Book Chat Series: Davis Humanities Institute 2022-23

Professor Susy Zepeda will be speaking April 12, Wednesday from 6:00- 7:00 pm at the I-House on her book, Queering Mesoamerican Diasporias.  This guide provides library resources related to this book. 

 

Abstract from the Book Publisher: Acts of remembering offer a path to decolonization for Indigenous peoples forcibly dislocated from their culture, knowledge, and land. Susy J. Zepeda highlights the often overlooked yet intertwined legacies of Chicana feminisms and queer decolonial theory through the work of select queer Indígena cultural producers and thinkers. By tracing the ancestries and silences of gender-nonconforming people of color, she addresses colonial forms of epistemic violence and methods of transformation, in particular spirit research. Zepeda also uses archival materials, raised ceremonial altars, and analysis of decolonial artwork in conjunction with oral histories to explore the matriarchal roots of Chicana/x and Latina/x feminisms. As she shows, these feminisms are forms of knowledge that people can remember through Indigenous-centered visual narratives, cultural wisdom, and spirit practices.

About the Author from the UC Davis Chicana and Chicano Studies website: Susy Zepeda, Ph.D. is an associate professor in the Chicana/o Studies department at the University of California, Davis (Patwin land). Susy (she/they/ella) was born on Tongva lands in Monterey Park, California to Adela and Armando Zepeda, Mexican migrants from El Limon, Jalisco and Chínipas, Chihuahua respectively. Susy remembers often climbing el cerro (the mountain) as a child and visiting el rio in her mother’s hometown following the guidance of her abuelita, Rosario. Susy is a student rooted in remembering and practicing Traditional Indigenous medicine of this hemisphere, and more specifically of Mesoamerica. Susy is a former 5 th grade teacher for the Los Angeles Unified School District, and from 2013-2014, Zepeda was a Visiting Assistant Professor with the Social Justice Initiative at UC Davis.

Dr. Zepeda’s scholarly work is intentionally transdisciplinary, decolonial, and feminist in a community-centered and grounded way. Her research and teaching focus on: Xicana Indígena spirit work, decolonization, critical feminist of color collaborative methodologies, oral and visual storytelling, and intergenerational healing. She established two courses at UC Davis, Decolonizing Spirit and Food Justice. Dr. Zepeda’s writing appears in the 2019 anthology Voices from the Ancestors: Xicanx and Latinx Spiritual Expressions and Healing Practices, and in 2020 published the essay, “Decolonizing Xicana/x Studies: Healing the Susto of De-indigenization” in Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies as part of the Dossier: Fifty Years of Chicana Feminist Praxis, Theory, and Resistance.  

 

Note: To access these citations, copy and paste the italicized titles in the UC Library Search catalog.

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Anzaldúa, Gloria. Borderlands: The New Mestiza = La Frontera. 3rd ed. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books, 2007.

———. Light in the Dark = Luz En Lo Oscuro: Rewriting Identity, Spirituality, Reality. Latin America Otherwise : Languages, Empires, Nations. Durham: Duke University Press, 2015.

Arrizón, Alicia. Queering Mestizaje: Transculturation and Performance. Triangulations. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006.

Chávez, Alex E., Gina M. Pérez, and Arlene M. Dávila. Ethnographic Refusals, Unruly Latinidades. School for Adavanced Research Avdanced Seminar Series. Santa Fe: School for Advanced Research Press, 2022.

Chinchilla, Maya. The Cha Cha Files: A Chapina Poética. San Francisco, CA: Kórima Press, 2014.

Costa, Maria Dolores. Latina Lesbian Writers and Artists. New York ; Routledge, 2011.

Delgadillo, Theresa, 1959-. Spiritual Mestizaje: Religion, Gender, Race, and Nation in Contemporary Chicana Narrative. Latin America Otherwise. Duke University Press, 2011.

Esquibel, Catrióna Rueda. With Her Machete in Her Hand Reading Chicana Lesbians. 1st ed. Chicana Matters Series. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2006.

Facio, Elisa. Fleshing the Spirit: Spirituality and Activism in Chicana, Latina, and Indigenous Women’s Lives. 1st ed. University of Arizona Press, 2014.

Gontijo, Fabiano S. Queer Natives in Latin America: Forbidden Chapters of Colonial History. Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2021.

González, Jennifer A., C. Ondine Chavoya, Chon A. Noriega, and Terecita Romo. Chicano and Chicana Art: A Critical Anthology.  Duke University Press. Durham: Duke University Press, 2019.

Gutiérrez, Ramón A. Chicano History: Paradigm Shifts and Shifting Boundaries. Occasional Paper ; No. 15. East Lansing, MI: Julian Samora Research Institute, Michigan State University, 1997.

Hedrick, Tace. “Queering the Cosmic Race: Esotericism, Mestizaje, and Sexuality in the Work of Gabriela Mistral and Gloria Anzaldúa.” AZTLÁN 34, no. 2 (September 2009): 67–98.

Hernández-Avila, Inés. Entre Guadalupe y Malinche: Tejanas in Literature and Art. First edition. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2016.

Ingram, Gordon Brent, Anne-Marie Bouthillette, and Yolanda Retter. Queers in Space: Communities, Public Places, Sites of Resistance. Seattle, Wash: Bay Press, 1997.

