February 21, 2025 • 47 mins
Ever wondered how the pursuit of dreams can transform a life? Raquel Mendia Nunez, a third-generation Chicana, shares her powerful journey from the suburbs of San Diego to owning Rancho Cuatro Vientos, an emblem of hope and resilience. She opens up about realizing her dreams amidst the pandemic, finding healing in harmony with the land, and the profound strength rooted in cultural pride. Raquel’s story serves as a beautiful reminder of how personal aspirations and community-building can lead to a life filled with purpose and joy.
Southern California's vibrant and diverse landscape holds stories of reclaiming identity and belonging, especially for the Raza community. We delve into the complex tapestry of navigating cultural richness against the backdrop of political tensions and apprehensions. Esteemed educator and activist Carlos offers his insights on living with purpose on unceded Kumeyaay territory and highlights the journey of finding visibility in a charged environment. This segment paints a vivid picture of how community engagement and cultural pride can overcome initial fears and foster a sense of belonging.
Ethnic studies emerge as a beacon of hope and empowerment, intertwining personal histories with educational activism. We hear from passionate individuals dedicated to justice work, exploring their transformative educational experiences. From childhood influences and academic disengagement to discovering a newfound passion through ethnic studies, these stories underscore the enduring impact of reclaiming identity and fostering community. As connections are forged across borders, personal journeys intertwine with global awareness, offering listeners a glimpse of how hope and purpose can be found even amid overwhelming challenges.
F.L.Y. L.I.B.R.E. a guide for healing and liberation can be purchased here: amzn.to/4iCzAAM
Get Dr. McBride's book "Becoming Changemakers" to explore more stories of resilience and community transformation. Connect with the Become Center at becomecenter.org or email dmcbride@becomecenter.org.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Buenas familia, soy Jose, rico or Rico, if you know
me from the hood.
Thank you so much for yourattention today.
It means everything to me, andI want to welcome you to Hope
Dealer, which is a podcast aboutour journey towards hope,
resilience and joy through thestories that we carry about our
(00:25):
return home, and my intentionfor our time together is to
remind us that we carry powerfulmedicine within us that is our
guide to our transformation.
Thank you so much for joiningme.
I am so grateful to be able tointroduce you to incredible
(00:46):
people, incredible spirits thatwill share their journeys with
us.
I'm here to introduce theincredible folks that are making
(01:17):
this happen, both in today'spodcast, but also you know and
I'm going to tell this storyafter you all introduce each
other how we got here in thismoment in time.
Magic In magic, right, butfirst let's introduce our guests
.
I'm going to have themintroduce themselves and I'm
going to ask Raquel first tointroduce herself, but also tell
(01:39):
us the story of Rancho PatroViertos.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Hello, my name is Raquel Mendia Nunez.
I'm the daughter of Rafael andRebecca, both born here in
California, two Mexican parents,so I'm third generation.
So Chicana raised Chicana,luckily I was.
Even though my parents wereschooled here and English
(02:06):
dominant in their schooling, Iwas still raised with a lot of
cultural pride.
I just want to shout them outfor that.
So yeah, so I grew up here inSan Diego and a town called
Spring Valley, which at thattime was kind of rural, suburban
and now becoming more and moreurban.
(02:27):
We had a lot of empty spacegrowing up where we could go,
walk through creeks and catchcrawdads and there were dairy
farms everywhere.
But that's gone now.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Wait, what's a crawdad?
Oh, for real.
Do you know what a crawdad?
Speaker 2 (02:41):
is.
I think it's kind of like acrawfish, like kind of like some
shrimp shallow water freshwater.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
I guess this is for the city.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
I think people eat them yeah yeah, we never ate
them, but probably at some timemy people did.
Um, but my, my mother's mother,uh, they're from sonora and uh
lived in arizona, so I had so.
(03:12):
And then my dad's family isfrom imperial valley, which is
east of san diego.
So most of my childhood I spentdriving through the desert and
my dad's mother, who lived incalipatria, had a little ranch,
and then some, then some of myfamily members in Phoenix had
little ranches.
So I always dreamed of livingin a little town, in a little
(03:32):
ranch somewhere.
Like you know, I would alwaystell my dad we should move back
to Brawley and get a littleranch, but of course nobody
listened to me.
So I would always say that wasone of my, that was one of my
dreams.
And so fast forward to thepandemic.
Um, I was farming my front yardin the city and realized that
(03:54):
it's a lot of work, like justfor this little front yard.
It was taking a lot of work andI started thinking, like man, I
can't wait until I retire toget a ranch, because I'm not
going to be strong enoughanymore.
Like, I need to get started now, while I have energy, so then
hopefully, when I retire, I canenjoy the fruits of my labor.
So, um, I bought a house, myfirst house, uh, in the early
(04:18):
two thousands 2001,.
And they were still giving liketeacher incentives or whatever,
which is how I got into thathouse.
So when I first talked to arealtor to buy, I reached out to
my friend to tell her that Iwanted to buy a ranch and I
thought we were going to getlike a three year plan going or
(04:39):
something like you're going tohave to save up this much money,
like you know.
But then when she saw theequity I had in the house, she
was like no, we could do thisnow, like you could.
You could totally buy a housenow.
Um, and also like a side story,is that my mom has been living,
had been living with me.
So I'd been living with my momfor like six years I think, and
(05:03):
it wasn't so bad before thepandemic, because I travel a lot
for work.
But during the pandemic, like Iwas over it, like I just I
couldn't live with her anymore.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
So, um, we'll edit that part out I mean I could be
real.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
My mom knows like, luckily, we have a really honest
and open relationship, whichhas been part of our healing
journey.
Um, uh, obviously we all havemother wounds to heal.
Um, yeah, but, um, so, yeah, soit was, everything happened
really fast, I mean, andsometimes I feel like maybe I
(05:41):
did it on a whim, like maybe Ishould have thought about what I
was doing more, because thingsjust happened so quickly.
And so once I got here becauseit's really the right place,
like did I really think about it?
And I had a friend who said,well, maybe the fact that it was
so easy and happened so fast isbecause it was meant to be wow,
yeah, um, but part of like.
So so that's kind of like howit all started.
(06:04):
But also, through my healingjourney, trying to figure out
one like you know, when you havemore than what you need, how do
you give back?
Like, what does that look likeso that you're not hoarding
resources?
Um, what does land back looklike in practice?
Um, and how do we learn to livein ceremony with the land?
(06:25):
And then how do we buildcommunity?
So I had all these questions andso Rancho Cuatro Vientos kind
of came out of that, like youknow, the dream of you and your
friends talking about buyinglands, but, like, none of my
friends were ready, you know.
So it was like, well, do I keepwaiting?
(06:45):
Like, like, do I keep puttingmy dreams off to wait for
everyone else, or do I just doit?
So this was, this was a prettybig leap of faith to do
something for myself that waspurely for myself, like not
thinking about anybody else.
Like it's a two-bedroom houseand at the time I had my
daughter, yeah, but she didn'twant to live here.
Um, it was never the plan thatshe was going to live here, so
(07:07):
this was supposed to be like myplace by myself, that I was
going to come and be out hereall alone, like living my best
bachelorette life, you know,having my friends over, you know
all this stuff.
And, uh, while I was in escrow,I met somebody online.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
You have to watch out for those online.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Yes, I ended up never being here by myself, wow.
So we're exploring.
What does it look like to haveland but to open it up to people
?
So we've hosted ceremonies here, and when I say we godless and
I definitely, but also my bestfriend, iriani, who's much
younger than me, but she's aceremony sister, daughter, niece
(07:53):
, like it's kind of weirdbecause I'm almost her mom's age
, but we've definitely hadmoments where we feel like
friends and then, but I alsonurture her a lot too.
So it's just weird.
We get to be a lot of things toeach other.
But, um, I, I applied for acomposting grant and I got it,
(08:15):
and so she became my siteoperator.
So she's also been kind of mypartner and planning out like,
how are we to use the land?
So when I'm traveling for work,if we're going to host a
ceremony, like, she comes andholds it down and like, make
sure that people know wherethings are, where things can go,
what the rules are, um, so, um.
(08:37):
So we've been doing thecomposting for this is our
second year, um, and then sheand her partner recently moved
here on a trailer.
So that's something I can't paythem at this point, but they
don't have to pay rent, which insan diego is really big.
There, for a little one bedroomplace they were paying over two
thousand dollars a month,making like 20 bucks an hour,
(09:00):
yeah, um, so now we have big.
So now her boyfriend is alsopart of the team, along with
Carlos, but Aiden is our leadecologist is what we call him
and he has this whole plan ofhow are we going to get the land
to be a hundred percent nativewithin.
