Latest / Locatora Radio [A Radiophonic Novela] / Capítulo 084: Resistencia y Reggaeton

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Capítulo 084: Resistencia y Reggaeton · Locatora Radio [A Radiophonic Novela]

0:02
Speaker 1: Radio radio Radio Commies a Myth and Bullshit, a radio
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Speaker 1: phonic novella. Local Radio hosted by Mala Locomoties. Welcome back
0:23
Speaker 1: to season four of Local to A radios Wanted for
0:28
Speaker 1: Crimes against the Patriarchy. We interrupt our regularly scheduled programming
0:33
Speaker 1: to bring you Quarantine Confidential, a special pandemic broadcast about
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Speaker 1: our experiences with quarantine and COVID nineteen. I'm Theosa and
0:43
Speaker 1: I'm Mala. Our intention behind this mini series is to
0:46
Speaker 1: archive our experiences during the global coronavirus pandemic. Thank you
0:51
Speaker 1: for joining us on this journey. Last time on Quarantine Confidential,
0:55
Speaker 1: we interviewed my friend Nadia Nibs, a Minneapolis educator. Tune
1:00
Speaker 1: into that episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud, and audio Boom.
1:04
Speaker 1: We want to thank Nadia once again for giving us
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Speaker 1: her on the ground perspective straight from Minneapolis, especially since
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Speaker 1: so many of our listeners are based in the Southwest
1:15
Speaker 1: or New York um Chicago. Even we don't have a ton,
1:20
Speaker 1: necessarily of firsthand information about what's going on in Minneapolis,
1:25
Speaker 1: so we are really happy to have had Nadia on
1:28
Speaker 1: the pod. We have even more incredible interviews coming up,
1:32
Speaker 1: so I hope you're all excited. Yes, we have a
1:36
Speaker 1: lineup for y'all. We are back to our regular Saturday
1:39
Speaker 1: recording schedule, so we're hoping to be more consistent with
1:44
Speaker 1: the podcast and releasing of episodes. As you all know,
1:47
Speaker 1: we're in a global pandemic and we're still bringing you
1:49
Speaker 1: the content and we're really excited to have a guest
1:53
Speaker 1: for the second half of this episode. Yeah, I mean,
1:55
Speaker 1: the content really never stops, especially now. I mean, and
2:00
Speaker 1: it was one thing to create content digitally when we
2:03
Speaker 1: were in a quarantine under the COVID nineteen pandemic, but
2:08
Speaker 1: now we're our country is essentially, I feel like, in
2:11
Speaker 1: the early stages of revolution in civil war. So there's
2:15
Speaker 1: really a lot to talk about it. We're gonna get
2:17
Speaker 1: into all of those things today. But so, Mala, how
2:20
Speaker 1: have you been. I know that you've been out at
2:22
Speaker 1: a couple of demonstrations in l A, in in the
2:25
Speaker 1: downtown area, So can you talk to us about what
2:28
Speaker 1: you've seen to your first hand experience. Yeah, I mean
2:32
Speaker 1: the part of the city of l a that I
2:35
Speaker 1: live in, I feel like a lot of the demonstrations
2:37
Speaker 1: are going on around me, and there have been protests
2:41
Speaker 1: from West Hollywood to Santa Monica, downtown l A. I
2:46
Speaker 1: think there were even protests in Burbank. There have been
2:48
Speaker 1: protests in the San Diebro Valley, um in in Van Nuys,
2:54
Speaker 1: all over. And something that's really important to mention is
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Speaker 1: that Black Lives Out Her l A has been hosting
3:01
Speaker 1: a weekly protest in front of I think in front
3:05
Speaker 1: of the l A p D headquarters UH to protest
3:09
Speaker 1: the District Attorney, Jackie Lacey, who has been our d
3:12
Speaker 1: A first some years now. And under Jackie Lacey's leadership,
3:17
Speaker 1: there have been something like six hundred police murders lap
3:21
Speaker 1: D murders of civilians in l A County and none
3:25
Speaker 1: of them have been prosecuted. UM. Me myself, when I
3:28
Speaker 1: was working at Peace Over Violence as a case manager
3:31
Speaker 1: and crisis counselor, I saw so many horrific cases turned
3:36
Speaker 1: down by Jackie Lacy's, by the d a's office, and
3:41
Speaker 1: just over and over and over again, um, just really
3:44
Speaker 1: horrific cases of police officers who were domestic abusers, who
3:49
Speaker 1: were rapists, who had child pornography on their computers that
3:53
Speaker 1: had been reported to higher ups. You know, just really
3:57
Speaker 1: horrific crimes that the d a's office can tenuously just
4:01
Speaker 1: rejected and decided not to file cases on. So that's
4:05
Speaker 1: one thing to keep in mind. Like Black Lives Matter
4:08
Speaker 1: Los Angeles has been out here protesting on a regular
4:12
Speaker 1: basis for years and really building, um, the people power,
4:16
Speaker 1: and we're at a point now where everyone is out
4:19
Speaker 1: so um. Last week I went to I went downtown
4:24
Speaker 1: the day after one of the first kind of all day,
4:27
Speaker 1: all night protests and just to check out the downtown
4:30
Speaker 1: area Spring Street and Broadway and see what everything looks like.
4:34
Speaker 1: And of course there's been so much media attention on
4:37
Speaker 1: the looting, but the honest truth is that the quote
4:41
Speaker 1: unquote looting is so minimal and superficial. I mean, we're
4:44
Speaker 1: talking about broken glass and bed you know, Like, of
4:48
Speaker 1: course there have been buildings that have burned down. But
4:51
Speaker 1: the thing that's wild to me is seeing journalists like
4:55
Speaker 1: say at the forefront of their reporting while you know,
4:59
Speaker 1: the looters only represent a small minority of people who
5:02
Speaker 1: are out on the streets. The majority of protests are peaceful,
5:05
Speaker 1: and yet the majority of the coverage is on the looting.
5:08
Speaker 1: Right even though our our our journalists acknowledge that it's
5:12
Speaker 1: a small percentage of what's going on. But so I
5:14
Speaker 1: went downtown and then on Sunday, on Monday of this week,
5:18
Speaker 1: I went out and I went downtown. I went to
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Speaker 1: City Hall. Um. There was a small but growing protests
5:24
Speaker 1: there that eventually moved to the front of the l
5:26
Speaker 1: A p D headquarters. And it was wild because the
5:29
Speaker 1: National Guard is in town, and so their tanks are everywhere.
5:32
Speaker 1: I've seen their tanks since Santa Monica. I've seen their
5:34
Speaker 1: tanks over here by where I live, like in the
5:36
Speaker 1: mid city area, and then their tanks are all over downtown.
5:40
Speaker 1: And on Monday, UM, I saw that l A p
5:43
Speaker 1: D and the National Guard had really surrounded the entire area,
5:49
Speaker 1: all of the side streets, any of the outlets, anywhere
5:52
Speaker 1: near City Hall or l A p D headquarters. And
5:54
Speaker 1: since we've been on curfew in l A basically for
5:57
Speaker 1: the past week, the ace LU and and different folks
6:01
Speaker 1: suthed the city of l A at this point, so
6:03
Speaker 1: CARSTI had to like undo the curfew and revoke it.
6:07
Speaker 1: But there was a period of time there where they
6:08
Speaker 1: were texting us like all day, moving up the curfew,
6:12
Speaker 1: like hour by hour from eight pm to six pm
6:15
Speaker 1: to four pm. In some parts of l A the
6:17
Speaker 1: curfew was one pm, like on the West Side. So
6:20
Speaker 1: what I saw was on my phone getting all these
6:24
Speaker 1: different um deadlines for curfew being moved up, and at
6:28
Speaker 1: the same time, the National Guard and the l a
6:31
Speaker 1: p D surrounding your the l a p D headquarters.
6:34
Speaker 1: And sure enough, when when protesters I left early, when
6:37
Speaker 1: I saw that ship going on, I left and um,
6:42
Speaker 1: they so clearly were waiting to trap protesters, to arrest everybody,
6:46
Speaker 1: and they came out with all their zip ties around
6:48
Speaker 1: their waist and it was just crazy. So that was
6:51
Speaker 1: on Monday, and then I went out yesterday again and
6:54
Speaker 1: I went to a march that passed by Pershing Square,
6:58
Speaker 1: and I think that one was a little bit more
7:00
Speaker 1: calm on on the side of the police. On the
7:04
Speaker 1: side of law enforcement. There were National Guards all over
7:06
Speaker 1: the place. Really weird to hear them say like, have
7:10
Speaker 1: a nice day and be safe out there, and I'm like,
7:12
Speaker 1: you're the only one holding like an assault rifle. Who
7:15
Speaker 1: are you telling me to be safe when you're holding
7:18
Speaker 1: the gigantic assault rifles? Like you brought these guns into
7:22
Speaker 1: downtown and they weren't here before I mean, of course
7:25
Speaker 1: there's been in downtown, but not like that, just out
7:29
Speaker 1: on the street, you know. So it's been wild. I'm
7:32
Speaker 1: planning to go to Hollywood tomorrow. There's another action um
7:37
Speaker 1: and just a cavy and just like to say, like
7:39
Speaker 1: I've been going out because I have I live alone
7:41
Speaker 1: in my apartment, like I can come and self isolate
7:44
Speaker 1: because the pandemic is still going on, Like all the protesters,
7:47
Speaker 1: everyone who's out there is like, we're putting ourselves at
7:50
Speaker 1: a certain amount of risk because COVID is still highly
7:53
Speaker 1: contagious and out there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I wanted to
7:58
Speaker 1: share just as we're talking, I wanted to share that
8:02
Speaker 1: the police chief of l A p D. I'm sure news.
