Latest / Locatora Radio [A Radiophonic Novela] / Capítulo 069: Writing Women with Kali Fajardo Anstine

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Capítulo 069: Writing Women with Kali Fajardo Anstine · Locatora Radio [A Radiophonic Novela]

0:02
Speaker 1: Radio Radio Radio's a Myth and Bullshit, a radiophonic novella
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Speaker 1: Local Radio hosted by Malamla Loca Morris. Welcome back to
0:24
Speaker 1: local radio. Welcome back, Welcome back. This is Mala and
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Speaker 1: this is the Sam look I thought. A Radio is
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Speaker 1: a radiophonic novella archiving the brilliance and legacies of women
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Speaker 1: and fems of color. We are last Mommies of myth
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Speaker 1: and Bullshit Las Radio radiophonic novela, which is just a
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Speaker 1: really extra way of saying a podcast. Thank you so
0:48
Speaker 1: much for tuning in to We're so excited to be
0:54
Speaker 1: recording again. We're always excited to record. Wait, Saturday is
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Speaker 1: just always a beautiful day. You know we're gonna record
1:00
Speaker 1: where the outfits are cute, cut guests. We have a
1:03
Speaker 1: cute guest today. Very cute guests are really cute guests.
1:07
Speaker 1: Is very cute. We record out of Oil Heights. Is
1:11
Speaker 1: super cute. Don't come gentrify it, but shout out b H, yes,
1:15
Speaker 1: shout up b H. Admire it from a distance, do
1:17
Speaker 1: not move in exactly. And you know, as folks who
1:21
Speaker 1: we ourselves are not from Oil Heights, we like to
1:23
Speaker 1: be respectful Yeah, we come, we record, we love the community.
1:28
Speaker 1: We do what we can, try to put our money
1:30
Speaker 1: here when we're here, by like, you know, patron ng
1:33
Speaker 1: the local businesses. Yes, patriots stronizing whatever. We like to
1:40
Speaker 1: throw our money in the streets of Oil High, Yes,
1:43
Speaker 1: and then go home exactly, exactly to our own community.
1:47
Speaker 1: What is What are languages today? I'm so confused. Language
1:51
Speaker 1: is a social construct. It really is. Just like sometimes
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Speaker 1: my brain wants to speak in Spanish, but I'm speaking English,
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Speaker 1: and then vice versa, and I get very confused and
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Speaker 1: stressed out. Sometimes that's for all. Sometimes my brain wants
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Speaker 1: to speak Spanish, but I can. You can? You actually can?
2:09
Speaker 1: Is a thing? The thing is my Spanish is really
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Speaker 1: pretty good. Like it's not, it's pretty good, Mama, Like
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Speaker 1: this bacha thing is a front. Okay, this is a
2:16
Speaker 1: fake persona she call hes a. But then I see
2:20
Speaker 1: her have a full on conversation with my dad and
2:22
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, I can communicate, but everybody can tell
2:26
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. It's fine, it's all good.
2:29
Speaker 1: Let me you're actually a poach and it's okay. I'm
2:32
Speaker 1: not going to take that identity from you, but I
2:34
Speaker 1: do want to say that your Spanish is really good. Yeah,
2:38
Speaker 1: and I know that like folks that like, you know, um,
2:42
Speaker 1: maybe Spanish wasn't their first language, or maybe they feel
2:44
Speaker 1: a little insecure, self conscious speaking it, and like that's
2:48
Speaker 1: that's like it's almost like the self fulfilling part because
2:51
Speaker 1: then you don't speak it, so then it doesn't get
2:53
Speaker 1: better because it really is a muscle memory like practice.
