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Broadcasting from Occupied Territories, War of the Flea Media, it’s The Reality Dysfunction podcast. A space where diverse a group of brown folk from across the nation explore the political experiences and the social future of our Xicano/Latino community. #Control the Narrative. #Resist the Dysfunction.
Episodes
Thursday Apr 30, 2020
Can Obama sway Xicano/Latinos for Biden?
Thursday Apr 30, 2020
Thursday Apr 30, 2020
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.
Tuesday Apr 28, 2020
Dr. Jerry Garcia - Preserving Xicano History in the Pacific Northwest
Tuesday Apr 28, 2020
Tuesday Apr 28, 2020
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.
Thursday Apr 23, 2020
Xicanos and Latinos are the Essential Workers
Thursday Apr 23, 2020
Thursday Apr 23, 2020
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
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Follow me on Twitter @ernestomireles
Monday Apr 20, 2020
On the Front line: managing community center response to pandemics
Monday Apr 20, 2020
Monday Apr 20, 2020
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.
Thursday Apr 16, 2020
Xicanx sheroes and heroes building the resistance narrative
Thursday Apr 16, 2020
Thursday Apr 16, 2020
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.
Monday Apr 13, 2020
Escaping Rikers Island in the time of Covid19
Monday Apr 13, 2020
Monday Apr 13, 2020
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.
Thursday Apr 09, 2020
Bad Ass Latinas on The Reality Dysfunction
Thursday Apr 09, 2020
Thursday Apr 09, 2020
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.
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Follow on Twitter:
Naomi Pena - @naomi325
Lilah Mejia - @motherLeeEarth7
Alex Lozada - @alexandralozada
Ernesto Mireles - @ErnestoMireles
Monday Apr 06, 2020
Marc Pinate: Creative Place Making and Xicano Theatre
Monday Apr 06, 2020
Monday Apr 06, 2020
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