8:06
Speaker 1: But if you're not in l A uh, maybe you
8:08
Speaker 1: didn't hear this. Maybe you did, but Michael Moore, the
8:11
Speaker 1: police chief of l A p D, said that the
8:14
Speaker 1: looters also have George Floyd's blood on their hands, that
8:19
Speaker 1: they're just as responsible for the police that murdered George Floyd.
8:24
Speaker 1: And naturally, this caused an outpour of criticism and he
8:30
Speaker 1: had to backtrack and apologize and say that he misspoke,
8:33
Speaker 1: but he already stated his comment. We know how he
8:36
Speaker 1: really feels. And so that's just like one little pocket
8:42
Speaker 1: or one little example of what's been happening in l
8:44
Speaker 1: A with our UH city officials and our our government
8:48
Speaker 1: or local government. Garcetti, I think that he handled COVID
8:54
Speaker 1: itself in l A. I think he handled that really well.
8:58
Speaker 1: And then another public health crisis happened and he is
9:03
Speaker 1: like quick to shy away from any type of controversy,
9:06
Speaker 1: and so now he's under a lot of criticism as well.
9:08
Speaker 1: Like you said, Malaw, the a c l U is
9:10
Speaker 1: suing the City of l A. So there's just a
9:13
Speaker 1: lot going on day to day. Even like during public comment,
9:17
Speaker 1: people were, you know, telling Michael Moore to suck their
9:20
Speaker 1: dicks like literally, and so they have been receiving an
9:24
Speaker 1: immense amount of criticism, which is well deserved. And so
9:30
Speaker 1: that's just one example of what we're experiencing through l
9:32
Speaker 1: A p D or just in l A right now
9:34
Speaker 1: with l A p Yeah, So that's just one example
9:37
Speaker 1: of what's been happening in l A City, City of
9:40
Speaker 1: l A, l A County. There have been demonstrations countywide
9:44
Speaker 1: in southeast l A. There have been multiple youth lend
9:47
Speaker 1: demonstrations and it's so wild to see the police come
9:50
Speaker 1: out in full riot gear and then you see these
9:53
Speaker 1: little like seventeen year old eighteen year olds protesting with
9:57
Speaker 1: their signs and demonstrating, and so just really backwards to
10:02
Speaker 1: see where we are as a society. But that's the
10:05
Speaker 1: reality of where we're at. I wanted to share this
10:07
Speaker 1: story because I shared it on my Close Friends Circle
10:10
Speaker 1: on Instagram because I didn't want to like take up
10:12
Speaker 1: space with all followers, and you know, I'm trying to
10:15
Speaker 1: share resources and information and so this just felt something
10:17
Speaker 1: like I can share this at a later time. But
10:20
Speaker 1: my gym, which is the Latin X owned, they shared
10:24
Speaker 1: a video and they shared all these assault rifles that
10:26
Speaker 1: they had in their gym and that they were saying like, oh,
10:31
Speaker 1: we're we're gonna, yeah, we're gonna protect ourselves from any looting,
10:36
Speaker 1: and so it like got me, Yeah, it got me
10:40
Speaker 1: really fucking hated, and I like shared on my Close
10:44
Speaker 1: Friends Circle and I was like, look, this is what
10:45
Speaker 1: my gym just did, and this is really freaking bothering
10:49
Speaker 1: me because you would be okay, shooting a quote looter
10:54
Speaker 1: as opposed to having your windows broken. And I think
10:56
Speaker 1: just the sheer, uh, I don't know us this year
11:00
Speaker 1: ignorance of being able to share an assault rifle on
11:04
Speaker 1: your Instagram story and not feel like there would be
11:07
Speaker 1: any repercussion is truly astounding to me. And so it
11:11
Speaker 1: was really bothering me. And it was late at night,
11:14
Speaker 1: it was maybe eleven thirty, almost midnight, and I just
11:17
Speaker 1: started thinking about just historically all the people that kill
11:21
Speaker 1: black people, black men, black children in the name of
11:25
Speaker 1: protecting their property. And I kept thinking about tray Von
11:28
Speaker 1: Martin and George Zimmerman, and it just really got my
11:32
Speaker 1: blood boiling. And so typically I won't call someone in
11:36
Speaker 1: via social media if I feel like these people are
11:39
Speaker 1: really conservative, whatever I say isn't going to change their mind,
11:43
Speaker 1: so I'm not going to waste my energy on it.
11:45
Speaker 1: But because I'm a paying member of this gym, I
11:47
Speaker 1: was like, you know what, I am going to call in.
11:49
Speaker 1: It's a Latin X own gym. I pay a you know,
11:53
Speaker 1: a sizely monthly do a monthly fee. So you know,
11:57
Speaker 1: I think that as a patron that I should be
11:59
Speaker 1: able to call in and just express my thoughts and
12:01
Speaker 1: my opinions. And so I did. I called in and
12:04
Speaker 1: I was like, look, this is really dangerous, um that
12:07
Speaker 1: you're sharing this type of content on your social media. Like,
12:11
Speaker 1: I cannot I can't understand what it's like to own
12:13
Speaker 1: a storefront, and I won't pretend to understand what this
12:17
Speaker 1: is really dangerous what you're doing. And so I and
12:20
Speaker 1: then I also shared some different organizations that they can
12:24
Speaker 1: get behind and donate to and booths and all of
12:27
Speaker 1: that with their other members, and they responded. They responded
12:32
Speaker 1: as you would expect, basically saying like, I'm aware that
12:35
Speaker 1: people are going to have their own opinions, but frankly,
12:37
Speaker 1: I don't care. Um, We're gonna do what we have
12:41
Speaker 1: to do to protect our shop that is a home
12:44
Speaker 1: for many blah blah blah blah. And so then I
12:47
Speaker 1: responded like, look, I may not be a business owner,
12:51
Speaker 1: but I am a content creator and what you share
12:53
Speaker 1: on your social media platforms has a lot of weight.
12:56
Speaker 1: And that's why I think that you should not be
12:58
Speaker 1: sharing your right folds on your social media because it
13:01
Speaker 1: sends people the wrong message that they can take madics
13:05
Speaker 1: into their own hands, they can protect their property and
13:07
Speaker 1: literally kill people. And that was that I left it
13:12
Speaker 1: at that. I'm definitely canceling my membership. There's no way
13:15
Speaker 1: that I'm gonna give my hard earned money to that
13:18
Speaker 1: type of business. And another a listener actually, and a
13:22
Speaker 1: friend of mine, she also tried calling in because she
13:25
Speaker 1: was a member at that gym as well, and it
13:27
Speaker 1: just it didn't go anywhere. So I think that this
13:30
Speaker 1: current moment is just showing us where people's where people
13:35
Speaker 1: are in their life and where they are in the
13:38
Speaker 1: movement and if they're even supportive of the movement at all.
13:41
Speaker 1: And so I think it's definitely given me a moment
13:44
Speaker 1: for some time to reflect on where I'm putting my dollars,
13:47
Speaker 1: where I'm supporting, and where I'm going to redirect it to.
13:52
Speaker 1: And I mean, let's not have such short term memory
13:55
Speaker 1: loss that we forgot that at the opportunity that governed
14:00
Speaker 1: had to support small businesses at the height of the pandemic,
14:03
Speaker 1: when it first hit, and when everybody was losing their
14:06
Speaker 1: jobs and businesses were closing, who was the federal government
14:10
Speaker 1: approving aid and paycheck protection for the corporations. Let's not
14:16
Speaker 1: pretend all of a sudden that the federal government and
14:21
Speaker 1: that the state and that the city or the county
14:24
Speaker 1: have given any kind of a ship about small business owners,
14:27
Speaker 1: especially small business owners who are people of color, Like,
14:32
Speaker 1: let's not forget the history of predatory lending, the way
14:35
Speaker 1: that the banks are superpredatory and take everything that they
14:38
Speaker 1: can get, the way that that we have no problem
14:42
Speaker 1: tearing down housing in businesses to make way for corporations
14:47
Speaker 1: and for luxury high rises. Like I really am not
14:50
Speaker 1: buying the disingenuous, you know, like all of a sudden,
14:53
Speaker 1: these small businesses are so precious to us as a society.
