

https://www.westword.com/news/9news-denver-tegna-illegal-immigrants-latinx-bias-update-11946253

 

And we are back!

In the episode of The Reality Dysfunction Dr. Ernesto, Alex Lozada, and our guests Dr. Teofilo Reyes and Berte Reyes return to discuss the how the white supremacist movement is impacting the Latino community. Why do so many Latinos claim whiteness? Why are Latinos embracing the supremacist agenda of claiming whiteness? 

 

Below are two links for articles the panelists discussed. 

https://www.mic.com/articles/187062/with-the-rise-of-the-alt-right-latino-white-supremacy-may-not-be-a-contradiction-in-terms https://www.latinorebels.com/2021/01/19/latinovoterrecord/  

 

#mexicanos2070,#Latino,#Latina,#Latinx,#Chicano,#Chicana,#Chicanx,#Xicano,#Xicana,#Xicanx,#controlthenarrative',#resistthedysfunction,#ColegioChicano,#Insurgent Aztlan,#ThisIsOurShot,#Prescott College,#resistthedysfunction,#controlthenarrative

In this episode of The Reality Dysfunction your panel discusses immigration, someof the recent successes and the importance of getting involved and a little bit on why we cant get this amnesty done.

This episode of The Reality Dysfunction is actually the second half of the How Do We Get Power discussion. But lets face it, Francisco Lopez's logic and passion won the day. So, the second half the conversation dealt with how the crew felt about Limbaugh's death (take a wild guess) and how the white trash hate mongering industry that walking piece of shit helped create has impacted the Xicano Latino community. 

Dr. Ernesto Todd Mireles (host of The Reality Dysfunction) discusses his recently published book Insurgent Aztlan: The liberating power of cultural resistance. Dr. Mireles currently works at Prescott College as faculty in the Social Justice Community Organizing Master’s program. He is closing in on three decades as an organizer.   As Xicanos navigate the first two decades of the 21st century, the Xicano Movement has arrived at a critical crossroads in terms of national identification. The process of indigenization that began in the 1990s is reaching a critical moment in the political development of the Xicanada. As a national community we are faced with grim political, economic and cultural decisions founded in the assertion the Xicano Movement is dead. Nationally, Xicanos must reflect on whether that description is accurate and means an actual political and cultural end or the evolution of the movement to an elevated level of resistance that could encompasses larger sections of Mexican Americans than ever before.   This session of Mexicanos 2070 webinar was recorded on June 18, 2020.

In this episode of The Reality Dysfunction Prof. Ernesto Mireles and Alex Yanish talk with historian Dr. Nora Salas and Daniel Osuna creator of the presentation 1492: Invasion or Discovery, 500 years of Indigenous Resistance. (https://youtu.be/qOgaK1UEJns)

This wide ranging conversation begins with the recent MEXA situation and goes through the necessity of building mass movements, the role of social media in building mass movements and the lack of leadership in the currenty Xicano movement.

We apologize for the sound on Brother Osuna's comments. We did the best we could and will work to improve it for the next time we have him on. 

Check out our website:

www.waroftheflea.org

Get in touch on Twitter with us:

Alex Yanish @bingbongvictory

Ernesto Mireles @ernestomireles

Joaquin Ramos is currently incarcerated by the Michigan Department of Corrections. He is Xicano revolutionary nationalist, a former Brown Beret from Detroit, Michigan. Joaquin and I have been close friends for the past 23 years. I believe this brother is dying from lack of adequate medical care from the staff of Duane Waters Medical Correctional Facility. Please take a moment and listen to this short interview. Below are links that will take you to the MDOC website 

https://www.michigan.gov/corrections/0,4551,7-119-68921-269692--,00.html

Please take a moment and call 517-335-2252 and leave a message for Marti Kay Sherry who is the administrator for the MDOC Bureau of Health Care Services which according to the MDOC website coordinates and monitors health care services for prisoners. Please be respectful but let MDOC know in no uncertain terms people are watching, concerned and willing to act. 

In this episode Dr. Ernesto, talks with Ren Manning the co-director of BorderLinks in Tucson, AZ.

