An Interview with Megha Jairaj by Daisy Elizeth Magallanes for Brooklyn & Boyle   I recently sat down with artist Megha Jairaj in Los Angeles, California to discuss her work and the potential of art performance to disrupt power structures. In the tradition of artists such as Tristan Tzara, Ha rry Gamboa Jr., and Graciela Carnevale who used Art Performance as their weapon of choice to combat state and institutional authoritarianism, Jairaj’s interventions beg the audience to consider the fallacious nature and the structural oppression of imposed colonial hierarchies   DM: A lot of your work deals with the reclamation of ritual practice and place. How do both of these components intersect in your work?   MJ: I feel like “place” is…what is “neighboring” to me. To feel connected to...

A 1993 hunger strike at UCLA that led to creation of the César E. Chávez Center for Chicana and Chicano Studies was modeled on a 1987 student action, says Dr. Álvaro Huerta. Photo © 1993 by Abraham Torres/RumbleSkout3.com Editorial by Dr. Álvaro Huerta To borrow—more like crib—from the great James Baldwin’s writings and speeches, I declare to America’s racists that I am not your “wetback.” I am a man. I am a Chicano. I am a proud son of Mexican immigrants—the salt of the earth. I say these words from a place of privilege, having earned advanced degrees from world-class universities. These include a Ph.D. (city & regional planning) from UC Berkeley, as well as an M.A. (urban planning) and a B.A. (history)—both from UCLA. I also say these words because my personal and family backgrounds were indeed plagued by abject poverty, violence and a sense of hopelessness. I spent the earliest years of my life in a Mexican slum (Colonia Libertad, Tijuana, Baja California) and my form...

by Rocío Maya Dozens of South East L.A community members gathered on Tuesday, April 11th at the Ricardo F. Icaza Workers’ Center in Huntington Park for the southern California premiere of The Long Ride , a documentary film on the 12-day journey taken by a group of 106 riders from Northern California to the nation’s capital in 2003. Produced and directed by Valerie Lapin Ganley, the 77-minute, Spanish subtitled documentary details the caravan more than 900 immigrants and allies embarked upon from various states and cities across the country. Traveling by bus, the solidarity riders concluded their bold trek with a march onto the steps of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. where they demanded that immigrant labor be treated with dignity.  The cohort of activists known as the Immigrant Workers Freedom Riders (IWFR) sought to spark the birth of a new Civil Rights Movement for immigrant workers in response to the anti-immigrant sentiment that sprang from the 9/11 terrorist attack...