2:56
Speaker 1: But then you're nervous, so then you don't practice, and
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Speaker 1: then it's just a cycle endings I call yeah, so
3:01
Speaker 1: yeah who anyway and tee who. So we're back. We're
3:04
Speaker 1: recording um and as always, we want to remind you
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Speaker 1: all of our lovely, beautiful collaborations that we have with
3:10
Speaker 1: the number of Latina owned businesses. Yes, we have some
3:13
Speaker 1: really great brand partnerships, sponsorships. As always, we continue to
3:18
Speaker 1: have our sponsored our collaboration with blew me. You can
3:22
Speaker 1: use our cold look ten to get ten percent off
3:25
Speaker 1: of your sexual health and wellness products. They have been
3:28
Speaker 1: sending us some really great items the past couple of
3:31
Speaker 1: months and we just continue to rape about them, continue
3:34
Speaker 1: to love them. Oh yeah, I'm just living for the
3:37
Speaker 1: fact that I've just like I'm starting to have like
3:40
Speaker 1: a vibrator collection, and I love it because I've never
3:43
Speaker 1: been a collector of things, but I'm down to have
3:46
Speaker 1: a collection of vibrators, you know. I just feel like
3:49
Speaker 1: I've really leveled up because I've had a couple of
3:51
Speaker 1: dildos in my life, like back in the day, and
3:54
Speaker 1: now i have a rose Cords dildo, and I'm just like,
3:58
Speaker 1: can I get any better than this? It's very Latin honestly,
4:05
Speaker 1: I mean Latina Latin looks aesthetics. It's so funny. I love.
4:10
Speaker 1: Twenty years from now, there's going to be some kind
4:13
Speaker 1: of a mood board or something, the holographic pinterest of
4:17
Speaker 1: the future, and this is going to be like Latin
4:21
Speaker 1: x looks. Yes, cat rings, podcast, attire, Fashionova, highways to jeans,
4:30
Speaker 1: all of it. Yes, love it, love it. Okay, So
4:34
Speaker 1: you can check out and get your own Rose Course
4:36
Speaker 1: dildo at the Blue Me or your own vibrator and
4:38
Speaker 1: other products that they have such as um intimate care products,
4:44
Speaker 1: the condoms, lubricants, tampons, pads, all of the goodies that
4:50
Speaker 1: you want to use. They sent me this really great,
4:53
Speaker 1: like very gentle like oil, the Lady Sweet Oils. I
4:59
Speaker 1: love that one. Because and especially so for those of
5:02
Speaker 1: you who, um, maybe if you wax or you get sugared,
5:06
Speaker 1: or even if you shave down there. I have found
5:09
Speaker 1: that for any whatever the hair removal process, like using
5:11
Speaker 1: the oils down there, has just been really great, you know,
5:15
Speaker 1: very gentle because you can buy like oils, like if
5:19
Speaker 1: you at your waxing place, you know, to like prevent ingrowns.
5:23
Speaker 1: I feel like this does the same the same job. Yes,
5:27
Speaker 1: I love it. That's a really good oil. It feels
5:28
Speaker 1: really great. It feels great. Our next Latina owned business
5:32
Speaker 1: that we have a beautiful collaboration collaboration with is Viva Cosmetics.
5:36
Speaker 1: You know they make all the bessel proof lippies I'm
5:38
Speaker 1: currently weren't beautiful. It's one of their mate lipsticks. Yes,
5:46
Speaker 1: it looks beautiful. So Locomotives get your Viva Cosmetic products
5:52
Speaker 1: at fifteen percent off your order. The code is locomotives.
5:55
Speaker 1: So once again, check out Viva Cosmetics with the code
5:58
Speaker 1: locomotives for fifteen percent off your order. Yes, and remember
6:03
Speaker 1: to donate to us if you have any extra funds
6:07
Speaker 1: in your account. Um, get your man to donate to us. Yes,
6:11
Speaker 1: actually I would pro for it if you find a
6:13
Speaker 1: man to donate to it. I agree, Um, that would
6:16
Speaker 1: actually be a really great way to finess someone at
6:18
Speaker 1: a bar. I love that. Should probably just go out
6:21
Speaker 1: and do that. Now, that should be a social experiment
6:23
Speaker 1: that we do. How many men at the bar can
6:26
Speaker 1: we get to donate to our podcast? That's actually really great.
6:29
Speaker 1: It's a different kind of crowdfunding. I think that we
6:31
Speaker 1: should do that, and I'm here for it. Yeah, all right,
6:34
Speaker 1: so you can vendo us a look at that a
6:35
Speaker 1: dash radio. If you recall our last coupy deal, we
6:38
Speaker 1: shared a hot mess of a store we were in Chicago. Um,
6:42
Speaker 1: and you know what, I'm not gonna like that may
6:43
Speaker 1: happen again. It will probably happen again in the future.
6:46
Speaker 1: I hope we're never that broke again. But let's be honest,
6:48
Speaker 1: we probably will be that broke an. But maybe let's
6:51
Speaker 1: put it out there that it won't happen again. But
6:54
Speaker 1: life happens. Life happens, and no matter what that this is.