BorderLinks is a community-based organization where people collectively learn, teach, reflect, share resources, and organize for justice in the borderlands. Through popular education rooted in place and lived experience, BorderLinks and community partners inspire and ignite action to transform unjust border and (im)migration laws and conditions. We belong to movements for social transformation & collective liberation.

https://www.borderlinks.org/

This segment of The Reality Dysfunction Dr. Ernesto talks with Jose Oliva of the HEAL Food Alliance based in Chicago, Il. Jose came to the United States, with his parents as a young man, in the 1980s fleeing governmental oppression in his home country of Guatemala. The work he is doing alongside workers in the food industry is vital not just to fairness and equity but to environmental sustainability an often overlooked aspect of workers rights. For more information about HEAL click the link below. 

 

https://healfoodalliance.org/

Soe and Owahee join The Reality Dysfunction Podcast as regulars with the Anonymously Famous series. Powerful stories to be told.

This special segment of The Reality Dysfunction is a speech given by Cesar Chavez on 88/88/88 at Harvard University about the Delano Grape Strike as context for the second grape boycott that took place in the 1980s through the 1990s.

From the vault of Pacifica Radio.

This episode is a recording of a National Association of Chicana Chicano Studies presentation by Desirae Diaz. She is a first year student at Northern Arizona University in the psychology department. The title of the panel was Voices Unheard: Accent Discrimination Against Chicanos in the United States.

The failure of immigration policy is a two party failure. How can the Xicana/o/x community stop failing along with them?  

Today our panel of experts on the Xicano/Latino community who will be hashing it up about the role of essential workers and how these men and women, a vast majority of them Xicano/Latino, have gone in the short span of two months from being ignored, and considered unskilled low paid disposable labor to essential.

In the crucible of the covid 19 crisis the very definition of essential and non essential is being debated, and discussed as wage lines are being redrawn. What this means for the future also becomes important as there is little evidence of a quick vaccine and repeated warnings of the virus resurging at regular intervals. Because of these two facts, the term “essential worker” takes on a much wider scope in terms of the demand for worker safety, collective bargaining and the respect due to our community members who continue to work and keep the rest of us safe.

#essentialworker

----------------------

You can also listen to The Reality Dysfunction on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Follow me on Twitter @ernestomireles

This recording is from the 2024 National Association of Chicana/Chicano Studies held in April 2024 in San Francisco. The three presenters are Brinley Carrillo, Demi Garcia and Violette Valencia. I have broken their presentation in to three separate podcasts to make it easier to listen. The abstract for the presentation is below.

Three years after the passing of Cesar Chavez in 1994, the United Farm workers under the direction of their new president Arturo Rodriguez began organizing Strawberry Workers in Watsonville. The Watsonville Strawberry Campaign followed the same organizing model the UFW had implemented during the grape campaigns of the 1960s-1980s. Taking on the Watsonville grower establishment through worker strikes and demonstrations This panel will talk about the power dynamic between the growers, the UFW and the national community. Strikers and union members were treated poorly simply protesting and demanding their collective bargaining rights. The workers fighting in this campaign were known to be some of the most socially and economically exploited in the country. Workers in Watsonville were fighting for a wage of $4.25 an hour and basic human necessities such as drinking water and clean toilets in the fields. This campaign was the biggest one for the UFW since the 1970s when it came to organizing farm labor. In addition, strawberry workers endured workplace conditions that made them even more susceptible to injuries, including no health insurance, which is especially serious when considering the amount of pesticides the workers were exposed to, and the health issues that arose from exposure. Through interviews with public action organizers from several different states working for the United Farm Workers on the Strawberry Campaign as well as the President of the UFW at the time Arturo Rodriguez we will explore the perspective of those who were directly involved in the community organizing campaign and the reasoning behind their participation. What they saw as organizers across the country and what contributions they believe the Strawberry Campaign made to bettering conditions for workers in Watsonville.

In this segment of The Reality Dysfunction, Juan Carlos Vega and Alex Lozada take over the mic to talk with Memory Activist, Julián de Mayo about his incredible work documenting the AIDS crisis in the late 80s and early 90s, and specifically the work and stories of the Latina/o Caucus of ACT-UP New York. Julián explains the history of a not so inclusive movement and the efforts to record what has been mostly until now a forgotten chapter of the fight against AIDS. ACT-UP stands for AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power and in order to have Spanish-speaking, Latinx, Latin American, trans, and other non-white voices, the ACT-UP Latina/o Caucus of New York emerged. We explore the relevance and importance that organizing and personal narratives from over 40 years ago bring to not just the current and persistent AIDS crisis among people of color in inner cities across the country but to the discussion on how to reduce health disparities among Latinx and other vulnerable populations.    

