The Reality Dysfunction

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

Greetings Dysfunctionals, we're back again with another episode of The Reality Dysfunction. This time I am talking with a dear friend Marc Pinate. Marc is the director of the Borderlands Theatre Company in Tucson, AZ. I met Marc years ago when he was touring with his band Grito Serpentino. He is, and has been a Xicano rock star, guerilla theatre actor, and national slam poet champion. He is a father and husband. Currently, Marc is creating large-scale “creative place” projects in Tucson and Nogales. He talks about place making what it means in the Xicano context and his current book project. Check out Borderlands Theatre Company. Follow me on Twitter: @ernestomireles

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

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. 

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 ----------------------------- Follow me on Twitter @ernestomireles Or my blog at waroftheflea.org/laxicanadx

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.

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

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.

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. 

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.

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

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 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. 

In this episode of The Reality Dysfunction Dr. Ernesto Mireles and Alex Yanish speak with Berte Reyes a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Arizona in the Rhetoric, Composition and teaching of English program. In this episode we will talk about the nature of hate and how video games are being used as a recruiting tool by the far right. 

Milta Ortiz is smart, passionate about her community and showcases her commitment through the arts. Ortiz is a bilingual, bi cultural playwright, poet, and performer born in El Salvador. She moved to the United States at the age of eight and was raised in Northern California. She currently a director of the Borderlands Theater Company in Tucson, AZ., where she lives with her family.  I had some trouble with the recording so the first couple of sentences are a little garbled but its fine after that.  Here is the Wikipedia page for Milta. Please share widely and feel free to leave comments. If you want to contact me directly you can do that on Twitter @ernestomireles. 

In this episode of The Reality Dysfunction Dr. Ernesto Mireles and Oscar Medina a recent Ph.D. student in Sustainable Education and a high school teacher in Tucson, AZ., talk about their own educational journey and how bringing Indigenous epistemologies to Raza students is helping to heal the inter-generational trauma of settler colonialism.  https://changemakerhighschool.org/ https://www.facebook.com/Praxis2019/ Please DM me on Twitter @ernestomireleswww.waroftheflea.org

In this episode of The Reality Dysfunction our panel of Xicanx experts will be discussing the 2019 mass shootings in El Paso, Tx., and possible responses that could be pursued by the Xicanada.  As always you can DM me on Twitter @ernestomireles or Alex Yanish @bingbongvictory Check out www.waroftheflea.org 

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. 

Nick Panlibuton is a Social Justice Community Organizing masters student here at Prescott College originally from the Washington D.C. area. In this episode Nick talks with Prof. Ernesto Mireles about his experiences working for the Painters International union this summer as an apprentice. How that experience expanded his ideas about social justice and brought home the necessity of theory in labor struggles. Nick is starting his first semester as a SJCO student and is currently involved in local immigration campaigns, and working with harm reduction organizations in the state of Arizona. Nick is Filipino, with a rich family history in activism. His fathers father emigrated to San Francisco in the 1930s. His family was part of the International Hotel eviction struggle in the 1970s, which brought students from the newly created Ethnic studies programs at San Francisco State University to aid in the fight. You can check out Prof. Mireles at: @ernestomireles www.waroftheflea.org

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