The next five years in terms ofplanting.
Wow, that's pretty aggressive.
Yeah so we, every season we'replanting a new wave of stuff.
(09:24):
Yeah, so every season we'replanting a new wave of stuff.
And yeah so we're just kind ofthinking like, who do we want to
invite here?
What kind of not just ceremonyspaces, but have a safe place
where our queer friends, peopleof color, who don't always feel
safe out in nature spaces herein San Diego County, they could
(09:45):
come here and like just lay onthe earth and not have to worry
about people bothering them.
We have the telescope, you know, hoping to have some stargazing
nights.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
I'm still waiting, bonfire.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
So that's just kind of a hope to have a place that
people can come and enjoy andjust trying to figure out what
does it mean to own land andalso thinking about land back,
like obviously part of land backis giving land back to Native
peoples, but I've also heardit's also giving it back to the
indigenous plants, indigenousspecies, like reconnecting with
(10:24):
land, honoring the cycles thatare here.
So we're in that phase of landback, because obviously we still
need a place to live at thispoint.
But you know, that's somethingthat we all feel a call to not
just reconnecting with our roots, but really reconnecting with
(10:44):
that indigeneity and like livingin harmony with the land.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Yeah, yeah, this is a beautiful, um, I mean your,
your cultivation and your spirit.
You know, I've gone out in themorning, uh, during the mornings
, and just to be able to touchthe land and to be able to smell
the flowers, um and uh, it'sjust a beautiful.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
You could, you, could , you could tell that is blessed
by many grandmothers and, yes,this piece of the land, yeah,
and actually when I moved here,obviously like if you drive, if
you ever, if the listeners everget to come out here, it is a
little bit scary because,obviously, rural America, what
(11:33):
are you going to find?
There are Trump flags and thisarea is pretty well known.
It's pretty militarized withBorder Patrol.
One of the neighboring towns isSantee, but they call it
Clantee.
You know you'll see that kindof stuff.
And so before I moved here, Iactually had a dream.
(11:53):
I had a dream that I saw someindigenous children walking
across the land going to school,and the message I got was like
you belong here more than theydo.
Yeah, that's, true, and I knewthat I was protected.
That's right.
So it's also.
There's also some of that too,like reclaiming space.
(12:15):
And since I've been here, likewhen we first come, you kind of
think like, oh man, like youreally do feel like a minority,
because you get that fear, likeyou want to recoil and kind of
hide.
But as I've been here longer,like I've noticed like there's a
lot of rasa here.
So how do we become notinvisible?
Right, because right now we'reinvisible in the story like of
(12:37):
this community, but we're reallylike and I don't think
everybody here are workers likethat you see people who look
like ranchers too, like you knowpeople just enjoying life, like
they're not just here workingfor people.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
I think they're living here.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
So it's also like coming out of my own shell, like
to be brave and to be like hey,what's up?
Like what's your name, where doyou live?
You know to ask those questionsand not be such a city person.
I, you know to ask thosequestions and not be such a city
(13:15):
person, scared of interacting.
But connecting.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Well, we're ready to repopulate the land.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
I'm gonna start sending you listings.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
I like this land in California.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
They just passed a law where you can build an ADU
on your unit and sell it as acondo build a who, an ADU.
Accessory dwelling unit, solike if I built like a little
house for you An additionalhouse, got it.
I can build it and sell it toyou and you can own it just like
a condo.
Wow, yeah, it's beautiful land.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Beautiful land.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Beautiful land.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
So we're Raquel.
I mean, we wouldn't have Raqueland without Carlos the online
boyfriend, oh, the onlineboyfriend.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Online date person.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Slash lead volunteer Tinder.
Nah, it wasn't Tinder's.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Facebook.
That's, yeah, that's yourTinder's, her Tinder's, your
Facebook.
Go ahead, carlos, introduceyourself brother.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Who you are, what you do.
You're more than that brother.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
You're an incredible educator at ethnic studies.
You know activist, so introduceyourself and you know what you
want to share with folks.
Yeah, yeah, Thank you, Thankyou.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Yeah, my name is Carlos, you know what you want
to share with, with, with folks.
Yeah, yeah, thank you.
Thank you, I loved um.
Yeah, my name is uh carlos umcarlos ernesto guatemoc hagedorn
, uh grandchild of concepcion,alicia arthur mercedes, and son
of anna maria gonzalez, andjoaquin.
(14:51):
Bacani-Hagedorn, soy, chicano,filipino.
So I'm Chicapino, chicapino andraised deeply to be grounded
and proud of my mixed culturesand where my family's come from
and, uh, um, raised, rooted injustice and and, uh, you know,
(15:18):
fighting for the betterment of,of our, of our humanity.
So I was, I was born inwoodland california, tomato,
tomato lands um, firstgeneration on my chicano side
and second generation Chicanoside.
And I just want to say I lovedhearing Raquel talk about her
(15:43):
intention and purpose of beinghere.
It's just really neat to hearher share her story about that,
because it's just really neat to, um, hear her share her story
about that, um, because it'svery purposeful and that's
something that's reallyimportant to me doing things
with purpose and intention, um,so I just wanted to just add
(16:03):
that too.
Um, yeah, so, uh, yeah, raised,yeah, so yeah, raised up in the
north, and now somehow I livehere in San Diego County.
Oh, you know what we didn't do?
We didn't acknowledge the landshere.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Oh yeah, unceded Kumeyaay territory.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Yeah, yeah.
So yeah, as Jose was sharing'man educator, um in ethnic
studies.
So a teacher activist is, is my, is my lifetime, uh, one of my
lifetime callings teacheractivists in in ethnic studies.
Um, and I remember a dearfriend years ago, I don't know
(16:48):
15 years ago, a dear friend ofours, allison.
We were at a conference and she,one of her questions was how
did it was?
It was our ethnic studiesorigin story.
You know it was like when didethnic studies find you?
Or when did you find ethnicstudies?
You know, or when did you fallin love with ethnic studies?
Or when did ethnic studies fallin love with you?
(17:09):
And I always, I mean I have amoment where I walked into an
ethnic studies fall in love withyou, and I always, I mean I
have a moment where I walkedinto an ethnic studies classroom
.
But really, when I think aboutit, I think about my mother and
and the womb of being, likebeing in my mother's womb, and
uh, learning about my mom anddad while I was, you know,
becoming I, was being made youknow um, and just all the
(17:30):
beautiful work they did, um, andso I think you know I, you know
that's really where I feel likemy important story begins as
far as, um, my my teacheractivist journey, um, and
growing up in a household, uh,where it was constantly, uh, you
know, there were constantcultures Mexican, filipino.
(17:54):
So a lot of my Filipino familywould be coming in every summer
and we would convert livingrooms into rooms and then, on my
Mexican side, my Mexican sidewas more rooted in community as
far as my Filipino side was, asfar as my family was coming in
(18:21):
and out, and so my Mexican side,growing up, felt more my
identity with community wasrooted in Chicano politics and
Chicano culture in many ways.
But it all made sense, it all,like you know, hearing Tagalog,
(18:43):
hearing Spanish, English, it allflowed pretty well in my family
.
And so I went to an elementaryschool in Woodland.
It was bilingual and it was allRasa, teachers, principal, all
of that was just like supernormal for me.
I mean.
So walking from home to schooland from school to home was just
(19:04):
a normal humanizing experience,you know.
You know, and it wasn't.
Until my parents divorced, Imoved to Stockton, california,
with my father and I went to amonolingual school, english only
, of course, and fourth grade inthe school was called colonial
Heights, and so you know,unconsciously, but I began to be
(19:28):
aware of colonial educationreally fast there and I and I
disconnected from, fromacademics, um, pretty much after
that, all the way through highschool into my first couple of
years at community college, Iwasn't academically engaged.
Um, I did really well socially,you know.
But you know, that's, that's uh, think that I don't think I
(19:53):
know that shows up in myteaching and learning practice.
How I grew up at home.
You know how, those first yearsof school, what it felt like to
be seen to be, just what itfelt like to be a normal little
kid running around, you knowteachers yelling at me in
(20:15):
Spanish or English, yeah, andyou fool humanity, yeah.
And then I, you know, wentthrough the experience that a
lot of our youth go through,from kindergarten on, just
oppressive education.
So, yeah, it became yeah.
So I stepped into an ethnicstudies class at Santa Barbara
(20:35):
Community College.
So I was actually struggling.
I was struggling and my mom hadcalled me up pre-cell phone
days, said Mijo, you got to comehome.