Related Resources & Articles:

• [ES]tatus: the Latino/a Caucus of ACT UP New York Exhibit video     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5RnPIKGs5o&ab_channel=JuliandeMayo
• Latinos ACT UP: Transnational AIDS Activism in the 1990s: https://nacla.org/article/latinos-act-transnational-aids-activism-1990s 
• Article with photos: https://www.latinxproject.nyu.edu/intervenxions/silenciomuerte-an-interview-with-julian-de-mayo-on-the-legacy-of-act-ups-latina/o-caucus
• Conversation between Latina/o Caucus member Alfredo Gonzalez and Dr. Jorge Pérez Ávila on Cuba's HIV sanatoriums for NACLA: https://nacla.org/news/2017/11/29/cuba%E2%80%99s-hiv-sanatoriums-prisons-or-public-health-tool 
• Julián’s Soundcloud with some interviews: https://soundcloud.com/julian-de-mayo 
• For more information, contact: demayo.j@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter: @j_deMayo 

This episode of The Reality Dysfunction is a wide ranging conversation on the relationship between the Xicano/Latino community and Biden, Obama and Trump. The question is are we even a consideration anymore in this presidential contest? Or, even more importantly, have we ever been a consideration to any party for any presidential election? In one corner we have the incumbent republicans and in the other is the challenging democrats. Are Latinos once again standing in limbo having to choose between the lesser of two evils? 

Come listen to our expert panel of Rainer Delgado, Alexandra Lozada, Francisco Lopez, Magda Sanchez and myself Ernesto Mireles. If anyone out there has ideas for podcast subjects or wants to be a part of that discussion hit us up at fightforxicanostudies@gmail.com or DM me on Twitter @ernestomireles. 

Dysfunctionals, We're almost to the end in the true spirit of 2020 the crew is tackling all the topics from Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexican Independence and Mexicano Revolution, Indian armies, pan dulce, cultural appropriation, the Mandalorian, why we should boycott movies like Liam Neeson's The Marksmans and how California is selling stocks in water. Its a wild ride - don't miss it. 

 

#controlthenarrative

#resist the dysfunction 

This recording is from the 2024 National Association of Chicana/Chicano Studies held in April 2024 in San Francisco. The three presenters are Brinley Carrillo, Demi Garcia and Violette Valencia. I have broken their presentation in to three separate podcasts to make it easier to listen. The abstract for the presentation is below.

Three years after the passing of Cesar Chavez in 1994, the United Farm workers under the direction of their new president Arturo Rodriguez began organizing Strawberry Workers in Watsonville. The Watsonville Strawberry Campaign followed the same organizing model the UFW had implemented during the grape campaigns of the 1960s-1980s. Taking on the Watsonville grower establishment through worker strikes and demonstrations This panel will talk about the power dynamic between the growers, the UFW and the national community. Strikers and union members were treated poorly simply protesting and demanding their collective bargaining rights. The workers fighting in this campaign were known to be some of the most socially and economically exploited in the country. Workers in Watsonville were fighting for a wage of $4.25 an hour and basic human necessities such as drinking water and clean toilets in the fields. This campaign was the biggest one for the UFW since the 1970s when it came to organizing farm labor. In addition, strawberry workers endured workplace conditions that made them even more susceptible to injuries, including no health insurance, which is especially serious when considering the amount of pesticides the workers were exposed to, and the health issues that arose from exposure. Through interviews with public action organizers from several different states working for the United Farm Workers on the Strawberry Campaign as well as the President of the UFW at the time Arturo Rodriguez we will explore the perspective of those who were directly involved in the community organizing campaign and the reasoning behind their participation. What they saw as organizers across the country and what contributions they believe the Strawberry Campaign made to bettering conditions for workers in Watsonville.

Dr. Anita Fernandez is the director of the Prescott College Tucson Center, located on the campus of Changemaker High School. Dr. Fernandez has been critical here in the state of Arizona in defending Mexican American Studies in the public schools and has helped to found the Xicanx Insitute for Teaching and Organizing (XITO) a professional development institute for teachers that is working with school districts across the country. 

In this conversation we cove a wide range of topics about the attacks on ethnic studies in the past 10 years, the victories not only in Tucson but across the country and how it is more important now that ever for dedicated RAZA educators, artists, organizers and parents to get deeply involved who will be responsible for bringing ethnic studies to our K - 12 schools. 

