War Of The Flea Podcast

Dysfunctionals, We're almost to the end in the true spirit of 2020 the crew is tackling all the topics from Virgin of Guadalupe, Mexican Independence and Mexicano Revolution, Indian armies, pan dulce, cultural appropriation, the Mandalorian, why we should boycott movies like Liam Neeson's The Marksmans and how California is selling stocks in water. Its a wild ride - don't miss it.    #controlthenarrative #resist the dysfunction 

This special presentation from Mexicanos 2070 presents the history of Radio KDNA in Seattle, Washington. Here is a description of the segment and some of the people talking.  KDNA, also known as Radio Cadena, La Voz del Campesino, has served The Yakima Valley in western Washington for 40 years, facilitating not only information and entertainment but community development as well. For the last four decades KDNA has created specialized programs for the Chicano audience and motivated community organizations and campaigns related to the AIDS and COVID pandemics, the census and electoral politics. Its program, MIGRA WATCH, inspired United Farmworkers Union co-founder César Chávez, who in 1979 visited KDNA-FM and marveled at the radio station’s farmworker-oriented operations, which in 1983 developed KUFW Radio Campesina, equally convinced that radio was the most efficient means of reaching farmworkers toiling in the fields.   Rosa Ramon is the only female co-founder of KDNA and served as the station manager from

Joaquin Ramos is currently incarcerated by the Michigan Department of Corrections. He is Xicano revolutionary nationalist, a former Brown Beret from Detroit, Michigan. Joaquin and I have been close friends for the past 23 years. I believe this brother is dying from lack of adequate medical care from the staff of Duane Waters Medical Correctional Facility. Please take a moment and listen to this short interview. Below are links that will take you to the MDOC website  https://www.michigan.gov/corrections/0,4551,7-119-68921-269692--,00.html Please take a moment and call 517-335-2252 and leave a message for Marti Kay Sherry who is the administrator for the MDOC Bureau of Health Care Services which according to the MDOC website coordinates and monitors health care services for prisoners. Please be respectful but let MDOC know in no uncertain terms people are watching, concerned and willing to act. 

Third and final part of a conversation with leaders of the Xicano Studies/Ethnic Studies movement in California. Sean Arce, Lupe Carrasco Cardona and Elias Serna give their final opinions on the state of the movement and the necessity of gente from across the country to engage in local mobilization and national activism. 

This second part continues the conversation with California Xicano Studies educators Sean Arce, Lupe Carrasco Cardona and Elias Serna. In this part of the conversation the group turns toward the preservation of Xicano studies and the role it plays in educating our community for self determination. 

In this segment of The Reality Dysfunction we talk with Sean Arce, Lupe Carrasco Cardona and Elias Serna. Three leaders in the struggle for Xicano Studies in California K12 schools. Arce was also a leader in the struggle for Mexican American Studies in Tucson after the state of Arizona passed HB 2281 outlawing the teaching of MAS in public schools. Please listen to the first part of this conversation as these three layout the recent history of struggle for Xicano studies and the issues surrounding the fight in Califas. 

The Reality Dysfunction presents the first in a series of collaborations between TRD and the Rene Nunez Political Action Committee of the National Association of Chicana/Chicano Studies. This first discussion is a presentation moderated by Professor Karleen Pendleton Jimenez (Trent University) the national chair of NACCS. The information on environmental justice is presented by Professor Devon Pena (University of Washington) with Professors Reynaldo Macias (University of California Los Angeles), Manuel Hernandez (Arizona State Univesity) and Raoul Contreras (Indiana University Northwest) responding and discussing. This segment was originally produced by Professor Ernesto Mireles and the Youtube  video can be found here. We hope you enjoy this intellectual and provocative conversation. This exciting collaboration is part of an ongoing effort by War of the Flea Media to bring a Chicana/o/x Studies perspective to the mainstream.  Please leave a comment and hit that follow button.   

The question of normalization is important in terms of how we want to see ourselves on the big screen and the little screen. That question, as several of our crew puts forward, is, do we mean normalize brownness within white society, an action, which has a multitude of implications around assimilation and the perpetuation of a colonialism or normalized within a pro-indigenous decolonial frame where Xicanos and other Latinos take creative control of the storytelling process and make stories by us for us.   According to Dan Soza here are the top ten brown shows on Netflix: Como Caido del Cielo I’m no longer here 1994 Lorena -light footed woman Rosario Tijeras You’ve got this Si mi amor Los tigres del Norte at Folsom prison Narcos Mr Iglesias You be the judge. Leave a comment and let us know what you think.  

The Reality Dysfunction presents the classic lecture of the 1990s by Daniel Osuna the intenational secretary for the Raza Unida Party. This recording october 19, 1992 at Michigan State Univeristy. Produced by Beatrice Peters (Tsimphean/Nicola Anishinawbe) and Brian Sorbo. The video was produced at WELM Public Access Television. Music is by Antawara. The video which can be found here https://youtu.be/ucZLOzhxL5Y.   The copyright is El Partido Nacional de la Raza Undia.  