14:57
Speaker 1: I haven't seen it really yet. And it's like, look,
15:01
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, but you're a gym And the last time
15:05
Speaker 1: I checked, the gym's were not really considered essential services
15:09
Speaker 1: and are still closed, are they not? Like so there's
15:13
Speaker 1: so much also, like this self importance that I'm seeing
15:17
Speaker 1: from people like my dude, nobody is coming to your neighborhood,
15:20
Speaker 1: No one's coming to your house. And honestly, what I've
15:23
Speaker 1: been seeing too on the news and from a lot
15:25
Speaker 1: of small business owners themselves verifying. Oh, when we put
15:29
Speaker 1: a sign in our window that said immigrant owned or
15:31
Speaker 1: family owned and we were left alone, we stood outside
15:35
Speaker 1: of our business and told the looters were immigrant owned
15:38
Speaker 1: family owned and they skipped us. You know, that's not
15:41
Speaker 1: to say that there are not people who are acting
15:42
Speaker 1: violently and aggressively, but let's have perspective, you know, right.
15:47
Speaker 1: And I also am seeing like something disingenuous happening. I'm
15:50
Speaker 1: glad that you brought that up where I feel like
15:52
Speaker 1: people are now because they're learning that that, you know,
15:55
Speaker 1: potential looters will leave you alone if you're like Latino
15:58
Speaker 1: owned or immigrant owned. And I feel like people are
16:01
Speaker 1: now putting that on their businesses but don't actually believe it,
16:04
Speaker 1: like don't actually support Black Lives Matter. And I say
16:08
Speaker 1: that because yesterday I was in Whittier and I saw
16:11
Speaker 1: this flower shop that said hashtag it was born it
16:14
Speaker 1: up and it'said hashtag black lives matter. And then it's
16:16
Speaker 1: aid hashtag whitty or strong And what you're strong was
16:19
Speaker 1: born out of the Blue Lives Matter movement or not
16:23
Speaker 1: even movement, just the Blue Lives Matter ridiculess. And that's
16:27
Speaker 1: like where the witty or strong comes from. And so
16:30
Speaker 1: I'm like, so which one is it? Is it when
16:33
Speaker 1: you're strong or is it black lives matter? Like you know,
16:36
Speaker 1: please clarify for me. And so now I'm seeing I
16:39
Speaker 1: feel like that's that's happening as well, and it's obviously
16:42
Speaker 1: very disingenuous, but that's a clear indicator to me that
16:45
Speaker 1: you're not actually for the people or the movement, because
16:47
Speaker 1: you're you're conflating the two when they're not. They're in
16:50
Speaker 1: your own way connected. Also, I am a little bit
16:55
Speaker 1: rusty on my constitutional amendments and such, but I'm trying
16:59
Speaker 1: to think how high up is the right called business
17:04
Speaker 1: as far as the constitutional rights go, or freedom of
17:08
Speaker 1: each and freedom of assembly, not a little bit higher
17:10
Speaker 1: up on the priorities, you know, I would say it's
17:15
Speaker 1: higher up. I would say that I don't have a storefront,
17:19
Speaker 1: but I do work with business owners, and I do
17:21
Speaker 1: know that business owners have to have some type of insurance.
17:25
Speaker 1: So I would assume, I would assume that if your
17:29
Speaker 1: windows get busted, not even like not even protests looting wise,
17:34
Speaker 1: but just on a regular old day, if you were
17:36
Speaker 1: to get robbed or there were to be a fire,
17:38
Speaker 1: I'm I'm like sure that your insurance would cover that.
17:43
Speaker 1: And so I'm not understanding still why we're prioritizing the
17:48
Speaker 1: smashing of windows over actual human lives, over black lives
17:53
Speaker 1: and I appreciate, I can we I need people to
17:56
Speaker 1: catch up, absolutely, And I was on Twitter, right, and
18:00
Speaker 1: of course all the good stuff is on Twitter because
18:03
Speaker 1: our broadcast journalism is lagging, and a lot of our
18:07
Speaker 1: print journalism is lagging. Sorry about it. They know, they
18:11
Speaker 1: know that they're lagging, and they know that they're behind.
18:13
Speaker 1: I mean, the New York Times was basically in their
18:15
Speaker 1: own civil war recently, because it turns out the New
18:19
Speaker 1: York Times op ed team went out of their way
18:22
Speaker 1: to pitch and op ed to Senator Tom Cotton, and
18:25
Speaker 1: so he puts out his fascist manifesto her request of
18:29
Speaker 1: the New York Times, and of course they guessed, like
18:32
Speaker 1: the hell out of their journalists of color who have
18:35
Speaker 1: been talking about the issues at the New York Times.
18:38
Speaker 1: And I mean, it's the New York Times, it's the
18:40
Speaker 1: paper of records, so that's what we're seeing. So anyways,
18:43
Speaker 1: I'm on Twitter because that's where we get our actual news.
18:47
Speaker 1: And uh, a man by the name of Marshall Zellinger
18:50
Speaker 1: from Marshall nine News tweets out. There was a decision
18:54
Speaker 1: from a judge in Colorado. A federal judge issued a
18:57
Speaker 1: restraining order blocking Denver police from using chemical weapons or
19:00
Speaker 1: projectiles of any kind against persons engaging in peaceful protests
19:05
Speaker 1: or demonstrations. And the judge part of his decision he said,
19:09
Speaker 1: if the stores windows must be broken to prevent a
19:12
Speaker 1: protester's facial bones from being broken or I being permanently damaged,
19:17
Speaker 1: that is more than a fair trade. If the building
19:20
Speaker 1: must be graffiti to prevent the suppression of free speech,
19:23
Speaker 1: that is a fair trade. In essence, the sanctity of
19:28
Speaker 1: human life, of human bodies, and our freedom of speech
19:31
Speaker 1: are so much more important than any building, any window,
19:36
Speaker 1: or any business. And it's actually like a moral, legal
19:40
Speaker 1: and ethical imperative to protect our right to burn the
19:44
Speaker 1: ship up when the federal government is killing unarmed civilians routinely,
19:51
Speaker 1: like it is more than a fair trade, like this
19:54
Speaker 1: judge is saying. And I was really happy with Governor
19:57
Speaker 1: Newsom who came out and said the looting is not
20:01
Speaker 1: a black community problem, this is a white supremacy problem.
20:04
Speaker 1: This is a government problem. We have done this, We
20:07
Speaker 1: have dragged ourselves here, like we have made this happen.
20:11
Speaker 1: So a few people in positions of power are providing
20:14
Speaker 1: that counter narrative um, but not enough. I would say absolutely.
20:19
Speaker 1: And you know, we're still in a global pandemic through
20:23
Speaker 1: all of this, we're into public health crisis is at
20:26
Speaker 1: the same time, and that just compounds like why folks
20:30
Speaker 1: are out protesting or out at the demonstrations because one
20:35
Speaker 1: job loss, economic disparity. People are angry, you know, and
20:40
Speaker 1: it obviously disproportionately communities of color, Black communities are going
20:45
Speaker 1: to be affected. And so we're seeing a very historical
20:49
Speaker 1: moment right now, we're living through it. I'm hopeful that
20:53
Speaker 1: radical change can come through this. You know, nationwide people
20:56
Speaker 1: are talking about defunding the police and they're there's a lot,
21:00
Speaker 1: there's a lot going on. There's a whole lot going on.
21:03
Speaker 1: So and so before we head into our interview, I
21:06
Speaker 1: wanted to share because I've been thinking about this from
21:09
Speaker 1: my on my personal end, because I am not out
21:12
Speaker 1: at demonstrations, I'm not out at the protest, I'm not
21:14
Speaker 1: out in the streets, and so I've been seeing conversations
21:17
Speaker 1: online happening like you don't have to occupy all the lanes,
21:21
Speaker 1: like find the lane that you fit in and what
21:24
Speaker 1: you can do there. And so I'm someone like Mala
21:27
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, she can self isolate. I'm someone I've shared
21:30
Speaker 1: this many times. I live with my parents. I am
21:33
Speaker 1: not comfortable running the risk of, you know, getting COVID
21:37
Speaker 1: because I cannot self isolate. I cannot put my parents
21:40
Speaker 1: at risk. And we're all health care workers, so it
21:42
Speaker 1: can literally travel to many other people if any of
21:45
Speaker 1: us already get sick. So anyway, so I've been thinking
21:48
Speaker 1: about that and I saw this really great framework that
21:52
Speaker 1: was created and it was created by deepa Ere and
21:57
Speaker 1: I'm going to link it in the show notes. And
21:59
Speaker 1: so she talks about different different types of frameworks and
22:03
Speaker 1: roles that people have in look in the movement. And
22:06
Speaker 1: so she has this reflective reflective session section where you
22:11
Speaker 1: can ask yourself questions about what does your role look
22:14
Speaker 1: like in the movement and how can you really hone
22:17
Speaker 1: in on those qualities to make a difference. And so
22:19
Speaker 1: some examples that I wanted to share are she talks
22:22
Speaker 1: about weavers, experimenters, front lisponders, visionaries, builders, caregivers, disruptors, etcetera, etcetera.
