Radio Cachimbona

On this unlocked #litreview, Yvette and Yessenia Medrano discuss Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi. The praise Gyasi's empathetic storytelling around the effects of the opiate crisis, reflect on how childhood traumas are remembered, and share the ways they related to the narrator's child of immigrants experience.   If you liked this episode and want to hear the other lit reviews, become...

Carlos Adrian Vasquez, a formerly incarcerated and formerly detained activist, joins the podcast to discuss his leadership in organizing hunger and labor strikes in the Desert View Annex. Carlos shares about the terrible conditions that led people detained to engage in multiple hunger and labor strikes, breaks down the false distinction between civil and criminal custody, and explains how ICE and...

Eloisa Lopez, Executive Director of Florecer Reproductive Justice, joins the podcast to discuss the essay "Reproductive Justice and Resistance at the US/Mexico Borderlands" in the Radical Reproductive Justice anthology. Eloisa and Yvette discuss the myths around "self deportation," how the majority of Latinas show strong support for legalized abortion, and the interlocking web of oppression that m...

Dana Caspersen, practitioner of constructive conflict and author of Conflict Is an Opportunity: Twenty Fundamental Decisions for Navigating Difficult Times , joins the podcast to discuss her latest book. Dana and Yvette discuss why people should avoid trying to immediately find a solution to a conflict, why awareness of conflict and curiosity about it is important to cultivate, and concrete ways p...

Jessica Monge, mother wound coach, joins the podcast to discuss what "mother wounds" are, how the effects of it manifest in everyday life, and what inspired her to focus on helping others heal their mother wound. Follow @radiocachimbona on Instagram, X, and Facebook Support the podcast by joining the Patreon. You'll get access to the #litreview, a book club for Cachimbonas: https://patreon.com/rad...

Chanelle Gallant and Elene Lam join the podcast to discuss their new book "Not Your Rescue Project: Migrant Sex Workers Fighting for Justice." They discussed who migrant sex workers are and why they sell sex, how the carceral state attacks migrant sex workers even when it claims to help them, and how sex work provides an opportunity for migrant workers to obtain greater levels of autonomy and avoi...

Ericka Verba, professor and director of Latin American Studies at Cal State LA, joins the podcast to discuss her new book "Thanks to Life: A Biography of Violeta Parra." Verba shares Parra's central role in the creation of Chile's Nueva Cancion movement, breaks down the strength and resilience that allowed her to become an internationally recognized artist despite her humble class origins in South...

Profesora Aideé Tassinari se suma al podcast para explicar cómo la idea de "minería sostenible" es un discurso falso proporcionado por las compañías mineras, los efectos negativos que la minería trae a ecosistemas y acceso a agua limpia, y pone en contexto histórico la "fiebre de oro" del siglo 21 que ahora ha llegado a El Salvador. Lean más sobre la ley rescindiendo la prohibición contra la miner...

Cheryl Redhorse Bennett, former assistant professor in American Indian Studies and expert on hate crimes and violence against Native Americans, joins the podcast to discuss her book "Our Fight Has Just Begun: Hate Crimes and Justice in Native America." She shares about the hate crimes in Farmington, New Mexico that informed her research, how the Navajo Nation pursues justice when the white legal s...

Pablo Alvarado, director ejecutivo de La Red De Jornalero/as, se suma al podcast para hablar sobre su historia de inmigración, la historia de la red, y el rol de arte y cultura en el trabajo organizativo. Puedan apoyar el podcast y recibir acceso al #litreview, un club de libros para Cachimbonas, en el Patreon: https://patreon.com/radiocachimbona?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm...

Laura Chávez-Moreno, award-winning researcher, qualitative social scientist, and assistant professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, in the Departments of Chicana/o and Central American Studies and Education, joins the podcast to discuss her new book How Schools Make Race: Teaching Latinx Racialization in America. Laura explains why she utilizes the term "Latinx," breaks down how rac...

Jose Ruben, activista espiritual con El Movimiento de Integridad Humana, viene al podcast para discutir sus experiencias de detención en Mesa Verde y el Golden State Annex y porque se sumó a las huelgas de hambre y labor con otra gente detenida. Jose comparte como COVID-19 se desarrolló en los centros de detención, como ICE los forzó a trabajar para mantener los centros limpios, y detalla las cond...