You know your grades, you'refailing.
I was failing all my classes.
I wasn't even going to myclasses.
You know I was getting acollege degree in social life at
the beach, just enjoying life,not going to lie, it was fun and
(21:01):
I didn't want to come home.
I was like Mom, give me onemore semester chance.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Because she was paying for him.
Yeah, to live away from home incommunity college.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
That's a gift.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
It is, is and your mom made that sacrifice for you
yep, yep, yeah.
Well, that's why he spent itwell at the beach that's a good
way to spend it yeah, she waslike I need to see the grave
yeah so you went back.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
No, so I opened up a class catalog the book Back in
the day we had a book.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
I love those.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
And I was like, oh man, what you know, like, come
on, I got this, I'm going to doit.
I'm going to do it.
By the way, let me just say Iwasn't good at school, but I
want to just honor my parentsfor making me go to college.
They didn't give me a choiceand I know there's a debate on,
ah, give your kids a choice.
I'm so thankful my parents mademe go.
(22:01):
So, even though I didn't dowell in high school, in the back
of my head I knew I had to goto this thing called college,
like it was mandatory college,like it was mandatory, um, and I
just really feel um lucky toyou know that my parents, they
were first generation collegegraduates, um, and so they set
(22:21):
the path for me and made me, youknow, and so, um, so, yeah, I'm
looking at this book and I'mlike I know in the back of my
head, all right, I'm going toget my shit together.
You know, I got I gotta get ittogether because I don't want to
leave this place either.
And so I'm like I know in theback of my head, all right, I'm
gonna get my shit together.
You know, I got I gotta get ittogether because I don't want to
leave this place either.
And so I'm.
I'm just scrolling through, um,the, the catalog and um, I come
(22:45):
up on a word I hadn't seen indecades, and it was Chicano.
And the class was aMexican-American Chicano art.
And I could not believe thatthat word, that my identity,
part of who I was, was in acollege catalog.
(23:08):
You know, I was like what, likewhat?
Like hold up.
You know, like hold up, is thisfor real?
So I immediately signed up forit and it was wednesday night,
which was like the worst thingever once a week.
Why was that?
When surf's up, you know, itwas like I'm who's gonna show up
on a wednesday night class.
I'm like seven to ten, seven to9, 50, you know, not me, that
(23:33):
was like yo, there's something.
And it was also an art class.
You know turned out to be ahistory of art and I wasn't too
interested in art, but the wordchicano is is all I needed to
see, you know.
So I signed up immediately andI and I still remember till this
day I walked into thatclassroom it was a huge theater,
like classroom, and and Iopened the door and it brought
(23:57):
me right back to BeamerElementary, the bilingual school
that I, that I went to, becauseI saw all, all the students my
age.
They all looked like me, Ilooked like them, I was like
those are my little homies, youknow.
First, second from first, second, third grade, you know, and I
looked down, it was atheater-like, so it was a big
stage.
There was a big stage at thebottom.
I looked down and the professorlooked identical to my Tio
(24:21):
Jimmy.
You know, dark indigenous.
You know who's actually?
He's.
No, tio Jimmy didn't make ithere, but he made it there, and
so, and that was Proe, it isprofe manuel unsuelta, because
he's still alive, um, and he's alegendary chicano artist and
that profe uh changed was a hugepiece of changing my life
(24:44):
forever, um, and he just taught,he just talked to us like we
were at home.
You know about who we arethrough art, you know, and it
was the most beautifulexperience, you know, and I
remember living in an area insanta barbara, it's called isla
vista and it's, you know, budoparty, you know just all party.
(25:05):
And I remember coming home with, like, my art book you know,
and I say I still have thesebooks.
You know, and I remember justwalking to my room, you know,
like walking past all my homieswho were drinking and smoking,
and I was doing that too priorto this, and I was just, I just
walked to my room and I justwanted to read more and it just,
you know, it opened up the, the, the, you know the love for
(25:26):
myself, the love for education,for academics, and I, um, I, I
took the, I took all the rest ofthe classes there at Santa
Barbara Community College andChicano Studies, and I
transferred to SF State, um, and, and got an undergrad, and I
spent less years at a universitythan a community college,
because it took me four years toget through community college.
(25:48):
But by the time I got to SFState, I was so hungry.
I wanted to learn how toresearch, write, learn how to
ask questions, learn how to like, you know, join, you know um,
you know just be, be an activiston campus and off campus, and
all of that the College ofEthnic Studies provided us in a
deep, in a deep way, um and uh.
And you know, part of thatjourney was also denationalizing
(26:13):
my politics, and SF State andthe College of Ethnic Studies
really opened up aninternationalist ideology and
practice which made naturalsense for me, given, you know my
, you know my, my roots are, um,from different parts of the
(26:34):
world.
You know um, yeah, and so I'm a, I'm an ethnic studies teacher,
um, and student.
Still, I always believe thatthat we got to stay humble and
be a student in this, in thiswork um, and an organizer, and
so and I live here in CuatroVientos now you know.
(26:57):
So I'm back in SouthernCalifornia.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
But we also do spend time in Atlanta.
We do yeah we do yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
So, yeah, that's a little bit about me.
Yeah, that's a little bit aboutmy intro.
Cool and lead volunteer.
And I'm the lead volunteer atCuatro Vientos.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
That's right.
We're trying to situate it.
Yes, cool organizer.
Yeah, Cool, cool, cool, cool,cool.
And the fourth person to thisgroup is a Another divine,
spiritual being, fierce warrior,someone that you know, a
(27:42):
kindred spirit a leader.
You know if you would have seenCecily at the event she
organized last week, the amountof joy and love that she brought
to so many folks.
I'm just glad that I get topartner with my compañera and
(28:07):
many things, including thispodcast, because she is actually
the first interviewer of thepodcast and she's going to do
that as my compañera, partner,partner Muñeca, cecily.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
You can't hear it, but she's blushing.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
Hi, I'm Cecily Relucio.
I am the daughter of the latePerlita Imperial and Edmundo
Relucio from the Philippines,from Nueva Ecija and Tondo,
manila, and I'm Jose's partner.
(28:54):
We live in Albany Park, chicago, with our five children, a
blended family Tizoc, vanessa,amaya, diego and Mia.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
That's an age.
That's the order of age.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
From age 28 to age 16 .
Speaker 4 (29:21):
So we have a full home house, full of love and
chaos and discovery.
I am a survivor of life in arural, sundown town in Illinois,
so that's where I grew up.
I was born in Chicago and then,when I was two years old, my
(29:44):
family moved to Coal City,illinois, and it was a really
difficult place to grow up as alittle brown girl and very.
As a little brown girl and very, yeah, I felt I grew up
becoming very alienated from whoI was, as a Pinay, as a
(30:11):
Filipina, not reallyunderstanding what my place was
in the world as like my fullhuman self.
All of my teachers were white,from K all the way up until 12,
and I have one memory of oneteacher, my first grade teacher,
miss Quinzio, who's still alive, who affirmed me culturally,
(30:36):
and so I was fortunate to havethat experience early on, but
then it was not really everrepeated and I think I did okay
in school.
I think I had a positiveidentity of myself as a student
and school was in a lot of waysjust a place to escape to, to
(31:02):
escape home.
So I came to justice work, Ithink in a different way than
folks.
Justice work for me has beenabout breaking family cycles of
violence, starting with myselfand my younger sister, and so a
(31:27):
lot of the work of justice forme started with understanding
familial patterns of dysfunctionand toxicity and violence and
doing the work that I needed todo to not pass that on to my own
children.
I'm an educator and identify asan ethnic studies practitioner,
(31:52):
and that also came, I think,about halfway through my career
as an educator.
I was directing a teachereducation program at a
predominantly white universitythat was really like a white
savior missionary program andwas teaching the class on this
(32:16):
you know the quote-unquotesocial justice class and we
watched the film PreciousKnowledge and I remember where I
was Like.
I remember the room that we werein when we watched it.
I remember how I felt and Ifelt like this sense of like oh,
(32:36):
this is what I have beenlooking for in terms of the type
of practice you know that Iwanted to aspire to, and I also
felt a tremendous sense of grief, of like what would my life
have been like if I had beeneducated in this way, if I could
have known how to educate theyoung people that I had taught
(32:58):
in this way, and that led me ona really incredible path back to
myself, back to my homefrequency, and so my path from
2012, I think on has kind ofbeen my own ethnic studies like
self-education of learning aboutwho I am.
(33:19):
On has kind of been my ownethnic studies like
self-education of learning aboutwho I am, learning about who my
people are and then learninghow to teach and to lead from
ethnic studies practice and it'sbeen, you know, just an
incredible journey.
