La historia de esta tierra, It sings of pain, suffering, and trauma. I grew upon it, oblivious Not knowing what it meant, To see its memory Struggle for existence. “This is YAANGA,” a Xicano tells me, The ancestral lands del Pueblo Tongva. He says we have forgotten its memory, That we’ve forgotten its people. Coloniality […]
It’s the beginning of my Fall quarter in 2016 here at UCLA as a newly transfer student. I’m sitting in a class called “History of Chicano People.” My first introduction to the legendary Juan Gómez-Quiñonez, also known as GQ, was through fellow Mechistas in MEChA de UCLA. As a newly admitted transfer student, the type […]
The Mother Earth runs deep through your soul. —Aztlán Underground, “Lost Souls” (1995) In our Indigenous understanding of belonging, and our attempt to build our Xican@/x Nation, Aztlan—which we understand as the united states’ southwest—is a symbol for our deep spiritual ties on Abya Yala, Cemanahuac, or Turtle Island—we are connected here and to the […]
“Xicana/o encounters with diverse Native knowledge allowed Xicanas/os to arrive (or continue to be in process of arriving) to their own sacred bundles and places of knowledge. When Xicanas/os came to these traditions, memory was opened up for Indigenous people; memory can be the most powerful building block. The revival of Indigenous identity proliferated amongst […]
The vinyl sits in a crate on a table next to the disc jockey’s LP player. Speakers on each side exert a forceful sound which reverberates through the swaying bodies wishing to remember—to dance like no other for this night. This is the Night of the Blaxican. Also named the “Kickback for the Ghetto,” […]