Gustavo, a Salvadoran-American organizer and leader of the hunger and labor strikes occurring in the Mesa Verde and Golden State Annex immigration detention facilities since 2022, joins the podcast to discuss the terrible conditions that led to these efforts. Gustavo shares the myriad ways ICE regularly violates its own detention standards, what gives him hope while detained, and what the strikers...

Tiera Rainey, Executive Director of the Tucson Bail Fund, joins Yvette Borja to discuss a resource document that the Bail Fund co-authored with the Milwaukee Freedom Fund, Community Justice Exchange, Free Hearts, and Montgomery Bail Out: Dismantling Carceral Debt: A Manifesto on Building Debtor Power. Rainey breaks down the devastating impact of carceral debt on formerly incarcerated people, share...

Brea Baker, freedom fighter and author, joins the podcast to discuss her new book "Rooted: The American Legacy of Land Theft and the Modern Movement For Black Land Ownership." Yvette and Brea discuss how the U.S. arrived at a place where only 1% of rural land is owned by Black people, how Brea and her family's legacy of land ownership inspired the writing of the book, and how heirs' laws have disp...

Yvette Borja interviews Stephanie Canizales, professor and Faculty Director of the UC Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative, about her new book Sin Padres, Ni Papeles: Unaccompanied Migrant Youth Coming of Age in the United States. They discuss who is left out of the DACA/Dreamer narrative and the socioeconomic obstacles this population faces; Canizales breaks down the limits of integrat...

Yvette Borja and Jorge Cuéllar discuss their experience as international observers for the Santa Marta 5 trial. They break down the audacity and offensive nature of a unit dedicated to prosecuting war crimes bringing the Santa Marta case forward as its inaugural effort, share their impressions of the deep power of the organized pueblo in Santa Marta, and explain the stark differences between the A...

Yvette Borja interviews Carol Cleaveland and Michele Waslin, authors of Private Violence: Latin American Women And The Struggle for Asylum. They explain why calling the gender-based violence that Mexican and Central American women are fleeing "private" is inaccurate, break down how navigating the asylum system is hardest for poor migrants, and emphasize the U.S. role in destabilizing the governmen...

Yvette Borja interviews Chelsea Guevara, the first Salvadoran Womxn of the World Poetry Slam Champion. They discussed how Chelsea got started with Slam Poetry, the connections between her scholarly research and her poetry, and her upcoming chapbook Cipota. Support the podcast by becoming a monthly subscriber on Patreon for as little as $3 a month. You'll get access to the #litreview, a book club f...

Yvette Borja interviews Silky Shah, Executive Director of Detention Watch Network. They discuss why the immigrant justice movement needs abolition, the importance of transforming the economic infrastructures of local governments dependent on carceral systems, and how the growth of immigration detention and deportation was and is a critical part of the mass incarceration crisis. Learn more about De...

Yvette Borja and Ronnie Wollenzier discuss Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodriguez's second book "Tias and Primas: On Knowing and Loving the Women Who Raise Us." They praise how the book feels like a hug for their inner child, celebrate how Prisca's works widen the reach of academic literature, and share which tia and prima archetypes they identify with. The #LitReview is a bookclub for Cachimbonas. Thank...

Yvette Borja interviews Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodriguez's second book “Tias and Primas: On Knowing and Loving the Women Who Raise Us.” They discuss why Prisca prioritizes democratizing critical theory in her writings, she breaks down why she chose to focus on Tias and Primas but not mothers, and which archetypes she decided to leave out of the book and why. Buy Prisca's book now at your local indep...

On this #litreview, Yvette interviews reproductive justice and immigrants' rights organizer Ale Pablos about the first few chapters of Beth Caldwell's book Deported Americans. They discuss the differences between legal definitions of citizenship and undocumented people's lived experiences in the US, critique the ways that the US legal system robs migrants of the due process that citizens expect, a...

Yvette Borja interviews Maria Hinojosa, award-winning journalist, about her keynote address at the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, a rarity for her as a journalist, and her trajectory in media. Maria shared that philanthropic funds need to support independent BIPOC-led media, broke down why Futuro Media covered the death of Jose De Jesus in the Eloy Detention Center, and emphasized the ne...

On this #litreview, Yvette Borja and Denise Rebeil discuss "My Grandmother's Hands" by Resmaa Menakem. They breakdown Menakem's contention that white supremacy lives mostly in our nervous systems, what role our lizard brain plays in how we interact with the world, and why collective healing from trauma is necessary to avoid generational "traumatic retention."  The #litreview is a book club fo...