That's been just an incrediblejourney.
That's been like transformed mywhole life.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Yeah, so I'm the founder of Umuli Ethnic Studies.
Speaker 4 (33:46):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and our mission is to
strengthen, protect and sustainethnic studies in Chicago and to
be a home place for ethnicstudies for educators and young
people in Chicago.
Yeah, I think that's it for now.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
I'm the lead volunteer, you know if you need,
you know papers copied or?
Speaker 2 (34:16):
t-shirts made.
Just bring in the money madeokay, just bring in the money,
bring in the money.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
Oh, that's real can I just say like uh, I think it's
right to say ethnic studiesbrought us together yes, all
four of us yeah yeah, right,like, I feel, like, is that, is
that our connection?
Speaker 4 (34:35):
I think so.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
Well, I mean.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
He's going to tell the magic story.
Okay, okay, Well.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
I mean yes and I was going to ask you to.
I think.
See Sig for us.
Yeah, yeah, no for sure forsure.
Speaker 4 (34:49):
See, sig, keeps us together, keeps us together.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
So I want to you know , because we talk about this
story or I share a story, but Iactually want to hear your side
of the story Of how we cametogether when we approached you
in the parking lot Before that,before you do that.
Speaker 4 (35:03):
I was in the parking lot.
We saw him in the parking lot.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
We saw you in the parking lot.
So for me, I was you know, Ishared this with you yesterday
when I was like, like it's atrip that I'm back in San Diego.
I wouldn't have been back herein San Diego unless we would
have met you, and we wouldn'thave met you unless she would
(35:29):
have brought me to thePhilippines.
And I wouldn't have met withher if I didn't ask her mom to
interview me always back to hermother, always back to her
mother met with her if I didn'task her mom to interview me
Always back to her mother,always back to her mother,
killing the mother wound.
So that's my story of how we metMother healing Mother.
Healing, yes, how do youinterpret how we met?
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Well, I mean, I remember getting a message from
Jason ethnic studies and saying,hey, are you in the Philippines
?
I was like, yeah, hey, man, mygood homie Jose.
I mean, more or less, I thinkthey saw you at a restaurant,
(36:19):
you know it'd be great if y'allcan connect.
I'm like, oh great, yeah, youknow, give me his info, whatever
.
And I think he may have sent usa message, maybe on Facebook.
Yeah, I think so.
And that's kind of how, yeah,we chat each other up and let's,
yeah, let's meet up.
You know.
But I chat each other up andlet's, yeah, let's meet up.
(36:41):
You know, but but I don't knowhow.
Speaker 4 (36:42):
So I didn't see you two um in the parking lot.
So so I don't know that side ofthe story.
Well, that's how we knew that.
So we saw you.
I recognized you from ethnicstudies.
I think it was cleese orsomething yeah um, you know,
because I'm an ethnic, so it isgroup B.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
Yeah, so there's the common denominator.
Speaker 4 (37:00):
Yeah, that is the common denominator and I was
like, oh, I think I know whothat, or I think that person is
from the States.
Yeah, Like I've seen thembefore.
Speaker 3 (37:09):
And we're not even I mean not that.
Manila place to find each other, but we were in?
Speaker 1 (37:19):
yeah, where were we in the philippines, bro?
We were on the same island, onthe same time, at the same
restaurant yeah.
Speaker 4 (37:26):
And so what I think is the amazing part of the story
was like oh, I think I knowthat person and if it were me I
would have just like left it atthat.
Yeah, you know, it would havebeen like oh yeah, so I you know
.
And then he was like, well, whoyou know?
And I you know?
and I was like, well, I thinkhis name is carlos hagedorn, I
think he's in ethnic studies, um, and so he just starts like
(37:47):
going on his phone and of coursehe knows a lot of people and
he's like, oh yeah, he knowsjason and like, without even
telling me, he's like alreadyput the wheels in motion To get
an introduction.
And what I really you know, I'mmore reserved, you know kind of
(38:09):
introverted person was that hereached out and was like, yeah,
why wouldn't we get anintroduction.
And then that you all were like, yeah, that's not weird.
Okay, sure, let's meet up withthem.
You know, like I, yeah, therewere a lot of different points
at which I think any of us couldhave been like, you know, kind
of brushed it off, and so.
I think, it's really cool that,like you know, our spirits, our
(38:32):
hearts like led us to be open tothis experience of like getting
to know.
You know meeting up meeting forthe first time, and then you
all like having reasons to cometo chicago.
You know your sister being inchicago and just like to keep
like building right and gettingto know each other, and so it
feels very like meant to be yeah, oh yeah, and then we were, and
(38:56):
then we lived in the classtogether.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
That's right, yeah but the day we went to go meet
you all I don't know if youremember this, but um, on our
what like that morning, I wokeup feeling really sick and
really sad.
So, like on the way to meet youguys, I started crying in the
car like I just started feelingoverwhelmed with like all the
politics we were learning aboutin the philippines and we had
(39:20):
just come from vietnam and justlike, fuck man, like we're
fucked, not feeling any hope,you know, and just like feeling
overcome with like just thisimmense sadness of like man,
like we're just exploitingpeople everywhere and there's no
, you know, and we're on our wayto get you all.
And I'm like trying not to crytoo much Cause I didn't want you
guys to see that I had beencrying, so I'm like trying to
(39:42):
pull it together.
And he's like, should we turnaround?
I'm like, no, I'll be okay, youknow.
And then like boom, like we seeyou guys.
And, um, it was, it was reallyreally nice to have the hope
like reignited again.
I mean, I still, I mean I thinkthis podcast is going to be
(40:03):
really important because, youknow, the more you learn, like
it does feel like what is thehope, you know, because, like
the forces that we're fightingagainst are so big, um, and then
, obviously, when you pull backlittle, like into your little
bubbles, like it's easier tofeel the hope and feel like
things are going good orwhatever.
But then when you take that biglook again, especially when you
travel, it's just like likethis is a really big design,
(40:26):
like yeah, it's a system yeahlike and and this, and the
systems are all connected.
You know like, it's not justlike this one, it's like a whole
system of death stars allconnecting with each other and
but yeah, that day was like itwas really.
It was a really interesting daythat we actually came together
(40:47):
too, and I'm not a kind of like.
I feel like part of my healingjourney has been to be okay to
cry again, you know, because forso long I just like just stay
busy, just keep working, justkeep it moving and like so that
was like the first day where Ifelt like I couldn't hold it
anymore that was the day we metyou.
Speaker 4 (41:07):
Thank you for sharing that story yeah, I remember, we
.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
I remembered one that was a good meal, um, but you
were you two were feeling youwere recovering from being sick
yeah, oh, that's right.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
Yeah, you had some soup or something, right?
Speaker 2 (41:19):
yeah, and then I had soup because I was like I don't
know if I could eat either.
Speaker 3 (41:23):
I was hitting the chicken.
I gave me some more of that.
I was trying to respect yeahyeah, we have a picture, by the
way, that first time yeah, thatwas.
Yeah, that's how I saw it theother day.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
I saw it the other day, yeah, yeah, well, I mean,
that was a great time, I think,for reconnecting, right?
Because, um, cecily, um, youknow, asked me and I was so glad
to be able to do a reconnectingceremony with her and her
sisters and her mom, which isbeautiful when we got there
(42:02):
Beautiful, and so they have wildlove lemongrass growing all
over her home.
Is it where your mom lived orwas she?
Speaker 4 (42:15):
Where my grandparents lived.
It was her grandparents, wow,and so I want to bring
lemongrass.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
To me is it you wasn't where your mom lived, or
was she?
Or my grandparents?
It was a grandparent, wow, andso I want to bring lemongrass
like to me.
Lemongrass now it's it's likeconnected to that, to that home
place for her.
Speaker 4 (42:28):
But I think that home place is that reconnection yeah
yeah well that's funny becauseI'm sorry no, no, no, go ahead
ahead, isn't that when youlaunched Umui?
I launched it that summer, yeah, and taking the trip was like a
really big part.
Speaker 3 (42:46):
Yeah, I remember you sharing on your social media
something around that.
Speaker 4 (42:49):
Yeah, returning home.
Speaker 3 (42:51):
Yeah, and so I was reading you know, I think I had
requested you as a friend,whatever and I was reading that
and I like, oh my god, like thislanguage that she's
articulating is exactly how I'mfeeling, because I'm home in the
philippines for the first timein my life yeah to visit my
father and so that that languagereally was very healing for me
to be like wow, this issometimes I have a hard time
(43:14):
explaining myself orarticulating and I was like like
that's exactly how I feel, soit's super appreciative to read
that and to be for that to benamed that way.
