War Of The Flea Podcast

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

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

  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  

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.     

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 Sc

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

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

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 & Articl

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!

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. 

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/

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

  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 Xi

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. 

                                  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