22:31
Speaker 1: And so I wanted to share that for folks that
22:34
Speaker 1: maybe we're trying to find their space and where they
22:36
Speaker 1: belong in this movement. Maybe your immunocompromised. Maybe you have
22:41
Speaker 1: a disability and you cannot be out there marching in
22:43
Speaker 1: the streets and you want to show some type of
22:46
Speaker 1: solidarity or some type of support. So I'm gonna link
22:49
Speaker 1: that in the show notes so that folks can um
22:52
Speaker 1: check it out and see where they stand, see where
22:54
Speaker 1: they belong, where they can fit. And so I wanted
22:57
Speaker 1: to self identify as a weaver, which is someone that
23:00
Speaker 1: sees through lines of connectivity between people, places, orgs, ideas
23:04
Speaker 1: and movements. And then there's also the role of storyteller
23:07
Speaker 1: and clearly that is what we're here doing at look
23:10
Speaker 1: at the radio. So I wanted to share that provide
23:13
Speaker 1: some insight. I hope you uh find the place that
23:17
Speaker 1: you fit. Yeah, thank you for sharing that, yassa. And um,
23:21
Speaker 1: I'm thinking to like make sure that you're following Black
23:24
Speaker 1: Lives Matter and the chapter in your city or closest
23:26
Speaker 1: to you, because when it's not you know, actions, protests,
23:32
Speaker 1: marches and coming together in the streets, there are opportunities
23:38
Speaker 1: to like provide public comment on your local city council
23:42
Speaker 1: zoom meeting. That's something that happened this past week that
23:45
Speaker 1: Black Lives Matter was encouraging folks to call in and
23:48
Speaker 1: to participate and demand the people's budget. That's a big
23:51
Speaker 1: thing right now that UM Black organizers are asking folks
23:55
Speaker 1: to amplify and look into, study up on and wish
24:00
Speaker 1: in your local area. Like theos said, we want to
24:04
Speaker 1: defund the police, and we know that even now, in
24:07
Speaker 1: the midst of all the chaos and in the midst
24:10
Speaker 1: of the uprising, Garcetti is still trying to, uh, you know,
24:14
Speaker 1: give police extra I think billions of dollars, not even millions.
24:17
Speaker 1: So we're really working on on pushing budgets and on
24:21
Speaker 1: focusing on where the money is going, because where the
24:23
Speaker 1: money goes is where the power goes as well, right
24:25
Speaker 1: And then I would say, like, if you are planning
24:28
Speaker 1: on going out to a protest, UM, make sure you
24:31
Speaker 1: wear a mask and take multiple masks with you because
24:35
Speaker 1: you might need to change yours out. They are really
24:37
Speaker 1: pepper spraying people indiscriminately and tear gassing people indiscriminately. Um.
24:43
Speaker 1: I took like a jug of milk the first time
24:45
Speaker 1: I went out, just in case, because I've seen that
24:47
Speaker 1: that be recommended. Folks that we know have been gassed
24:51
Speaker 1: in pepper sprayed UM, friends of ours who are journalists
24:55
Speaker 1: and who have been out protesting as well or covering
24:58
Speaker 1: the protests. UM. And something that I've been doing is
25:01
Speaker 1: taking a sharpie and writing like my emergency contact, my sister,
25:06
Speaker 1: her phone number in my arm and then there's like
25:08
Speaker 1: a number for a bail bonds UM resource here in
25:12
Speaker 1: the city as well that folks have been sharing. And
25:14
Speaker 1: do not go by yourself. Take someone with you. Go
25:17
Speaker 1: with a friend or two friends, and make sure that
25:20
Speaker 1: you have like a plan. Um, you know where your
25:22
Speaker 1: car is. You kind of know like how many blocks
25:25
Speaker 1: you would be comfortable running if you had to run.
25:27
Speaker 1: UM figure out if you guys want to be in
25:30
Speaker 1: the middle of everything or if you want to be
25:31
Speaker 1: on the outskirts and UM, think about if you're like
25:35
Speaker 1: willing to lose things, like if you're taking things with you,
25:38
Speaker 1: is it's stuff that you can live withouter that you
25:40
Speaker 1: can lose if you need to. And then who are
25:42
Speaker 1: you telling that you know you're gonna be there? Because
25:45
Speaker 1: as we've seen two, UM, the l a p D
25:48
Speaker 1: are just like arresting folks in mass and not disclosing
25:52
Speaker 1: always the locations that pro that detainees are being taken
25:57
Speaker 1: to we've seen Um Mohade is one more had in
26:00
Speaker 1: particular right about essentially being sexually assaulted by the l
26:04
Speaker 1: A p D. How her and other protesters were very
26:07
Speaker 1: much physically abused and then dropped off in the middle
26:09
Speaker 1: of nowhere in Westwood with like no phones or or
26:13
Speaker 1: or transportation. Keeping in mind that in a lot of
26:16
Speaker 1: cities like l A there they have also been shutting
26:19
Speaker 1: down public transportation. So it's like not normal. It's like
26:23
Speaker 1: it's like it feels like a war zone, you know,
26:26
Speaker 1: and so like even you know, no one plans to
26:30
Speaker 1: get arrested. I have zero plans of getting arrested, But
26:32
Speaker 1: we're walking into all of these like taking those precautions
26:36
Speaker 1: because it is that serious out there. Um, we see
26:39
Speaker 1: I have seen people with their kids out there too,
26:42
Speaker 1: Like they're they're shooting tear gas into crowds with children
26:45
Speaker 1: in them, you know. So just keep those things in mind, um,
26:48
Speaker 1: when you decide which action you might be participating in.
26:51
Speaker 1: I would also say, um, look into who the organizers are.
26:56
Speaker 1: The founders of Black Lives Matter are queer women. Right
26:59
Speaker 1: Inherently Black of the Matter is queer, it's trans and
27:02
Speaker 1: so get to know who the organizers are. Is it
27:06
Speaker 1: white organized, is it not? Is it affiliated with Black
27:09
Speaker 1: Lives Matter? I think that that's just as important when
27:13
Speaker 1: you're doing your research and where you're going to go
27:15
Speaker 1: protest and demonstrate. Yeah, and like another pro tip that
27:20
Speaker 1: I was really surprised about, um, but it's super helpful.
27:24
Speaker 1: So if you doubt, if you have a Snapchat and
27:27
Speaker 1: you check out the snap map of the city where
27:30
Speaker 1: you live, you can get these hyper hyper hyper local
27:33
Speaker 1: on the ground views of the protests in real time
27:36
Speaker 1: and what they look like because you're you're you're just
27:39
Speaker 1: looking at the snap map in the concentration of people
27:41
Speaker 1: who are posting their own protest experience to Snapchat, and
27:45
Speaker 1: you can just see just like this bird's eye view
27:48
Speaker 1: of everything. So yeah, and and again, follow Black Lives
27:52
Speaker 1: Matter because that's the source. That's where you're gonna find,
27:54
Speaker 1: like I think, the most legit stuff. Yeah. Absolutely, Lee,
28:00
Speaker 1: and ultimately, be safe out there. Always let people know
28:05
Speaker 1: where you're gonna be at if you're going to be out.
28:08
Speaker 1: Like Mola shared all those really great tips when she
28:11
Speaker 1: was going to the first administration, I was like, okay, girl,
28:13
Speaker 1: in the event that you are detained do you have
28:16
Speaker 1: bail money? Where is it? Where do we go get you?
28:19
Speaker 1: Because like like Fala said, like you're not going with
28:23
Speaker 1: the intention of getting arrested. I mean maybe you are,
28:25
Speaker 1: but if you're not, like we're there's clear accounts of
28:28
Speaker 1: folks of the l a p D detaining folks and
28:31
Speaker 1: then just dropping them off god knows where. So always
28:34
Speaker 1: be safe, you know, don't go alone. Let people know
28:38
Speaker 1: where you're at. Uh. There's a bunch of different safety
28:41
Speaker 1: tips online when it comes to like digital safety and
28:44
Speaker 1: like turning off location services, um, turning off your cell service,
28:49
Speaker 1: all of that. So just things to keep in mind
28:51
Speaker 1: if you're out in the thick of it. Thanks to
28:53
Speaker 1: keep in mind. And right now, I feel like, you know,
28:58
Speaker 1: the l a p D. Like this term law enforcement
29:02
Speaker 1: is such a misnomer and means almost nothing because there
29:06
Speaker 1: are such clear violations of our laws and procedure. There
29:09
Speaker 1: are so many constitutional and human rights and civil rights
29:12
Speaker 1: violations taking place daily at these protests being perpetrated by
29:18
Speaker 1: uh you know, quote unquote lot of law enforcement. So
29:21
Speaker 1: it's just very bizarre to see like, you know, very
29:25
Speaker 1: average everybody, you know, unarmed, just out there trying to
29:29
Speaker 1: exercise constitutional rights and allegedly the state you know, there
29:34
Speaker 1: to protect but is doing everything they can to wage
29:37
Speaker 1: war and to silence folks. So it's your right to
29:40
Speaker 1: be out there, if you want to be, if you
29:42
Speaker 1: can be. Um, I think a lot of I know,
29:44
Speaker 1: my mom has been really scared for me and doesn't
29:47
Speaker 1: want me to go, and I'm like, look at the
29:49
Speaker 1: end of the day, like, we have rights, and they
29:52
Speaker 1: can't just force us inside and stomp us out and
29:57
Speaker 1: make us be quiet, you know, and there they can.