6:57
Speaker 1: The thing is like, when you're resourceful, you can finesse
7:00
Speaker 1: whatever zero dollars in my bank account. Bet we're still
7:04
Speaker 1: going to have a great day. Right. You know, Sometimes
7:07
Speaker 1: when I'm really broke. I like to think like you
7:09
Speaker 1: know what, and I'm stressed about it. I like to
7:11
Speaker 1: think like, you know what, I've done a lot more
7:13
Speaker 1: with a lot less, you know, and that kind of
7:15
Speaker 1: just keeps me grounded, like, Okay, I'm going to get
7:18
Speaker 1: through this. I have, I'm good, it's gonna be fine. Fine.
7:22
Speaker 1: And the funny thing too, is like with all the
7:23
Speaker 1: different apps, so like you could have like your Venmo
7:26
Speaker 1: and a little bit of a balance there, right, or
7:29
Speaker 1: if you have different savings apps and maybe a little
7:31
Speaker 1: bit of a balance there. I just feel like there's
7:34
Speaker 1: these little money apps and then or if you have
7:36
Speaker 1: a PayPal, you forget you have little pockets of money.
7:38
Speaker 1: And that's happened with me. Yeah, It's like finding twenty
7:41
Speaker 1: bucks in your literally in your literal genes, only it's digital.
7:44
Speaker 1: It's digital, like, oh I did I have twenty dollars?
7:47
Speaker 1: I could do anything? Yeah, you know. Mom and I
7:50
Speaker 1: have been talking about how like when it comes to money,
7:52
Speaker 1: it's almost like you don't you can't see it. So
7:55
Speaker 1: I don't have like a well, I do have a
7:56
Speaker 1: savings account, but I have I also use an application
7:59
Speaker 1: that will take money and just save it for me
8:01
Speaker 1: and I don't have to look at it. Um, and
8:03
Speaker 1: that is one thing that I have used and been
8:06
Speaker 1: able to save. It's not such it No, it's helpful.
8:09
Speaker 1: It's hard to save money yea. Um. But yeah, anyways,
8:12
Speaker 1: so hit the venmo look at dash radio. Thank you
8:14
Speaker 1: to those who did donate after hearing that story. Um,
8:18
Speaker 1: it might be a little loud in here because there's
8:20
Speaker 1: a book reading going on. Um, we're really happy about
8:23
Speaker 1: this book reading going on. But just f y I
8:26
Speaker 1: and just a little reminder to like, subscribe and comment
8:29
Speaker 1: on Apple podcast, listen on Spotify and audio boom, visit
8:32
Speaker 1: our website, look at the radio dot com, and follow
8:35
Speaker 1: us on Twitter. And I g at look at Underscore Radio. Yes,
8:39
Speaker 1: love us out loud, y'all because the algorithm is working
8:41
Speaker 1: with us. I was shadow band bitches and like listener
8:44
Speaker 1: dm me to tell me that same DM that same
8:46
Speaker 1: listener dammed me too. Um. I checked my d ms
8:50
Speaker 1: later that day and I saw that it was very interesting. Well,
8:52
Speaker 1: we're going to get into that right now. Right, so
8:54
Speaker 1: we're going to get into our segment of Oya. Lookas
8:57
Speaker 1: and y'all know that this is one of our favorite
9:00
Speaker 1: segments Honestly, it's always a good time listen y'all, like
9:04
Speaker 1: we want. I posted a little rant about this on
9:07
Speaker 1: my story recently. We are a fem centered podcast, Survivor centered.
9:11
Speaker 1: We really only have fems, queer folks, women on this
9:15
Speaker 1: podcast as far as interviews go, like, we really don't
9:18
Speaker 1: step outside of that. We have never had assist het
9:22
Speaker 1: man on this podcast. We have never neither as a guest. Um, no,
9:28
Speaker 1: we just haven't. Like they're just not our demographic, you
9:30
Speaker 1: know what I mean. Outside of the project though, like
9:33
Speaker 1: you know, men are people to like we recognize that,
9:37
Speaker 1: Like I would like to be able to support and
9:40
Speaker 1: pick up Latinos and men of color who are doing
9:44
Speaker 1: cool things in the world. But we try, we'll try
9:49
Speaker 1: and put our support behind someone and you know, the
9:51
Speaker 1: internet is quick, and then right away someone lets us know, oh,
9:54
Speaker 1: actually this Latino has allegations of sexual assault, rape of miners,
10:01
Speaker 1: that that that that that, so we have to pull back.
