War Of The Flea Podcast

In this episode of The Reality Dysfunction, Dr. Ernesto Mireles is joined by Scott Russell Duncan, Colton Campbell and Alex Garcia fellow thinkers and insurgent storytellers to dive deep into Alex Rivera's prophetic 2008 film Sleep Dealer. What begins as a conversation about drones, borders, and labor quickly becomes a powerful indictment of settler colonialism, digital commodification, and the war on memory. We explore the film's dystopian vision of disconnected laborers—plugged into machines across borders—as a mirror of today's racialized gig economy. Through Xicanx Gothic, racialized horror, and speculative fiction, the panel traces how Sleep Dealer flips the narrative from assimilation to ancestral return. From the sacred milpa to neural implants, from water theft to resistance, this episode asks: What happens when we name the machine—and choose to plant instead of plug in? If you've ever questioned the cost of survival in a system built to erase you, or wondered what decolonial science fiction might sound like in Spanglish, this one's for you.

Adan and Pauline open up about their first year and talk about how things have developed from the first semester to the second semester.  Email Adan and Pauline directly at dysfunctionalfirstgen@gmail.com.  

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 Adan and Pauline discuss their first winter break, returning to campus and the existential dread of switching majors. 

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.  

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

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

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 Dr. Ernesto, talks with Ren Manning the 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/

In this episode I want to introduce you to Adan and Pauline. Two first year students, please take a quick listen to our first conversation. We plan to record on Friday's and post by Monday so that there will be new fresh content on a regular basis. I want to thank all of you who have hung in there with the Reality Dysfunction this far and we're also really excited to continue this  conversation about Chicano culture and Chicano politics into the 21st century. In this new series I'll be working with students at Northern Arizona University, specifically 1st generation college students like myself, to have on-going conversations about their experiences and coming to campus, the changes that they see in themselves and the opportunities that they have to explore their history and their culture at a greater depth.  

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.

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."

Short informational on the benefits of building a political party for the Xicana/o/x community.

Learn more about the history of Aztlan.

An idea I've been kicking around. Xicana/o/x spend so much time examining history - which is important. I think sometimes we forget that we're tomorrow's history. What happened 50 years ago is important but so is what's happening right now.   Be in the moment, right?  

This episodes talks about how the current narratives questioning Xicano Indigeneity most likely originate with long term U.S. domestic counterinsurgency campaigns designed to depoliticize indigenous populations.

Insurgency is defined as a form of resistance against colonial or occupying forces.

Could those who label Aztlan as a tool of settler colonialism actually be long term government agents running a very sophisticated psyops in the Chicano community because they are worried about changing demographics in favor of Mexican Americans in the US and are trying to find a way to eliminate irredentist moves within the borders of the US.

From Aztlan to Palestine is a presentation that examines the intersections between the Palestinian liberation struggle and the Chicano liberation struggle in the United States. Using first hand experience and documents from the Raza Unida Party archive Ernesto Ayala describes in detail the similarities between both peoples histories and social movements showing how Aztlan and Palestina are closer than one would ever imagine.

In the context of the Xicano national liberation movement and the ideology of Aztlán, the Raza Unida Party (RUP) was a political party founded in 1970 in Crystal City, Texas. It emerged in response to systemic discrimination and the political disenfranchisement of Mexican Americans. The RUP aimed to achieve self-determination for the Xicano community through political representation, education reform, and economic justice. It sought to build a unified front advocating for the rights and interests of Xicano/as, emphasizing cultural pride and grassroots activism to challenge and dismantle colonial structures within the United States.      

In the Xicano national liberation movement, self-determination refers to the right of Xicano/as to independently determine their political, cultural, and economic future. It emphasizes reclaiming control over their ancestral lands, preserving and promoting their indigenous heritage, and making decisions free from external domination and colonial influence. Self-determination is a core principle driving the quest for autonomy, justice, and the recognition of their sovereignty within the framework of Aztlán.

Aztlán as a concept serves as a powerful counter-narrative to settler colonialism, emphasizing indigenous sovereignty, historical legitimacy, cultural reconstitution, and resistance to colonial domination. These arguments collectively undermine the notion of Aztlán as a settler colonial project, framing it instead as a legitimate struggle for indigenous rights and self-determination.

Voting in a Chicana/o/x plebiscite is not necessarily equivalent to supporting settler colonial political parties like the Republicans and Democrats. Here's why:

Please share this brief informational. 

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.

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.

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.

Spent the afternoon at the Northern Arizona University Free Palestine encampment. Students talked about why they were there and why it is important to support Palestine.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

Short video describing the National Xicano/Latino Plebiscite.

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.

Short informational video explaining aspects of the Partido Nacional de la Raza Unida and the national plebiscite the party is organizing.

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.

This short informational video talks about how voting in a Chicano Plebiscite is fundamentally different from voting in main stream electoral politics.

A clip from a recent interview with Dra. Vanessa Bustamante, chair of the Partido Nacional de la Raza Unida. This interview was recorded at Northern Arizona University 4/2/24.

Short informational video on the Partido Nacional de la Raza Unida's national Xicano/Latino Plebiscite campaign.

Informational video explaining the national Xicano/Latino Plebiscite effort being organized by the Partido Nacional de la Raza Unida.

Video on the Partido Nacional de la Raza Unida and it's national plebiscite campaign.

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 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.