30:00
Speaker 1: There's more of us than there are of them, and
30:02
Speaker 1: I think that they're seeing that, and that's why they're
30:04
Speaker 1: so scared, and that's why they're reacting so violently. They're overwhelmed,
30:08
Speaker 1: as they should be. Yeah, yes, bucket, and let them
30:14
Speaker 1: be afraid. They literally work for us taxpayers dollars literally,
30:19
Speaker 1: taxpayer dollars fund all sorts of departments in Los Angeles, Like,
30:24
Speaker 1: they literally work for us, our stupid as president works
30:28
Speaker 1: for us. Literally, So yeah, let them be afraid. Let
30:33
Speaker 1: them be afraid. And that's not all we have for
30:36
Speaker 1: you today, because we have still a whole interview, a
30:39
Speaker 1: whole second half to this. Yes we do, Yes, we do.
30:44
Speaker 1: So before we get into before we introduce our amazing, fabulous,
30:49
Speaker 1: beautiful guests, I want to we want to share with
30:51
Speaker 1: y'all that we have a new mid episode song break. Mila,
30:56
Speaker 1: do you want to talk about our new songbreak, our
30:58
Speaker 1: new jingle? Absolutely? So. You know, as we grow, we
31:02
Speaker 1: realize that we can no longer play copyrighted music without permission.
31:07
Speaker 1: We will get in trouble one day. So you guys
31:09
Speaker 1: are used to hearing everything on local thought making the Stallion,
31:14
Speaker 1: what have you Beyonce Rihanna, Um, we can't do that anymore.
31:19
Speaker 1: So what we did do was we we tapped into
31:23
Speaker 1: local talent, as we do, and we hit up our
31:26
Speaker 1: friend DJ Bianca Oblivion, and we asked her to put together,
31:30
Speaker 1: um yeah, like a mid episode songbreak for us. So
31:35
Speaker 1: you all are hearing the premiere today. How exciting? Yes,
31:40
Speaker 1: so exciting. It's so cute. It's like a little less
31:43
Speaker 1: than a minute long. I love it. Something for y'all
31:46
Speaker 1: to dance to and get hyped for. For our next guest,
31:49
Speaker 1: We're super excited to introduce to bring On gata Of.
31:55
Speaker 1: She's the executive producer and host of a bilingual podcast
31:59
Speaker 1: and YouTube series us It takes a deep dive into
32:01
Speaker 1: the origins of reggaeton and where it is today. I
32:07
Speaker 1: was having some technical difficulties, so the majority of the
32:10
Speaker 1: interview is with Mala, But I love I love what
32:14
Speaker 1: she does, I love what she's about. So I'm really
32:17
Speaker 1: excited that we had the opportunity and the chance to
32:20
Speaker 1: share our platform with her. Without further ado enjoy or
32:27
Speaker 1: castera belly rost of it and well ship. All right, look,
33:13
Speaker 1: I'm what is welcome back? We are super excited to
33:16
Speaker 1: introduce our next guest of our capitola. Please welcome Gata,
33:23
Speaker 1: Hey girl, Hey, go with stars. How's it going? I'm good.
33:32
Speaker 1: I'm going pretty good considering or where are you checking
33:37
Speaker 1: in from today? Where where do you stay? I am
33:40
Speaker 1: in Boston, Massachusetts. Oh wow, okay, amazing? And how are yeah?
33:50
Speaker 1: How are yeah? Like? How is the city responding and
33:55
Speaker 1: participating in everything that's going on right now? I'm very
33:59
Speaker 1: proud of this pay for UM really putting actions to
34:04
Speaker 1: have worked. You know, UM, Boston has a very strong history. UM.
34:09
Speaker 1: A lot of America's history started right here in Massachusetts,
34:12
Speaker 1: in Boston. So it's beautiful to see that moving forward,
34:16
Speaker 1: especially as you know the topic is now on the
34:19
Speaker 1: topic at hand in the center is I'm having to
34:22
Speaker 1: do with Black Lives Matter. So it's beautiful to see
34:26
Speaker 1: different communities. Some have actually surprised me that are all
34:30
Speaker 1: working in solidarity. So I'm very proud of the city
34:32
Speaker 1: right now. That's beautiful that that's really great to hear
34:36
Speaker 1: because like on our on our end, we're in the
34:38
Speaker 1: West coast, we're in l A and uh, we're seeing
34:41
Speaker 1: all these different demonstrations happen county wide, and so it's
34:45
Speaker 1: great to hear the other actions that are happening in
34:47
Speaker 1: other states. I've like seen that all fifty states have
34:50
Speaker 1: participated in some type of demonstration or protests this past week. Yeah, definitely, Um,
34:57
Speaker 1: i'd see that. It's beautiful to see. I just hope
35:01
Speaker 1: that we keep at it and um, you know, I
35:05
Speaker 1: just really hope that you know, a change can come
35:08
Speaker 1: out of this, because we all aren't we I know,
35:11
Speaker 1: I am. Yeah. The fatigue and the question of fatigue,
35:17
Speaker 1: like on all fronts is definitely um on our minds,
35:22
Speaker 1: and we see that a lot of like black journalists,
35:26
Speaker 1: black protesters, organizers are really talking about the importance of
35:30
Speaker 1: mental health and stamina always. But especially now. And I
35:34
Speaker 1: also have seen some like commentary on Twitter about how
35:38
Speaker 1: you know, if you're new to this and new to
35:39
Speaker 1: social justice, this is not a one week thing, like
35:42
Speaker 1: you need to get ready for the long haul. And
35:45
Speaker 1: I don't know, is that something that you've been seeing
35:47
Speaker 1: those types of conversations on your end? Absolutely, as I am,
35:54
Speaker 1: um you know of course well and involved in the
35:58
Speaker 1: entertainment industry. The big question right now is how are
36:04
Speaker 1: our favorite run on artists able to get into the
36:08
Speaker 1: conversation in a way that's not problematic. And of course
36:12
Speaker 1: there's a lot of education to be done, UM in
36:15
Speaker 1: regards to like what that even means and how to
36:18
Speaker 1: keep it continuous because unfortunately, as I've had to educate
36:22
Speaker 1: some of you know, the people UM working with some
36:26
Speaker 1: of these artists that unfortunately, due to structural racism, it's right,
36:32
Speaker 1: this is going to happen again, unfortunately. UM. It's something
36:36
Speaker 1: that we anticipate, it's something that's part of this trauma.
36:40
Speaker 1: And so UM, I'm seeing a lot of uh, a
36:43
Speaker 1: lot of efforts towards education, which is nice, but I'm
36:47
Speaker 1: very curious, uh, in particular on the steps that need
36:53
Speaker 1: to be taken in regards to the education and continuous
36:56
Speaker 1: initiatives in order to keep education flowing. So yeah, absolutely,
37:00
Speaker 1: um yeah, I've you know, I have been following the
37:05
Speaker 1: different tweets and the different social media posts from some
37:09
Speaker 1: of the favorite popular reggaet or or urbano artists, and um,
37:15
Speaker 1: they have been falling short, to say the least. They
37:19
Speaker 1: I know that you did. You wrote about you wrote
37:22
Speaker 1: an op ed for MSULA about the artists and Musica
37:26
Speaker 1: Musica Rana and how they haven't been really pulling showing up.
37:30
Speaker 1: They haven't been showing up for the Black Lives Matter movement,
37:33
Speaker 1: and so I wanted to hear your perspective on some
37:36
Speaker 1: of the things that the artists have said the past
37:39
Speaker 1: couple of weeks or the past week, especially on Twitter.
37:41
Speaker 1: We've had like Gotto g posting a picture of her dog.
37:44
Speaker 1: We've had j Baldwin asking for people to educate him.
37:48
Speaker 1: So I wanted to hear your perspective and um calling
37:52
Speaker 1: out these artists and calling in and how they can
37:55
Speaker 1: be doing more. Um. Absolutely, and uh wow, where do
38:01
Speaker 1: I even begin? Um? Right, I think that one of
38:06
Speaker 1: the biggest fears that we're all having as a collective
38:11
Speaker 1: is um and I certainly have it all the time
38:15
Speaker 1: is saying the wrong thing right. People aren't right all
38:18
Speaker 1: the time. And of course the Internet is a scary
38:21
Speaker 1: place where you say one thing just just left the right,
38:25
Speaker 1: and then you know you're growing viral off of something
38:29
Speaker 1: that you know is not in your heart and that
38:31
Speaker 1: is not based off of you know, your actual beliefs
38:34
Speaker 1: and things of that nature. So of course, UM, with
38:37
Speaker 1: that being said, when you see a lot of hiccups,
38:40
Speaker 1: I don't even know if I should call it a hiccup.
38:43
Speaker 1: I'm nice, I guess, um, hiccups being done by some
38:47
Speaker 1: of our faiths. Um the picture with Gtalgy with brutal
38:50
Speaker 1: just to witness um bofin Bevin. Really he's really trying.