I was like wow, that'sbeautiful.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
Yeah, that was beautiful.
Yeah, so that's what thepodcast is about, so you'll be
able to listen to.
We just started, though right.
Speaker 3 (43:34):
What'd you say?
We just started right.
What'd you say?
There's more questions?
Right, that was the intro.
This is the intro.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
We have to cut it at some point.
But if you want to hear morestuff like this, Part two.
Speaker 2 (43:49):
Part two and part three and part four.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
Thank you all for listening and we'll definitely
have you all as guests at somepoint.
Thank you all so much thank you, thank you.
Buenas familia, soy Jose, rico or Rico, if you know
me from the hood.
Thank you so much for yourattention today.
It means everything to me, andI want to welcome you to Hope
Dealer, which is a podcast aboutour journey towards hope,
resilience and joy through thestories that we carry about our
(00:25):
return home, and my intentionfor our time together is to
remind us that we carry powerfulmedicine within us that is our
guide to our transformation.
Thank you so much for joiningme.
I am so grateful to be able tointroduce you to incredible
(00:46):
people, incredible spirits thatwill share their journeys with
us.
I'm here to introduce theincredible folks that are making
(01:17):
this happen, both in today'spodcast, but also you know and
I'm going to tell this storyafter you all introduce each
other how we got here in thismoment in time.
Magic In magic, right, butfirst let's introduce our guests
.
I'm going to have themintroduce themselves and I'm
going to ask Raquel first tointroduce herself, but also tell
(01:39):
us the story of Rancho PatroViertos.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Hello, my name is Raquel Mendia Nunez.
I'm the daughter of Rafael andRebecca, both born here in
California, two Mexican parents,so I'm third generation.
So Chicana raised Chicana,luckily I was.
Even though my parents wereschooled here and English
(02:06):
dominant in their schooling, Iwas still raised with a lot of
cultural pride.
I just want to shout them outfor that.
So yeah, so I grew up here inSan Diego and a town called
Spring Valley, which at thattime was kind of rural, suburban
and now becoming more and moreurban.
(02:27):
We had a lot of empty spacegrowing up where we could go,
walk through creeks and catchcrawdads and there were dairy
farms everywhere.
But that's gone now.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Wait, what's a crawdad?
Oh, for real.
Do you know what a crawdad?
Speaker 2 (02:41):
is.
I think it's kind of like acrawfish, like kind of like some
shrimp shallow water freshwater.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
I guess this is for the city.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
I think people eat them yeah yeah, we never ate
them, but probably at some timemy people did.
Um, but my, my mother's mother,uh, they're from sonora and uh
lived in arizona, so I had so.
(03:12):
And then my dad's family isfrom imperial valley, which is
east of san diego.
So most of my childhood I spentdriving through the desert and
my dad's mother, who lived incalipatria, had a little ranch,
and then some, then some of myfamily members in Phoenix had
little ranches.
So I always dreamed of livingin a little town, in a little
(03:32):
ranch somewhere.
Like you know, I would alwaystell my dad we should move back
to Brawley and get a littleranch, but of course nobody
listened to me.
So I would always say that wasone of my, that was one of my
dreams.
And so fast forward to thepandemic.
Um, I was farming my front yardin the city and realized that
(03:54):
it's a lot of work, like justfor this little front yard.
It was taking a lot of work andI started thinking, like man, I
can't wait until I retire toget a ranch, because I'm not
going to be strong enoughanymore.
Like, I need to get started now, while I have energy, so then
hopefully, when I retire, I canenjoy the fruits of my labor.
So, um, I bought a house, myfirst house, uh, in the early
(04:18):
two thousands 2001,.
And they were still giving liketeacher incentives or whatever,
which is how I got into thathouse.
So when I first talked to arealtor to buy, I reached out to
my friend to tell her that Iwanted to buy a ranch and I
thought we were going to getlike a three year plan going or
(04:39):
something like you're going tohave to save up this much money,
like you know.
But then when she saw theequity I had in the house, she
was like no, we could do thisnow, like you could.
You could totally buy a housenow.
Um, and also like a side story,is that my mom has been living,
had been living with me.
So I'd been living with my momfor like six years I think, and
(05:03):
it wasn't so bad before thepandemic, because I travel a lot
for work.
But during the pandemic, like Iwas over it, like I just I
couldn't live with her anymore.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
So, um, we'll edit that part out I mean I could be
real.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
My mom knows like, luckily, we have a really honest
and open relationship, whichhas been part of our healing
journey.
Um, uh, obviously we all havemother wounds to heal.
Um, yeah, but, um, so, yeah, soit was, everything happened
really fast, I mean, andsometimes I feel like maybe I
(05:41):
did it on a whim, like maybe Ishould have thought about what I
was doing more, because thingsjust happened so quickly.
And so once I got here becauseit's really the right place,
like did I really think about it?
And I had a friend who said,well, maybe the fact that it was
so easy and happened so fast isbecause it was meant to be wow,
yeah, um, but part of like.
So so that's kind of like howit all started.
(06:04):
But also, through my healingjourney, trying to figure out
one like you know, when you havemore than what you need, how do
you give back?
Like, what does that look likeso that you're not hoarding
resources?
Um, what does land back looklike in practice?
Um, and how do we learn to livein ceremony with the land?
(06:25):
And then how do we buildcommunity?
So I had all these questions andso Rancho Cuatro Vientos kind
of came out of that, like youknow, the dream of you and your
friends talking about buyinglands, but, like, none of my
friends were ready, you know.
So it was like, well, do I keepwaiting?
(06:45):
Like, like, do I keep puttingmy dreams off to wait for
everyone else, or do I just doit?
So this was, this was a prettybig leap of faith to do
something for myself that waspurely for myself, like not
thinking about anybody else.
Like it's a two-bedroom houseand at the time I had my
daughter, yeah, but she didn'twant to live here.
Um, it was never the plan thatshe was going to live here, so
(07:07):
this was supposed to be like myplace by myself, that I was
going to come and be out hereall alone, like living my best
bachelorette life, you know,having my friends over, you know
all this stuff.
And, uh, while I was in escrow,I met somebody online.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
You have to watch out for those online.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
Yes, I ended up never being here by myself, wow.
So we're exploring.
What does it look like to haveland but to open it up to people
?
So we've hosted ceremonies here, and when I say we godless and
I definitely, but also my bestfriend, iriani, who's much
younger than me, but she's aceremony sister, daughter, niece
(07:53):
, like it's kind of weirdbecause I'm almost her mom's age
, but we've definitely hadmoments where we feel like
friends and then, but I alsonurture her a lot too.
So it's just weird.
We get to be a lot of things toeach other.
But, um, I, I applied for acomposting grant and I got it,
(08:15):
and so she became my siteoperator.
So she's also been kind of mypartner and planning out like,
how are we to use the land?
So when I'm traveling for work,if we're going to host a
ceremony, like, she comes andholds it down and like, make
sure that people know wherethings are, where things can go,
what the rules are, um, so, um.
(08:37):
So we've been doing thecomposting for this is our
second year, um, and then sheand her partner recently moved
here on a trailer.
So that's something I can't paythem at this point, but they
don't have to pay rent, which insan diego is really big.
There, for a little one bedroomplace they were paying over two
thousand dollars a month,making like 20 bucks an hour,
(09:00):
yeah, um, so now we have big.
So now her boyfriend is alsopart of the team, along with
Carlos, but Aiden is our leadecologist is what we call him
and he has this whole plan ofhow are we going to get the land
to be a hundred percent nativewithin.
The next five years in terms ofplanting.
Wow, that's pretty aggressive.
Yeah so we, every season we'replanting a new wave of stuff.
(09:24):
Yeah, so every season we'replanting a new wave of stuff.
And yeah so we're just kind ofthinking like, who do we want to
invite here?
What kind of not just ceremonyspaces, but have a safe place
where our queer friends, peopleof color, who don't always feel
safe out in nature spaces herein San Diego County, they could
(09:45):
come here and like just lay onthe earth and not have to worry
about people bothering them.
We have the telescope, you know, hoping to have some stargazing
nights.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
I'm still waiting, bonfire.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
So that's just kind of a hope to have a place that
people can come and enjoy andjust trying to figure out what
does it mean to own land andalso thinking about land back,
like obviously part of land backis giving land back to Native
peoples, but I've also heardit's also giving it back to the
indigenous plants, indigenousspecies, like reconnecting with
(10:24):
land, honoring the cycles thatare here.