 

 

When you get a chance DM @ernestomireles on Twitter with questions or comments.

Also, check out www.waroftheflea.org. 

This is one exciting conversation by media professionals from around the country. A review of the most relevant stories and issues of 2021 affecting our community. 

 

Presenters:

Elena Herrada is a Detroit community activist leader, an advocate on issues of immigration, public education, national and international human rights and Director of the Oral History project of Fronteras Norterias organization. She was a member of the Detroit Public Schools Board of Education in Michigan, representing District 2.  Herrada ran for election for an at-large seat of the Detroit Public Schools Board of Education in Michigan.

 

Dr. Jose Flores is cofounder of the Hispanic Center for Western Michigan, the Hispanic Festival, The Community Voice/La Voz Magazine, and La Familia Grocery/Convenience Store.His community activism helped bring needed interpreters to the emergency services units in police/fire/medical care units of Grand Rapids, and he was a chief advocate for providing court interpreters for persons unable to fully understand English. As a community advocate, he led efforts to improve U.S. Decennial Census counts, engage youth in summer employment opportuni ties, and worked on committees to reduce drop-out rates among minority youth.

 

Maria Emilia Martin is an award-winning independent multi-media journalist who currently directs the GraciasVida Center for Media, a nonprofit organization based in Austin, TX and La Antigua, Guatemala devoted to the practice of independent journalism in the public interest (www.graciasvida.org). She is an award-winning public radio journalist for over three decades, Martin developed ground­ breaking programs and series for public radio, including NPR's Latino USA, and Despues de las Guerras: Central America After the Wars and reports regularly for NPR and other media outlets.

 

Miguel Barrientos is the General Manager of El Concilio Hispano Media Group, a Latino Media Agency in Southern Nevada through which he produces a daily Latino Talk Radio and News program, Publisher of Nevada Hispanic Magazine and prepare to produce News and Community programs on local Latino TV and social media from Las Vegas. He has been at the forefront with many great community leaders in Las Vegas, fighting for immigration reform, Civil rights and helping increase Hispanic Voters at the polls.

 

In this episode of The Reality Dysfunction I talk with Chicago based poet Carlos Cumpian who has been writing and publishing poetry from the Windy City for the last 40 years. During our conversation we talk about his latest book Human Cicada and the importance of Xicana/o/x expression. 

 

ORDER THE BOOK HERE

 

This week the dysfunctionals take on the Democratic National Convention and it's underwhelming Xicano/Latino presence. It's a free ranging conversation but important as we come to grips with our political presence in this country. 

This is an older recording from last fall. I just forgot about it and am now posting. Excellent conversation about performance art, understanding the body and some about afro pessimism. 

The week the Dysfunctionals take on the Republican National Convention and it ain't pretty. 

 

Greetings Dysfunctionals, we're back with a special episode of The Reality Dysfunction. Today we have the first every Aztlan Report, a state of the Xicana/o/x union presentation from Xicana/o/x organizations around the country. This recording was made on March 31, 2021, an originally ran live on Facebook. This presentation was sponsored by Mexicanos 2070, Partido Nacional de la Raza Unida, La Mesa Brown Berets, Union del Barrio, Centro Community Service Organization/Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Servicios de la Raza and other community organizations. This presentation brought organizations throughout Aztlan and the diaspora together to report on the state of the nation, the state of resistance and as a call for unity. 

Speakers in order of appearance: 

Tonatzin Alfaro Maiz - Moderator

Dr. Vanessa Bustamante (5:36) - La Raza Unida Party

Maria Zavala Paredes (8:54) - La Raza Unida Party

Rafael Avitia (16:10) - La Mesa Brown Berets

Scott Russel Duncan Fernandez (21:05) - Mexicanos 2070

Ernesto Mireles (24:01) - Mexicanos 2070 

Matt Sedillo (26:52) - Poet

Marisol Marquez (33:20) - Centro Community Service Organization/Freedom Road Socialist Organization

Lupe Carrasco Cardona (38:46) - Union Del Barrio/ Ethnic Studies

Patrick McKenna (50:10) - Barrio Hollywood, Tucson

Rudy Gonzalez (56:41)- Servicios de la Raza

Tanya Villalobos (1:01:00) - LRUP Youth Representative

Vanessa Mazon (1:08:04) - Poet

Ernesto Ayala (1:11:27) - La Raza Unida Party Chair Pro Tem