38:56
Speaker 1: But the poor man is really he's really just you know,
39:00
Speaker 1: he's flueless, and you know it speaks volumes to the
39:03
Speaker 1: purvis that he has that he's able to be clueless.
39:06
Speaker 1: I wish I could be clueless. God, what I would
39:08
Speaker 1: prove to like not have to be able to think
39:11
Speaker 1: about these things constantly? You get what I'm saying. So
39:15
Speaker 1: Uma definitely, UM very grateful and shout out to the
39:19
Speaker 1: SPA for amplifying my voice. Um, I would was able
39:24
Speaker 1: to touch on a number of topics in the article,
39:27
Speaker 1: including when I'm limited to UH, the importance of and
39:33
Speaker 1: frassic and seen hip hop. There's note without hip hop,
39:37
Speaker 1: and it's pretty much giving the historical context of UH,
39:41
Speaker 1: you know, the symbol that artists love to use that
39:45
Speaker 1: really come from hip hop and hip hop stemming back
39:47
Speaker 1: from are being born out of the civil rights movement
39:51
Speaker 1: because of injustice, um, you know, due to Jim Crawl
39:55
Speaker 1: laws and in segregation and things of that nature that
39:58
Speaker 1: for black hundreds of hundreds and hundreds of years here
40:01
Speaker 1: in the United States, and as well as the juxtaposition
40:05
Speaker 1: of UH, injustice towards after Letosa in Latin America, and
40:12
Speaker 1: just how much these problems are just as much Hours
40:15
Speaker 1: as it is American. And you know, to be able
40:19
Speaker 1: to profit off of these symbols really is a privilege
40:22
Speaker 1: and a blessing. And you know, the least the really
40:25
Speaker 1: loost that you know, our Brondo arts will do is
40:27
Speaker 1: say something. And I guess I know that fear, you know,
40:31
Speaker 1: everybody is pretty much posted during black Out Tuesday, the
40:33
Speaker 1: Black Player and and I got to you know, business
40:36
Speaker 1: as usual, which was very heartbreaking. I don't even know
40:40
Speaker 1: whose music to scream right now. Um, I had some
40:44
Speaker 1: real playlists called Nega Bone and had to you know,
40:47
Speaker 1: really bounce off of the artists there. I can, as
40:51
Speaker 1: I do regularly, but not more than ever, just because
40:54
Speaker 1: it just doesn't fear right. I'm Bob Bunny is breaking
40:57
Speaker 1: my heart now and he was just all over Rolling
41:02
Speaker 1: Stone in the middle of the pandemic, very active, posting
41:06
Speaker 1: all the time for all kinds of things, and then
41:09
Speaker 1: all of a sudden like radio silence, and people have
41:13
Speaker 1: definitely noticed and expect more. I think at this point
41:18
Speaker 1: in our history, it seems to me like the public
41:22
Speaker 1: expects way more from artists and um, from somebody like
41:26
Speaker 1: that Bunny who is known to wear do rags right,
41:28
Speaker 1: and it is very appropriative of black culture when he
41:32
Speaker 1: performs and in his music. And is that something that
41:34
Speaker 1: you've seen. Do you see like the public just being
41:37
Speaker 1: have way higher expectations for celebts. Um, definitely, because you
41:42
Speaker 1: know they're able to profit off of the symbols that
41:45
Speaker 1: um it seems to be able to grow some and
41:49
Speaker 1: hold others back. UM. You know I saw the other day,
41:53
Speaker 1: UM that a picture of Rosalia who had a beautiful voice.
41:58
Speaker 1: He has a beautiful boy. She's so beautiful. It's not
42:01
Speaker 1: attacker and her as an individual, but more so you
42:04
Speaker 1: know the symbol that she's chees utilize. I saw a
42:06
Speaker 1: picture of her wearing girls and I posted wow, and
42:10
Speaker 1: someone tweeted back, well, you're really trying to say that
42:13
Speaker 1: girls comes from black people. It's not that serious. I'm like,
42:16
Speaker 1: it is absolutely less serious. And Panama, UM, I can
42:20
Speaker 1: only speak to where I know in Panama, gold is
42:25
Speaker 1: an extremely important UM aspect of Black culture, of Astro
42:29
Speaker 1: Panamic and culture, and UM things like respectability are things
42:34
Speaker 1: that you know hold back Black Panama is from UH
42:37
Speaker 1: monetary opportunities in Panamaican society. Meanwhile, we have a superstar
42:44
Speaker 1: who has really nothing to do with that type of
42:47
Speaker 1: UM cultural esthetic utilizing it for the UM to further
42:51
Speaker 1: her own image and learning. It's like, you know that
42:54
Speaker 1: juxtaposition is extremely important to take into consideration. And as
42:58
Speaker 1: far as Bad Bunny of you know things some things
43:03
Speaker 1: the time from the do ride. So I can't even
43:06
Speaker 1: get into how long that list of is of symbols
43:09
Speaker 1: that he's been able to utilize and profit awful. So
43:13
Speaker 1: absolutely is something that I do see often. Yes, Okay,
43:17
Speaker 1: got that. So going back to my initial question, we
43:20
Speaker 1: were talking about differents, what they had been tweeting and
43:25
Speaker 1: support or lack thereof, and I wanted to ask you,
43:28
Speaker 1: have you seen any artists actually do it correctly, actually
43:33
Speaker 1: show a message of support, and it'd be like right
43:35
Speaker 1: on the mark. Absolutely. I am very happy with Daddy
43:41
Speaker 1: yankees response. Um, Becky g Um. I want to say
43:46
Speaker 1: that she surprised me. It's just more so like I'm
43:49
Speaker 1: I'm still getting used to the fact that she's doing
43:52
Speaker 1: now um and calling her like I'm still getting used
43:55
Speaker 1: to that. But she absolutely hit the name on the
43:58
Speaker 1: head Um with her past, her amount of posting on
44:02
Speaker 1: across different platforms, and that Yankee, I'd say that that
44:05
Speaker 1: Yankee more than any other artists, UM, definitely understands the
44:10
Speaker 1: importance of showing respect to African Americans or and they're
44:15
Speaker 1: black people in general and their play and not play
44:18
Speaker 1: because of his music being at the forefront of the
44:23
Speaker 1: pen Latino crossover, you know, with Gasolina into the American market. Um,
44:29
Speaker 1: it was his music that was at the forefront. It
44:31
Speaker 1: was his collaborations that really like alaa for artists coming later.
44:37
Speaker 1: So if anything. He definitely understands. Um, you know the
44:41
Speaker 1: importance of hip hop and its entirety, um and how
44:45
Speaker 1: that helps play a throne to grow in it of itself.
44:49
Speaker 1: So absolutely, I'd say, becky Jee and that Yank, I'm
44:51
Speaker 1: very proud of them. I was gonna say, you do
44:56
Speaker 1: a lot of posting and writing about basically the political
45:02
Speaker 1: origins and energy behind reggaeton anda, and so it's is
45:09
Speaker 1: it is it almost like a requirement or an obligation
45:13
Speaker 1: or a call to action. Like if you're making this
45:15
Speaker 1: type of music, you are doing some type of a
45:18
Speaker 1: political work, and the expectation then is that you should
45:21
Speaker 1: be engaged and informed and tuned in and participating. Is
45:26
Speaker 1: that like fair to say? I would say that, And
45:34
Speaker 1: this is a question I get often, um, simply because
45:38
Speaker 1: of the way that artists have been able to benefit
45:40
Speaker 1: from these symbols, these black symbols. I will say that
45:44
Speaker 1: because and I consider like a throne to be the
45:49
Speaker 1: manifestation of the black people. Like to group, they coincide,
45:57
Speaker 1: but they're not always the same thing. Um. I'd say
46:00
Speaker 1: that there is political is black. Although it has essences,
46:07
Speaker 1: it's very pop, it's largely pop. Um. So With that
46:11
Speaker 1: being said, Reggaeton Nero's thriving in Reggaeton. Do they have
46:17
Speaker 1: a duty to really speak up? I would say yes,
46:22
Speaker 1: because a lot of the essences that are utilized are
46:27
Speaker 1: black and come from places that are political. UM. And
46:31
Speaker 1: it does speak volumes that they know and are aware of,
46:35
Speaker 1: you know, what they're comprised of and what they stand for. UM.
46:40
Speaker 1: And it's also you know, I feel like right now
46:42
Speaker 1: we're at a time where we're really seeing artists, UM,
46:45
Speaker 1: not really understanding that, not really understanding um, you know
46:50
Speaker 1: the fact that everything that they um put out really
46:55
Speaker 1: does come from a political place and really showing that
46:58
Speaker 1: they really don't understand and um, just the levels of
47:04
Speaker 1: privilege that's been been able to allow them to thrive
47:07
Speaker 1: in this type of space, and just the positions which
47:11
Speaker 1: has been frowned on um, you know and just thrown
47:15
Speaker 1: to the side. UM. You know, has really been able
47:19
Speaker 1: to other artists and really put them into a box
47:23
Speaker 1: and further damage their careers, which I think is absolutely wrong.