So we're in that phase of landback, because obviously we still
need a place to live at thispoint.
But you know, that's somethingthat we all feel a call to not
just reconnecting with our roots, but really reconnecting with
(10:44):
that indigeneity and like livingin harmony with the land.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Yeah, yeah, this is a beautiful, um, I mean your,
your cultivation and your spirit.
You know, I've gone out in themorning, uh, during the mornings
, and just to be able to touchthe land and to be able to smell
the flowers, um and uh, it'sjust a beautiful.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
You could, you, could , you could tell that is blessed
by many grandmothers and, yes,this piece of the land, yeah,
and actually when I moved here,obviously like if you drive, if
you ever, if the listeners everget to come out here, it is a
little bit scary because,obviously, rural America, what
(11:33):
are you going to find?
There are Trump flags and thisarea is pretty well known.
It's pretty militarized withBorder Patrol.
One of the neighboring towns isSantee, but they call it
Clantee.
You know you'll see that kindof stuff.
And so before I moved here, Iactually had a dream.
(11:53):
I had a dream that I saw someindigenous children walking
across the land going to school,and the message I got was like
you belong here more than theydo.
Yeah, that's, true, and I knewthat I was protected.
That's right.
So it's also.
There's also some of that too,like reclaiming space.
(12:15):
And since I've been here, likewhen we first come, you kind of
think like, oh man, like youreally do feel like a minority,
because you get that fear, likeyou want to recoil and kind of
hide.
But as I've been here longer,like I've noticed like there's a
lot of rasa here.
So how do we become notinvisible?
Right, because right now we'reinvisible in the story like of
(12:37):
this community, but we're reallylike and I don't think
everybody here are workers likethat you see people who look
like ranchers too, like you knowpeople just enjoying life, like
they're not just here workingfor people.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
I think they're living here.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
So it's also like coming out of my own shell, like
to be brave and to be like hey,what's up?
Like what's your name, where doyou live?
You know to ask those questionsand not be such a city person.
I, you know to ask thosequestions and not be such a city
(13:15):
person, scared of interacting.
But connecting.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Well, we're ready to repopulate the land.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
I'm gonna start sending you listings.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
I like this land in California.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
They just passed a law where you can build an ADU
on your unit and sell it as acondo build a who, an ADU.
Accessory dwelling unit, solike if I built like a little
house for you An additionalhouse, got it.
I can build it and sell it toyou and you can own it just like
a condo.
Wow, yeah, it's beautiful land.
Speaker 1 (13:43):
Beautiful land.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Beautiful land.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
So we're Raquel.
I mean, we wouldn't have Raqueland without Carlos the online
boyfriend, oh, the onlineboyfriend.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Online date person.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
Slash lead volunteer Tinder.
Nah, it wasn't Tinder's.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Facebook.
That's, yeah, that's yourTinder's, her Tinder's, your
Facebook.
Go ahead, carlos, introduceyourself brother.
Speaker 2 (14:16):
Who you are, what you do.
You're more than that brother.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
You're an incredible educator at ethnic studies.
You know activist, so introduceyourself and you know what you
want to share with folks.
Yeah, yeah, Thank you, Thankyou.
Speaker 3 (14:29):
Yeah, my name is Carlos, you know what you want
to share with, with, with folks.
Yeah, yeah, thank you.
Thank you, I loved um.
Yeah, my name is uh carlos umcarlos ernesto guatemoc hagedorn
, uh grandchild of concepcion,alicia arthur mercedes, and son
of anna maria gonzalez, andjoaquin.
(14:51):
Bacani-Hagedorn, soy, chicano,filipino.
So I'm Chicapino, chicapino andraised deeply to be grounded
and proud of my mixed culturesand where my family's come from
and, uh, um, raised, rooted injustice and and, uh, you know,
(15:18):
fighting for the betterment of,of our, of our humanity.
So I was, I was born inwoodland california, tomato,
tomato lands um, firstgeneration on my chicano side
and second generation Chicanoside.
And I just want to say I lovedhearing Raquel talk about her
(15:43):
intention and purpose of beinghere.
It's just really neat to hearher share her story about that,
because it's just really neat to, um, hear her share her story
about that, um, because it'svery purposeful and that's
something that's reallyimportant to me doing things
with purpose and intention, um,so I just wanted to just add
(16:03):
that too.
Um, yeah, so, uh, yeah, raised,yeah, so yeah, raised up in the
north, and now somehow I livehere in San Diego County.
Oh, you know what we didn't do?
We didn't acknowledge the landshere.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Oh yeah, unceded Kumeyaay territory.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
Yeah, yeah.
So yeah, as Jose was sharing'man educator, um in ethnic
studies.
So a teacher activist is, is my, is my lifetime, uh, one of my
lifetime callings teacheractivists in in ethnic studies.
Um, and I remember a dearfriend years ago, I don't know
(16:48):
15 years ago, a dear friend ofours, allison.
We were at a conference and she,one of her questions was how
did it was?
It was our ethnic studiesorigin story.
You know it was like when didethnic studies find you?
Or when did you find ethnicstudies?
You know, or when did you fallin love with ethnic studies?
Or when did ethnic studies fallin love with you?
(17:09):
And I always, I mean I have amoment where I walked into an
ethnic studies fall in love withyou, and I always, I mean I
have a moment where I walkedinto an ethnic studies classroom
.
But really, when I think aboutit, I think about my mother and
and the womb of being, likebeing in my mother's womb, and
uh, learning about my mom anddad while I was, you know,
becoming I, was being made youknow um, and just all the
(17:30):
beautiful work they did, um, andso I think you know I, you know
that's really where I feel likemy important story begins as
far as, um, my my teacheractivist journey, um, and
growing up in a household, uh,where it was constantly, uh, you
know, there were constantcultures Mexican, filipino.
(17:54):
So a lot of my Filipino familywould be coming in every summer
and we would convert livingrooms into rooms and then, on my
Mexican side, my Mexican sidewas more rooted in community as
far as my Filipino side was, asfar as my family was coming in
(18:21):
and out, and so my Mexican side,growing up, felt more my
identity with community wasrooted in Chicano politics and
Chicano culture in many ways.
But it all made sense, it all,like you know, hearing Tagalog,
(18:43):
hearing Spanish, English, it allflowed pretty well in my family
.
And so I went to an elementaryschool in Woodland.
It was bilingual and it was allRasa, teachers, principal, all
of that was just like supernormal for me.
I mean.
So walking from home to schooland from school to home was just
(19:04):
a normal humanizing experience,you know.
You know, and it wasn't.
Until my parents divorced, Imoved to Stockton, california,
with my father and I went to amonolingual school, english only
, of course, and fourth grade inthe school was called colonial
Heights, and so you know,unconsciously, but I began to be
(19:28):
aware of colonial educationreally fast there and I and I
disconnected from, fromacademics, um, pretty much after
that, all the way through highschool into my first couple of
years at community college, Iwasn't academically engaged.
Um, I did really well socially,you know.
But you know, that's, that's uh, think that I don't think I
(19:53):
know that shows up in myteaching and learning practice.
How I grew up at home.
You know how, those first yearsof school, what it felt like to
be seen to be, just what itfelt like to be a normal little
kid running around, you knowteachers yelling at me in
(20:15):
Spanish or English, yeah, andyou fool humanity, yeah.
And then I, you know, wentthrough the experience that a
lot of our youth go through,from kindergarten on, just
oppressive education.
So, yeah, it became yeah.
So I stepped into an ethnicstudies class at Santa Barbara
(20:35):
Community College.
So I was actually struggling.
I was struggling and my mom hadcalled me up pre-cell phone
days, said Mijo, you got to comehome.
You know your grades, you'refailing.
I was failing all my classes.
I wasn't even going to myclasses.
You know I was getting acollege degree in social life at
the beach, just enjoying life,not going to lie, it was fun and
(21:01):
I didn't want to come home.
I was like Mom, give me onemore semester chance.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Because she was paying for him.
Yeah, to live away from home incommunity college.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
That's a gift.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
It is, is and your mom made that sacrifice for you
yep, yep, yeah.
Well, that's why he spent itwell at the beach that's a good
way to spend it yeah, she waslike I need to see the grave
yeah so you went back.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
No, so I opened up a class catalog the book Back in
the day we had a book.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
I love those.
Speaker 3 (21:39):
And I was like, oh man, what you know, like, come
on, I got this, I'm going to doit.
I'm going to do it.
By the way, let me just say Iwasn't good at school, but I
want to just honor my parentsfor making me go to college.