The Reality Dysfunction is pleased to invite you to listen to a special presentation by Dr. Rogelio Saenz, a professor of demography at UT San Antonio, who has done remarkable work reporting on data that reveals the inordinate impact on Mexican Americans from the coronavirus pandemic. "More than 100,000 Americans have officially died of coronavirus complications. Researchers believe that number could be higher. AMP Research Labs show that the numbers of COVID-19-related fatalities among Black Americans is 2.4 times higher than that of white Americans. The same research shows the number of Latino fatalities is slightly greater than that of whites. Dr. Saenz examined COBID-19 data dashboards of 38 states and said these questions surrounding race result in scattered and incomplete information about Latinos. "So Latinos, a high proportion identify racially as white, so their infections and their deaths are included in the white population," said Dr. Saenz. "So, that becomes extremely difficult to compare, for exa

This special segment of The Reality Dysfunction is a speech given by Cesar Chavez on 88/88/88 at Harvard University about the Delano Grape Strike as context for the second grape boycott that took place in the 1980s through the 1990s. From the vault of Pacifica Radio.

This special segment of The Reality Dysfunction is a talked given by Apaxu Maiz author of Xicano: a autobiography and Aztlan: birthright or right for birth. This talk was given at Michigan State Univeristy in the winter of 1996 We apologize for the sound. A lot of work went into cleaning up the audio to bring you this important lecture on its 25th anniversary. 

In this segment of The Reality Dysfunction the crew takes on the challenges of navigating post election fallout especially concerning the emerging narratives of the conservative "Latinos" voted for Trump when it's clear Xicanos and Puerto Ricans enmass and across the country voted against Trump. What gives? Clearly, its time to revisit the term Latino and make some decisions about who we want to be affiliated with. 

This is a recording of Leif Khan aka the Desert Rat signing his original The Ballad of Emiliano Zapata at an open mic session during Tucson Freedom Summer in 2012. We hope you enjoy it. 

This segment of The Reality Dysfunction is hosted by Juan Carlos Vega. He and the crew talk with organizers Shakeara Mingo and Julian Zepeda from the Cancel the Rent DC and Forget the Debt Phoenix and the role their respective campaigns are playing in trying to bring relief to covid weary communities.    Like us and follow on Facebook The Reality Dysfunction ------------ Musica Revolution has come - Rebel Diaz This is for La Raza - Kid Frost 

This special segment of The Reality Dysfunction presents Dr. Ernesto Mireles speaking at the San Antonio Palo Alto College's Hispanic Heritage Month Sept. 2020, with Dr. Lori B. Rodriguez the director of the Chicano Studies program. Their conversation centers on Dr. Mireles' book Insurgent Aztlan: the liberating power of cultural resistance.  If you haven't got your copy of Insurgent Aztlan yet, contact me directly at ernesto.mireles@prescott.edu to purchase.  Like The Reality Dysfunction on Facebook  Follow us @realitydysfunk on Twitter -------------- 2020 Hispanic Heritage Month Event Author Talk/Plática with Ernesto Todd Mireles Insurgent Aztlán: The Liberating Power of Cultural Resistance (2020 International Latino Book Award - Nonfiction: Best Political/Current Affairs) Webinar link: https://alamo.zoom.us/s/93966667325 Wednesday, September 30, 2020 10:30 – 11:30 am   Music: Revolution has come - Rebel Diaz This is for La Raza - Kid Frost

Once again The Reality Dysfunction takes on an often overlooked aspect of this election. The noise around post election violence is becoming more and more strident everyday but what does that really mean for the Xicano/Latino community. Its to the point words like civil war are being thrown around like it may be an inevitability. Recent the questions was posted by Dr. Roberto Cintli Rodriguez if white supremacist declare a civil war and secede from the United States will POC follow their example? (you can read his article here) It's a provocative subject and one that deserves consideration within the realm of Xicano politics. Included here are jpegs of a letter that is being passed around in the Prescott, AZ., area from the leader of the local milita. Read the messages below.  Like The Reality Dysfunction on Facebook.     ------------------------ Music: Kid Frost "This if for La Raza" Rebel Diaz "Which side are you on" 

In this special segment of The Reality Dysfunction we are posting a recent discussion that took place with MeXicanos 2070. This discussion centered on the Xicano Insitute for Teaching and Organizing (XITO) and it's emergence from the Tucson Mexican American Studies struggle. How is XITO carrying on the legacy of the MAS struggle in the teacher training work it is doing across the country? 

In this episode of The Reality Dysfunction we talk to Efren Paredes Jr, who at age 15 was convicted of a murder he did not commit.  He has been incarcerated for the past 31 year.  He battled tirelessly to overturn the Juvenile Life Without Parole Laws in the country, which changed in 2012.  After battling the Berrien County prosecutor for 10 years since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that youth should not be sentenced to life without parole Efren will finally be entering the court room next week on Oct. 5 for his last chance to appeal to the Berrien County court to stop pursuing a sentence of life and give him a term of years.  Which would make him eligible for parole immediately after the resentencing hearing.  In effect he has been held in the MDOC system without a legal sentence for 10years, on top of already having served 21 years for a crime he did not committee.    Sign the petition to free Efren Paredes Jr.

In this episode the dysfunctional crew talks to Jennifer Allen Aroz, League of Conservation Voter's (LCV) senior vice president of community engagement who founded Chispa in 2014. Chispa is the community organizing/engagment arm of LCV that is staffed by Xicana/o/x and Latina/o/x organizers in barrios and cities across the country creating community based committees that are addressing environmental justices issues.    Here is a link to learn more about Chispa and the work they are doing across the country. https://www.lcv.org/chispa/