Keating, AnaLouise. The Anzaldúan Theory Handbook. Durham: Duke University Press, 2022.

Lambda Community Center of Greater Miami. Conmoción: revista y red revolucionaria de lesbianas latinas. Miami Beach, FL: Lambda Community Center of Greater Miami, 1995.

Leyva, Yolanda Chávez. “In Ixtli in Yóllotl/ a Face and a Heart: Listening to the Ancestors.” Studies in American Indian Literatures 15, no. 3/4 (2003): 96–127.

Medina, Lara, ed., and Martha R. Gonzales ed. Voices from the Ancestors: Xicanx and Latinx Spiritual Expressions and Healing Practices. The University of Arizona, 2019.

Miner, Dylan A. T. Creating Aztlán: Chicano Art, Indigenous Sovereignty, and Lowriding across Turtle Island. First Peoples: New Directions in Indigenous Studies. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2014.

Moraga, Cherri´e and Gloria Anzaldu´a. This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, 2016.

Moraga, Cherríe. A Xicana Codex of Changing Consciousness: Writings, 2000-2010. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2011.

———. The Hungry Woman. 1st ed. Albuquerque, N.M: West End Press, 2001.

———. Waiting in the Wings Portrait of a Queer Motherhood. Latino Literature. Ithaca, N.Y: Firebrand Books, 1997.

Moraga, Cherríe, and Gloria Anzaldúa. This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. Fourth edition. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 2015.

Moraga, Cherríe, Gloria Anzaldúa, and Toni Cade Bambara. This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. Second edition. New York: Kitchen Table, Women of Color Press, 1983.

Pérez, Emma. The Decolonial Imaginary Writing Chicanas into History. Latino Literature. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999.

Pitts, Andrea J. Nos/otras : Gloria E. Anzaldúa, Multiplicitous Agency, and Resistance. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2021.

Retter, Yolanda. “On the Side of Angels: Lesbian Activism in Los Angeles, 1970-1990.” University of New Mexico, 1999.

Rodríguez, Juana María. Sexual Futures, Queer Gestures, and Other Latina Longings. Sexual Cultures. New York: University Press, 2014.

Venegas, Sybil, and Lara Medina. “Nana’s Hands.” In Voices from the Ancestors. University of Arizona Press, 2019.

Sylvan Productions, Women Make Movies, Sylvia Morales, Dolores Huerta, Elizabeth Sutherland Martínez, Cherríe Moraga, Alicia Escalante, and Martha Cotera. A Crushing Love: Chicanas, Motherhood and Activism. New York, NY: Distributed by Women Make Movies, 2009.

Trujillo, Carla. Living Chicana Theory. Series in Chicana/Latina Studies. Berkeley, Calif: Third Woman Press, 1998.

Note: To access these citations, copy and paste the italicized titles in the UC Library Search catalog.

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2022. “This Bridge: Intergenerational Story Archive, Re-Rooting Solidarity,” A Love Letter to This Bridge Called My Back, Eds. Gloria J. Wilson, Joni B. Acuff, and Amelia M. Kraehe, University of Arizona Press.

2021. “Ofrendando del Corazón: Queer Xicana Indígena Root Work.” Ofrenda Magazine. Issue no. 01: Jan/Feb. Intention.

2020. “Intergenerational Accountability.” Seen Journal. Fall, Issue 01. pp. 41-46.

2020. “Decolonizing Xicana/x Studies: Healing the Susto of De-indigenization.” Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies. Spring. Vol 45, No 1. pp. 225-241.

2019. “Creating an Altar for the Healing of our Younger Self” pp. 50-52 in Voices from the Ancestors: Xicanx and Latinx Spiritual Expressions and Healing Practices, Eds. Lara Medina and Martha Gonzales.

2019. “Decolonizing Spirit in the Classroom con Anzaldúa” pp. 372-374 in Voices from the Ancestors: Xicanx and Latinx Spiritual Expressions and Healing Practices, Eds. Lara Medina and Martha Gonzales.

2019. “Mapping Queer of Color Methodology,” Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, Vol. 15: No. 4, pp. 622-3. Duke University Press.

2018. “Entry on Mujeres y Cultura Subterránea,” Women's Lives Around the World: A Global Encyclopedia: Volume 2: The Americas. Eds. Susan M. Shaw, Nancy Staton Barbour, Patti Duncan, Kryn Freehling-Burton, and Jane Nichols. ABC-CLIO Greenwood. pp. 258.

2015.  Susy Zepeda and Irene Reti, Eds. “With Conocimiento, Love, Spirit, and Community: Rosie Cabrera’s Leadership at UC Santa Cruz, 1984-2013.” Interviewed by Susy Zepeda. University of California, Santa Cruz. Regional History Project, University Library.

2014. “Queer Xicana Indígena Cultural Production: Remembering through Oral and Visual Storytelling,” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society. Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 119-141.

2014.  Susy Zepeda with the Santa Cruz Feminist of Color Collective. Winter. “Building on ‘the Edge of Each Other’s Battles’: A Feminist of Color Multidimensional Lens.” Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy. Special Issue: Interstices. Vol. 29, No. 1, pp. 23-40.