They didn't give me a choiceand I know there's a debate on,
ah, give your kids a choice.
I'm so thankful my parents mademe go.
(22:01):
So, even though I didn't dowell in high school, in the back
of my head I knew I had to goto this thing called college,
like it was mandatory college,like it was mandatory, um, and I
just really feel um lucky toyou know that my parents, they
were first generation collegegraduates, um, and so they set
(22:21):
the path for me and made me, youknow, and so, um, so, yeah, I'm
looking at this book and I'mlike I know in the back of my
head, all right, I'm going toget my shit together.
You know, I got I gotta get ittogether because I don't want to
leave this place either.
And so I'm like I know in theback of my head, all right, I'm
gonna get my shit together.
You know, I got I gotta get ittogether because I don't want to
leave this place either.
And so I'm.
I'm just scrolling through, um,the, the catalog and um, I come
(22:45):
up on a word I hadn't seen indecades, and it was Chicano.
And the class was aMexican-American Chicano art.
And I could not believe thatthat word, that my identity,
part of who I was, was in acollege catalog.
(23:08):
You know, I was like what, likewhat?
Like hold up.
You know, like hold up, is thisfor real?
So I immediately signed up forit and it was wednesday night,
which was like the worst thingever once a week.
Why was that?
When surf's up, you know, itwas like I'm who's gonna show up
on a wednesday night class.
I'm like seven to ten, seven to9, 50, you know, not me, that
(23:33):
was like yo, there's something.
And it was also an art class.
You know turned out to be ahistory of art and I wasn't too
interested in art, but the wordchicano is is all I needed to
see, you know.
So I signed up immediately andI and I still remember till this
day I walked into thatclassroom it was a huge theater,
like classroom, and and Iopened the door and it brought
(23:57):
me right back to BeamerElementary, the bilingual school
that I, that I went to, becauseI saw all, all the students my
age.
They all looked like me, Ilooked like them, I was like
those are my little homies, youknow.
First, second from first, second, third grade, you know, and I
looked down, it was atheater-like, so it was a big
stage.
There was a big stage at thebottom.
I looked down and the professorlooked identical to my Tio
(24:21):
Jimmy.
You know, dark indigenous.
You know who's actually?
He's.
No, tio Jimmy didn't make ithere, but he made it there, and
so, and that was Proe, it isprofe manuel unsuelta, because
he's still alive, um, and he's alegendary chicano artist and
that profe uh changed was a hugepiece of changing my life
(24:44):
forever, um, and he just taught,he just talked to us like we
were at home.
You know about who we arethrough art, you know, and it
was the most beautifulexperience, you know, and I
remember living in an area insanta barbara, it's called isla
vista and it's, you know, budoparty, you know just all party.
(25:05):
And I remember coming home with, like, my art book you know,
and I say I still have thesebooks.
You know, and I remember justwalking to my room, you know,
like walking past all my homieswho were drinking and smoking,
and I was doing that too priorto this, and I was just, I just
walked to my room and I justwanted to read more and it just,
you know, it opened up the, the, the, you know the love for
(25:26):
myself, the love for education,for academics, and I, um, I, I
took the, I took all the rest ofthe classes there at Santa
Barbara Community College andChicano Studies, and I
transferred to SF State, um, and, and got an undergrad, and I
spent less years at a universitythan a community college,
because it took me four years toget through community college.
(25:48):
But by the time I got to SFState, I was so hungry.
I wanted to learn how toresearch, write, learn how to
ask questions, learn how to like, you know, join, you know um,
you know just be, be an activiston campus and off campus, and
all of that the College ofEthnic Studies provided us in a
deep, in a deep way, um and uh.
And you know, part of thatjourney was also denationalizing
(26:13):
my politics, and SF State andthe College of Ethnic Studies
really opened up aninternationalist ideology and
practice which made naturalsense for me, given, you know my
, you know my, my roots are, um,from different parts of the
(26:34):
world.
You know um, yeah, and so I'm a, I'm an ethnic studies teacher,
um, and student.
Still, I always believe thatthat we got to stay humble and
be a student in this, in thiswork um, and an organizer, and
so and I live here in CuatroVientos now you know.
(26:57):
So I'm back in SouthernCalifornia.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
But we also do spend time in Atlanta.
We do yeah we do yeah.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
So, yeah, that's a little bit about me.
Yeah, that's a little bit aboutmy intro.
Cool and lead volunteer.
And I'm the lead volunteer atCuatro Vientos.
Speaker 1 (27:16):
That's right.
We're trying to situate it.
Yes, cool organizer.
Yeah, Cool, cool, cool, cool,cool.
And the fourth person to thisgroup is a Another divine,
spiritual being, fierce warrior,someone that you know, a
(27:42):
kindred spirit a leader.
You know if you would have seenCecily at the event she
organized last week, the amountof joy and love that she brought
to so many folks.
I'm just glad that I get topartner with my compañera and
(28:07):
many things, including thispodcast, because she is actually
the first interviewer of thepodcast and she's going to do
that as my compañera, partner,partner Muñeca, cecily.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
You can't hear it, but she's blushing.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
Hi, I'm Cecily Relucio.
I am the daughter of the latePerlita Imperial and Edmundo
Relucio from the Philippines,from Nueva Ecija and Tondo,
manila, and I'm Jose's partner.
(28:54):
We live in Albany Park, chicago, with our five children, a
blended family Tizoc, vanessa,amaya, diego and Mia.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
That's an age.
That's the order of age.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
From age 28 to age 16 .
Speaker 4 (29:21):
So we have a full home house, full of love and
chaos and discovery.
I am a survivor of life in arural, sundown town in Illinois,
so that's where I grew up.
I was born in Chicago and then,when I was two years old, my
(29:44):
family moved to Coal City,illinois, and it was a really
difficult place to grow up as alittle brown girl and very.
As a little brown girl and very, yeah, I felt I grew up
becoming very alienated from whoI was, as a Pinay, as a
(30:11):
Filipina, not reallyunderstanding what my place was
in the world as like my fullhuman self.
All of my teachers were white,from K all the way up until 12,
and I have one memory of oneteacher, my first grade teacher,
miss Quinzio, who's still alive, who affirmed me culturally,
(30:36):
and so I was fortunate to havethat experience early on, but
then it was not really everrepeated and I think I did okay
in school.
I think I had a positiveidentity of myself as a student
and school was in a lot of waysjust a place to escape to, to
(31:02):
escape home.
So I came to justice work, Ithink in a different way than
folks.
Justice work for me has beenabout breaking family cycles of
violence, starting with myselfand my younger sister, and so a
(31:27):
lot of the work of justice forme started with understanding
familial patterns of dysfunctionand toxicity and violence and
doing the work that I needed todo to not pass that on to my own
children.
I'm an educator and identify asan ethnic studies practitioner,
(31:52):
and that also came, I think,about halfway through my career
as an educator.
I was directing a teachereducation program at a
predominantly white universitythat was really like a white
savior missionary program andwas teaching the class on this
(32:16):
you know the quote-unquotesocial justice class and we
watched the film PreciousKnowledge and I remember where I
was Like.
I remember the room that we werein when we watched it.
I remember how I felt and Ifelt like this sense of like oh,
(32:36):
this is what I have beenlooking for in terms of the type
of practice you know that Iwanted to aspire to, and I also
felt a tremendous sense of grief, of like what would my life
have been like if I had beeneducated in this way, if I could
have known how to educate theyoung people that I had taught
(32:58):
in this way, and that led me ona really incredible path back to
myself, back to my homefrequency, and so my path from
2012, I think on has kind ofbeen my own ethnic studies like
self-education of learning aboutwho I am.
(33:19):
On has kind of been my ownethnic studies like
self-education of learning aboutwho I am, learning about who my
people are and then learninghow to teach and to lead from
ethnic studies practice and it'sbeen, you know, just an
incredible journey.
That's been just an incrediblejourney.
That's been like transformed mywhole life.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Yeah, so I'm the founder of Umuli Ethnic Studies.
Speaker 4 (33:46):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and our mission is to
strengthen, protect and sustainethnic studies in Chicago and to
be a home place for ethnicstudies for educators and young
people in Chicago.
Yeah, I think that's it for now.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
I'm the lead volunteer, you know if you need,
you know papers copied or?
Speaker 2 (34:16):
t-shirts made.
Just bring in the money madeokay, just bring in the money,
bring in the money.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
Oh, that's real can I just say like uh, I think it's
right to say ethnic studiesbrought us together yes, all
four of us yeah yeah, right,like, I feel, like, is that, is
that our connection?