47:26
Speaker 1: But you know, it speaks volumes to the power of
47:30
Speaker 1: what I get on it. So I would say yes,
47:31
Speaker 1: absolutely and got that with your with your work, UM, digitally,
47:38
Speaker 1: your writing, your interviews. UH, what is your process? Like
47:43
Speaker 1: you interview a lot of these artists themselves to like
47:47
Speaker 1: inform the archival work that you're doing. So tell us
47:50
Speaker 1: a little bit about your process and how you put
47:53
Speaker 1: your project together. UM is actually an idea I had
48:00
Speaker 1: in my door room. UM one day, I UM, well,
48:06
Speaker 1: let me let me back up either from that, so
48:08
Speaker 1: I studied communications and UM writing a whole lot of
48:12
Speaker 1: papers on the principles and theories of communication, and to
48:17
Speaker 1: make it interesting, I would often throw music theory into it,
48:20
Speaker 1: and of course I got to include barrel in there
48:23
Speaker 1: some way, somehow. I thought it was fascinating seeing how
48:26
Speaker 1: that ale can be UM talked about in uh academic
48:30
Speaker 1: lens and long story short, I started TOM because I
48:35
Speaker 1: became pissed UM. I think it was way back when UM.
48:40
Speaker 1: I was looking at a presentation that Flex did Um
48:45
Speaker 1: Flex did Flex from Panama UM did on TV and he,
48:49
Speaker 1: you know, was presented as the other name that he's
48:53
Speaker 1: you know, he uses more commonly in Latin America, and
48:55
Speaker 1: it pissed me off to hell and it pretty much
48:59
Speaker 1: inspired me to kind of take a step further and
49:02
Speaker 1: create a platform on this level, and I kid you
49:05
Speaker 1: not UM. Once I started working, I have reached out
49:09
Speaker 1: to a lot of artists, but a lot of artists
49:11
Speaker 1: have actually actually reached out to me UM, which is
49:15
Speaker 1: the one of the biggest blessings of my life. Last
49:18
Speaker 1: year I was invited to Puerto Rico by DJ Blast himself.
49:23
Speaker 1: I was invited by Mr Greens and they're one of
49:27
Speaker 1: the two of my thank you and they're two of
49:30
Speaker 1: the biggest like figures of get ton to me like that.
49:34
Speaker 1: I'm such a huge fan of their work, of everything
49:37
Speaker 1: that they've been able to produce, the sounds I mean,
49:41
Speaker 1: DJ Blast is the King of san Done. Just to
49:43
Speaker 1: be in his presence is that is an extreme blessing.
49:46
Speaker 1: So my process is largely UM just thinking true to UM.
49:52
Speaker 1: A lot of the UM actually a lot of the
49:56
Speaker 1: academic UM theories that I've been able to study in school,
50:01
Speaker 1: and UM really studying the work of the likes of
50:04
Speaker 1: man Um who UM wrote largely on Hindi, Regathrone and UM.
50:13
Speaker 1: A lot of the breaking down a lot of the
50:16
Speaker 1: bears that really help classify what it is that we're
50:20
Speaker 1: listening to, and it's cultural references UM and and really
50:25
Speaker 1: just like taking into consideration the work of people who
50:28
Speaker 1: you know, come before me, Like I'm a huge fan
50:32
Speaker 1: of hers and really just trying to figure out how
50:34
Speaker 1: to create my own voice. I see a lot of
50:37
Speaker 1: respectability UM and how that UM really damages, you know,
50:44
Speaker 1: the conversations that need to be had regarding this music.
50:48
Speaker 1: UM is largely sexual and it's a lot of the
50:52
Speaker 1: reason why people try to stay away from it. And UM,
50:56
Speaker 1: I actually love the sexual themes that are described UM,
51:00
Speaker 1: both problematic and not problematic, just simply because being able
51:04
Speaker 1: to analyze it and really like ask ourselves, you know,
51:07
Speaker 1: what are we celebrating when we dance and listen to
51:09
Speaker 1: these things and and not is very interesting just to
51:13
Speaker 1: see it all unfold. So my process is largely just
51:17
Speaker 1: sticking true to what it is that I've studied, UM,
51:20
Speaker 1: to what I've have studied under the work of people
51:24
Speaker 1: who have come before me, and UM really listening to
51:27
Speaker 1: these artists as they reach out to me. That's one
51:29
Speaker 1: of the biggest blessings. I'll give you guys an exclusive.
51:32
Speaker 1: Very soon, you'll see me collaborating with none other than
51:35
Speaker 1: Nondo Boom. I'm very excited to work with him and
51:39
Speaker 1: for our listeners who want to check out that interview
51:42
Speaker 1: and check out that collaboration. Where can they find your
51:46
Speaker 1: work and support and amplify absolutely UM. I believe that
51:53
Speaker 1: I will be collaborating Monando Boom live on camera due
51:57
Speaker 1: to the coronavirus pandemic UM. We'll be on Instagram Live
52:01
Speaker 1: and I'm an interview talking about a negreton um and
52:08
Speaker 1: as well as you know the barriers that he's had
52:10
Speaker 1: to face UM creating that type of music and banama
52:14
Speaker 1: during the time of which it was created, because he's
52:16
Speaker 1: one of the founding fathers, him and Hand and Michael Ellis.
52:20
Speaker 1: I'm very excited Instagram Live UM, which will be on
52:25
Speaker 1: it's the same name across all platforms, which is my
52:29
Speaker 1: historical podcast. So there's a lot of different places where
52:33
Speaker 1: people go can go and get all all of this knowledge,
52:36
Speaker 1: this cultural education UM. And I'm wondering too, if there
52:41
Speaker 1: is a conversation that you think is not getting enough
52:45
Speaker 1: attention right now. There's so many layers and so much
52:49
Speaker 1: going on globally, UM and and in all fifties states,
52:53
Speaker 1: but in in your point of view, is there something
52:56
Speaker 1: that's not quite getting enough attention that we need to
52:58
Speaker 1: sort of focus in on more. I would say that
53:01
Speaker 1: definitely something that UM isn't being addressed right now. UM.
53:05
Speaker 1: It's more so the white guilt UM that we're having
53:09
Speaker 1: as a collective. UM, It's evident, and it's becoming more
53:12
Speaker 1: and more evident as time passes, because there's a surge
53:16
Speaker 1: of content UM focusing on UM after Latino artists and
53:21
Speaker 1: how they feel about Black lives matter, and it's like, well, UM,
53:27
Speaker 1: we had all this time to focus on them and
53:30
Speaker 1: their stories, and you know how racist UM pressures have
53:34
Speaker 1: really formed their path into this industry and UM, you know,
53:39
Speaker 1: past presentent forward. But of course right now, instead of
53:43
Speaker 1: asking white artists, hey, what space have you made or um,
53:49
Speaker 1: you know what collaboration collaborations have you done in order
53:53
Speaker 1: to amplify space? UM, instead of asking those type of questions,
53:57
Speaker 1: we're redirecting as an industry over to ACRI Latinos and
54:02
Speaker 1: how they feel, UM, the most vulnerable people in the industry.
54:06
Speaker 1: Might I add, because I mean, as we can see
54:09
Speaker 1: such as a unicorn, you don't see a lot of
54:12
Speaker 1: artists like such big fluffy I say, fluffy fluffy and
54:17
Speaker 1: um dar skin you don't see that ever. Last chubby
54:21
Speaker 1: artist that's where we had was Hector and father, um,
54:25
Speaker 1: you know, and and he was you know, i'd say
54:27
Speaker 1: how about. I wouldn't call him white, but like how about.
54:30
Speaker 1: But the point is, um, something that's definitely not being
54:33
Speaker 1: addressed right now is is white guilt. And UM, I
54:37
Speaker 1: think that one way to really come back that is
54:40
Speaker 1: just being honest. It's okay to understand the fact that
54:44
Speaker 1: we don't know all the answers. But what's not okay
54:47
Speaker 1: staying silent, not taking action, not trying to make space,
54:54
Speaker 1: not you know, staying complicit, saying well it's gonna boil over, okay,
54:58
Speaker 1: and until the time it happens, sadly. So that's definitely
55:02
Speaker 1: something that's not being addressed right now. I'm thinking to
55:06
Speaker 1: like about the artists that we tend to know, like
55:14
Speaker 1: I would say in non Black Latin X communities, like
55:16
Speaker 1: we know who Annales, you know who Cla Cruz is,
55:19
Speaker 1: we know about like um individual artists. But you're naming
55:24
Speaker 1: just in this short time with us, you're naming all
55:26
Speaker 1: of these fees, artistas and figures that I feel like
55:31
Speaker 1: a lot of the community, the non Black Latin X
55:33
Speaker 1: communities have not been introduced to or who don't know
55:36
Speaker 1: about and I'm curious about like in your archival work
55:40
Speaker 1: and in your journalism at that where you see those
55:46
Speaker 1: kinds of gaps in history or preservation and and and
55:50
Speaker 1: and the importance of making sure that like all of
55:52
Speaker 1: these artists are known and celebrated and documented. That's a question.
55:58
Speaker 1: Um oh man. I feel like a lot of the
56:05
Speaker 1: erasure started when um, then I get them started to
56:09
Speaker 1: become mainstream. I was, I mean swimming with like amounts
56:18
Speaker 1: of of of Black Angel Doo Cartier, um r g
56:24
Speaker 1: black um Wow. I can't think of them all of
56:28
Speaker 1: the top of my head, just because there was so
56:30
Speaker 1: many that I was regularly listening to lasta glory um wow.
56:37
Speaker 1: Of course rain No no Man is a king. Um
56:42
Speaker 1: you know. Um, there's so many artists, and I feel
56:45
Speaker 1: like that began to happen once I get they're making mainstream.
56:49
Speaker 1: A lot of the collaborations UM started to move from
56:54
Speaker 1: who's been here before too, who was hot and big now?
56:58
Speaker 1: And over time me just um continue to grow based
57:02
Speaker 1: off of that, instead of really giving respect to our
57:05
Speaker 1: elders um and people who have been there before us. UM.
57:10
Speaker 1: I say this all the time. I feel like a them.
57:13
Speaker 1: This industry doesn't really give respect to people who have
57:16
Speaker 1: come before us in comparison to hip hop. And I
57:20
Speaker 1: give this example all the time. I think, I believe
57:23
Speaker 1: it was the MTV Video Music Awards last year. Queen
57:27
Speaker 1: Latifa was there and I was like, Queen Latifa, I
57:31
Speaker 1: was like, well, she hasn't dropped music in forever. What
57:33
Speaker 1: are they doing. Oh, she's getting like some sort of
57:37
Speaker 1: iconic like you know, conic, like legendary award. Don't don't
57:40
Speaker 1: quote me, I don't know the name. But the point
57:42
Speaker 1: is she was being rewarded for her efforts in this genre.
57:46
Speaker 1: And I was like, wow, how many years later and
57:49
Speaker 1: she hasn't released anything, and this is how they treat
57:52
Speaker 1: her with respect. We don't ever see that in our industry.
57:55
Speaker 1: We're too busy with who's hot and shiny now, and
57:59
Speaker 1: as soon as there's holiness, like you know, dolls down,
58:02
Speaker 1: we're onto the next person and the next person instead
58:04
Speaker 1: of giving respect to who's come before us. And of
58:07
Speaker 1: course there are efforts, you know, their efforts, um in
58:10
Speaker 1: order to give respect and things of that nature. They're
58:12
Speaker 1: cute Instagram captions and stuff like that, but I mean, like,
58:15
Speaker 1: as in the industry doesn't happen nearly enough. Um. I
58:19
Speaker 1: love that when Bunny went on live UM for Yagogana,
58:24
Speaker 1: when he played every single track, he shouted out caten
58:27
Speaker 1: and UM really educated people on how his song bete
58:32
Speaker 1: um is in reiteration of classic Yes comes class out
58:46
Speaker 1: to get and a lot of people don't know that,
58:47
Speaker 1: and they're just yeah, and they're just consuming all those music.
58:51
Speaker 1: I'm like, y'all not really putting bridges together. And that
58:53
Speaker 1: really hurts to see, especially because I mean, I really hope.
58:58
Speaker 1: I mean, of course, I can imagine he's getting his
59:01
Speaker 1: royalties off of bed and I feel like that's the
59:03
Speaker 1: only way that I'm seeing a lot of respect being
59:05
Speaker 1: given through royalties on the S side. It's it's interesting
59:10
Speaker 1: that you point that out too, because in the US,
59:13
Speaker 1: in hip hop, it's such a thing to look for
59:17
Speaker 1: the music that's being sampled in the new stuff and
59:21
Speaker 1: looking for you know, the original song, the original be
59:26
Speaker 1: that the new song was derived from, and you know,
59:29
Speaker 1: pointing out where's that sort of music history and music
59:33
Speaker 1: education being preserved so we can do that in this
59:36
Speaker 1: like musical answer. Yes, mm hmmm, um, definitely, And I
59:43
Speaker 1: feel like those due to in part to a number
59:45
Speaker 1: of different things. Um, we like to jumble everything together
59:51
Speaker 1: under one genre. Whereas look at hip hop, hip hop,
59:56
Speaker 1: I say hip hop, but there's trapped, there's trap music,
1:00:00
Speaker 1: there's current music. You know what I'm saying. There's there's
1:00:03
Speaker 1: Southern rob there's there's West Coast, there's East Coast. People
1:00:09
Speaker 1: say it like it's one genre. I'm like, yo, there's farrel,
1:00:13
Speaker 1: there's Sundo Gail, there's Bayaka. Like. People don't want to
1:00:17
Speaker 1: give those different reiterations of peril their respect. And so
1:00:23
Speaker 1: going forward, what do we do? We classify everything under
1:00:27
Speaker 1: urbana and um, you know, we call things that we
1:00:30
Speaker 1: call music that isn't reggaetonton just for the sake of
1:00:35
Speaker 1: oh well it has you know that little bit that
1:00:37
Speaker 1: the little reiteration of the dumbobie. I'm like, yeah, but
1:00:40
Speaker 1: the essences aren't there. And um, you know, people really
1:00:44
Speaker 1: don't give each of these subgenres their flowers, and it's
1:00:49
Speaker 1: hurting us in the process. So got that. Just finishing
1:00:53
Speaker 1: up our conversation today. Thank you so much for just
1:00:57
Speaker 1: hanging with us through our tech issues and I'm difference
1:01:00
Speaker 1: and the pandemic and every other thing that could possibly
1:01:05
Speaker 1: happen anything. It's fine. Um, where can our listeners, uh subscribe,
1:01:14
Speaker 1: follow and share your work? And do you have any
1:01:20
Speaker 1: tips moving forward for how people can be like, I
1:01:23
Speaker 1: don't know, conscientious or culturally aware like pereo and reget
1:01:29
Speaker 1: consumers or makers. Um. Absolutely, UM. I would say that
1:01:34
Speaker 1: the best way to stay conscientious of um, you know,
1:01:38
Speaker 1: when consuming pretty much to do basic homework in regards to,
1:01:43
Speaker 1: you know, what these artists are inspired by. I would
1:01:47
Speaker 1: say that these artists do give credit in regards to
1:01:50
Speaker 1: who has inspired them, who they listened to growing up,
1:01:55
Speaker 1: But sadly sometimes it ends there UM, and I feel
1:02:00
Speaker 1: like that's irresponsible. But um, you know, of course it's
1:02:04
Speaker 1: a lot of different factors UM influencing these artists. At
1:02:07
Speaker 1: the same time, this industry is not easy easy UM,
1:02:11
Speaker 1: So I'd say definitely just doing your homework on the
1:02:14
Speaker 1: artists and what they say inspires them. That's definitely like
1:02:16
Speaker 1: the easiest way to stay conscientious and UM, make sure
1:02:20
Speaker 1: you're like you're doing your part to give respect to
1:02:22
Speaker 1: the people who've come before them and who influence the
1:02:25
Speaker 1: work of what they're doing. UM. I had tweeted the
1:02:28
Speaker 1: other day, people don't ask themselves like was this borrowed?
1:02:32
Speaker 1: Was this stolen? Is this copied? UM? We don't ask
1:02:37
Speaker 1: ourselves that question enough. And as well as quoting Pablo Picasso, UM,
1:02:41
Speaker 1: good artists borrow, great artists steel, you know, really ask
1:02:46
Speaker 1: ourselves what it is that we are consuming when we're
1:02:48
Speaker 1: consuming it. That's definitely one of the most responsible ways
1:02:52
Speaker 1: to UM consume music. I would say across any genre,
1:02:56
Speaker 1: but you know, definitely what I get on in this case,
1:02:59
Speaker 1: I wrote say that the best way to stay in
1:03:02
Speaker 1: touch with me UM and to keep up with what
1:03:05
Speaker 1: it is that I'm doing is to check out on Instagram,
1:03:11
Speaker 1: on Twitter, on Facebook, YouTube. I try to do UM
1:03:17
Speaker 1: get on analysis via a segment called atajo getting to
1:03:21
Speaker 1: the bottom of UM, the analysis of these topics that
1:03:25
Speaker 1: I love talking about, and as well as my podcast
1:03:30
Speaker 1: which is UM largely historically based. All right, got that.
1:03:39
Speaker 1: Thank you once again for joining us today on Look
1:03:41
Speaker 1: at our Radio and to all of our locomotives. Go
1:03:43
Speaker 1: check out all of Gotha's work all of her channels,
1:03:47
Speaker 1: and as always, you can tune in to Look at
1:03:49
Speaker 1: the Radio on Apple. Podcasts were on Spotify, audio Boom,
1:03:53
Speaker 1: and SoundCloud, Hit the Venmo. If you'd like to support
1:03:57
Speaker 1: indie projects, we're at Look a Dash Radio and check
1:04:01
Speaker 1: this out at look at the Radio dot com. We'll
1:04:03
Speaker 1: see you next time. Bess Thos