Speaker 4 (34:35):
I think so.
Speaker 3 (34:37):
Well, I mean.
Speaker 2 (34:38):
He's going to tell the magic story.
Okay, okay, Well.
Speaker 1 (34:40):
I mean yes and I was going to ask you to.
I think.
See Sig for us.
Yeah, yeah, no for sure forsure.
Speaker 4 (34:49):
See, sig, keeps us together, keeps us together.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
So I want to you know , because we talk about this
story or I share a story, but Iactually want to hear your side
of the story Of how we cametogether when we approached you
in the parking lot Before that,before you do that.
Speaker 4 (35:03):
I was in the parking lot.
We saw him in the parking lot.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
We saw you in the parking lot.
So for me, I was you know, Ishared this with you yesterday
when I was like, like it's atrip that I'm back in San Diego.
I wouldn't have been back herein San Diego unless we would
have met you, and we wouldn'thave met you unless she would
(35:29):
have brought me to thePhilippines.
And I wouldn't have met withher if I didn't ask her mom to
interview me always back to hermother, always back to her
mother met with her if I didn'task her mom to interview me
Always back to her mother,always back to her mother,
killing the mother wound.
So that's my story of how we metMother healing Mother.
Healing, yes, how do youinterpret how we met?
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Well, I mean, I remember getting a message from
Jason ethnic studies and saying,hey, are you in the Philippines
?
I was like, yeah, hey, man, mygood homie Jose.
I mean, more or less, I thinkthey saw you at a restaurant,
(36:19):
you know it'd be great if y'allcan connect.
I'm like, oh great, yeah, youknow, give me his info, whatever
.
And I think he may have sent usa message, maybe on Facebook.
Yeah, I think so.
And that's kind of how, yeah,we chat each other up and let's,
yeah, let's meet up.
You know.
But I chat each other up andlet's, yeah, let's meet up.
(36:41):
You know, but but I don't knowhow.
Speaker 4 (36:42):
So I didn't see you two um in the parking lot.
So so I don't know that side ofthe story.
Well, that's how we knew that.
So we saw you.
I recognized you from ethnicstudies.
I think it was cleese orsomething yeah um, you know,
because I'm an ethnic, so it isgroup B.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
Yeah, so there's the common denominator.
Speaker 4 (37:00):
Yeah, that is the common denominator and I was
like, oh, I think I know whothat, or I think that person is
from the States.
Yeah, Like I've seen thembefore.
Speaker 3 (37:09):
And we're not even I mean not that.
Manila place to find each other, but we were in?
Speaker 1 (37:19):
yeah, where were we in the philippines, bro?
We were on the same island, onthe same time, at the same
restaurant yeah.
Speaker 4 (37:26):
And so what I think is the amazing part of the story
was like oh, I think I knowthat person and if it were me I
would have just like left it atthat.
Yeah, you know, it would havebeen like oh yeah, so I you know
.
And then he was like, well, whoyou know?
And I you know?
and I was like, well, I thinkhis name is carlos hagedorn, I
think he's in ethnic studies, um, and so he just starts like
(37:47):
going on his phone and of coursehe knows a lot of people and
he's like, oh yeah, he knowsjason and like, without even
telling me, he's like alreadyput the wheels in motion To get
an introduction.
And what I really you know, I'mmore reserved, you know kind of
(38:09):
introverted person was that hereached out and was like, yeah,
why wouldn't we get anintroduction.
And then that you all were like, yeah, that's not weird.
Okay, sure, let's meet up withthem.
You know, like I, yeah, therewere a lot of different points
at which I think any of us couldhave been like, you know, kind
of brushed it off, and so.
I think, it's really cool that,like you know, our spirits, our
(38:32):
hearts like led us to be open tothis experience of like getting
to know.
You know meeting up meeting forthe first time, and then you
all like having reasons to cometo chicago.
You know your sister being inchicago and just like to keep
like building right and gettingto know each other, and so it
feels very like meant to be yeah, oh yeah, and then we were, and
(38:56):
then we lived in the classtogether.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
That's right, yeah but the day we went to go meet
you all I don't know if youremember this, but um, on our
what like that morning, I wokeup feeling really sick and
really sad.
So, like on the way to meet youguys, I started crying in the
car like I just started feelingoverwhelmed with like all the
politics we were learning aboutin the philippines and we had
(39:20):
just come from vietnam and justlike, fuck man, like we're
fucked, not feeling any hope,you know, and just like feeling
overcome with like just thisimmense sadness of like man,
like we're just exploitingpeople everywhere and there's no
, you know, and we're on our wayto get you all.
And I'm like trying not to crytoo much Cause I didn't want you
guys to see that I had beencrying, so I'm like trying to
(39:42):
pull it together.
And he's like, should we turnaround?
I'm like, no, I'll be okay, youknow.
And then like boom, like we seeyou guys.
And, um, it was, it was reallyreally nice to have the hope
like reignited again.
I mean, I still, I mean I thinkthis podcast is going to be
(40:03):
really important because, youknow, the more you learn, like
it does feel like what is thehope, you know, because, like
the forces that we're fightingagainst are so big, um, and then
, obviously, when you pull backlittle, like into your little
bubbles, like it's easier tofeel the hope and feel like
things are going good orwhatever.
But then when you take that biglook again, especially when you
travel, it's just like likethis is a really big design,
(40:26):
like yeah, it's a system yeahlike and and this, and the
systems are all connected.
You know like, it's not justlike this one, it's like a whole
system of death stars allconnecting with each other and
but yeah, that day was like itwas really.
It was a really interesting daythat we actually came together
(40:47):
too, and I'm not a kind of like.
I feel like part of my healingjourney has been to be okay to
cry again, you know, because forso long I just like just stay
busy, just keep working, justkeep it moving and like so that
was like the first day where Ifelt like I couldn't hold it
anymore that was the day we metyou.
Speaker 4 (41:07):
Thank you for sharing that story yeah, I remember, we
.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
I remembered one that was a good meal, um, but you
were you two were feeling youwere recovering from being sick
yeah, oh, that's right.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
Yeah, you had some soup or something, right?
Speaker 2 (41:19):
yeah, and then I had soup because I was like I don't
know if I could eat either.
Speaker 3 (41:23):
I was hitting the chicken.
I gave me some more of that.
I was trying to respect yeahyeah, we have a picture, by the
way, that first time yeah, thatwas.
Yeah, that's how I saw it theother day.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
I saw it the other day, yeah, yeah, well, I mean,
that was a great time, I think,for reconnecting, right?
Because, um, cecily, um, youknow, asked me and I was so glad
to be able to do a reconnectingceremony with her and her
sisters and her mom, which isbeautiful when we got there
(42:02):
Beautiful, and so they have wildlove lemongrass growing all
over her home.
Is it where your mom lived orwas she?
Speaker 4 (42:15):
Where my grandparents lived.
It was her grandparents, wow,and so I want to bring
lemongrass.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
To me is it you wasn't where your mom lived, or
was she?
Or my grandparents?
It was a grandparent, wow, andso I want to bring lemongrass
like to me.
Lemongrass now it's it's likeconnected to that, to that home
place for her.
Speaker 4 (42:28):
But I think that home place is that reconnection yeah
yeah well that's funny becauseI'm sorry no, no, no, go ahead
ahead, isn't that when youlaunched Umui?
I launched it that summer, yeah, and taking the trip was like a
really big part.
Speaker 3 (42:46):
Yeah, I remember you sharing on your social media
something around that.
Speaker 4 (42:49):
Yeah, returning home.
Speaker 3 (42:51):
Yeah, and so I was reading you know, I think I had
requested you as a friend,whatever and I was reading that
and I like, oh my god, like thislanguage that she's
articulating is exactly how I'mfeeling, because I'm home in the
philippines for the first timein my life yeah to visit my
father and so that that languagereally was very healing for me
to be like wow, this issometimes I have a hard time
(43:14):
explaining myself orarticulating and I was like like
that's exactly how I feel, soit's super appreciative to read
that and to be for that to benamed that way.
I was like wow, that'sbeautiful.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
Yeah, that was beautiful.
Yeah, so that's what thepodcast is about, so you'll be
able to listen to.
We just started, though right.
Speaker 3 (43:34):
What'd you say?
We just started right.
What'd you say?
There's more questions?
Right, that was the intro.
This is the intro.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
We have to cut it at some point.
But if you want to hear morestuff like this, Part two.
Speaker 2 (43:49):
Part two and part three and part four.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
Thank you all for listening and we'll definitely
have you all as guests at somepoint.
Thank you all so much thank you, thank you.
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