10:04
Speaker 1: So these are the questions we have to ask ourselves.
10:07
Speaker 1: It's like, you know, the the the investment, it's a
10:12
Speaker 1: risky investment, right, like the r o I s you know,
10:16
Speaker 1: pretty low because it turns out that these men have
10:20
Speaker 1: some type of skeleton in their closets, right, they're actually abusers,
10:24
Speaker 1: they're perpetrators, they're you know, it's just it's a mess.
10:27
Speaker 1: It's a mess. And it's just like why we don't
10:30
Speaker 1: necessarily align ourselves with any men publicly, because then what
10:34
Speaker 1: happens or even just you know, behind closed doors or
10:36
Speaker 1: behind closed doors even in our private lives. We do
10:39
Speaker 1: not align with men. No, I'm like, I don't even
10:41
Speaker 1: align with my father loom Like, No, it's so true.
10:47
Speaker 1: It's honestly safer and wiser, and I think a better
10:50
Speaker 1: business and community cultivation practice to align ourselves with women, folks.
10:56
Speaker 1: It's the only it's the only way, yeah, I mean,
10:59
Speaker 1: and that isn't to say that like you know, blah
11:01
Speaker 1: lah lah. Yes, women can be abusive to we know that.
11:05
Speaker 1: I'm same, the same with queer folks, Like definitely. However,
11:08
Speaker 1: the biggest perpetrators tend to be sis hetero men of
11:12
Speaker 1: any type of abuse, any type of predatorial behavior, violence, violence,
11:17
Speaker 1: rates of homicide. Yeah. So before anyone is like, well,
11:21
Speaker 1: I don't know, don't even don't even you know that,
11:24
Speaker 1: we recognize that, don't start don't do it. Don't start
11:27
Speaker 1: with us. So yeah, and anyways, they also don't need
11:30
Speaker 1: our little platform. Like like we've talked about, uh, women
11:35
Speaker 1: of color we have a hard time getting written about,
11:37
Speaker 1: We have a hard time getting pressed. Men do not
11:39
Speaker 1: have the same difficulties. Yeah, there are plenty of Latino
11:43
Speaker 1: X journal Latino journalists. Have they ever hit us up
11:47
Speaker 1: or emailed us? Absolutely not, absolutely not. So if that's
11:50
Speaker 1: you listening, fucking send us an email, send us an email,
11:53
Speaker 1: send us an email. Once again, we will we will
11:56
Speaker 1: discuss the fact that only women of color have written
11:58
Speaker 1: about us, only women of colorjournalists have written about us
12:01
Speaker 1: our interview guys, who's coming up next has more to
12:03
Speaker 1: talk about with that regard with press and journalism and
12:07
Speaker 1: women of color getting um right ups or not. And
12:11
Speaker 1: so this is another reason why we focus on women
12:13
Speaker 1: of color is because men just have far more access
12:16
Speaker 1: in the journalism space, in media coverage. They don't need
12:20
Speaker 1: our little fucking platform to get their project off the ground.
12:22
Speaker 1: So that's also to say, if you are a straight
12:25
Speaker 1: man and you've been deming us your work, don't because
12:28
Speaker 1: we're not going to look at it. We're not going
12:29
Speaker 1: to bring you on the podcast. This is not for you. Know,
12:32
Speaker 1: like you know, there's plenty of other podcasts and you know,
12:35
Speaker 1: collective spaces for y'all to be featured in, and this
12:38
Speaker 1: is just not the one. This is it, you know,
12:40
Speaker 1: go literally anywhere else? Yeah literally yeah, yeah, Okay. Anyway,
12:45
Speaker 1: So going back to AYR Loca. Oh yes, the question right,
12:49
Speaker 1: So the question is, UM, what books are you currently reading? Yes,
12:54
Speaker 1: so UM, thank you for this question. So right now,
12:58
Speaker 1: I've been reading UM by Amandel Cantata. And Amandeal Cantata
13:07
Speaker 1: is a journalist, one of the women of color journalists
13:09
Speaker 1: right who's out here doing the damn thing. And Amanda
13:13
Speaker 1: Um writes and reports for UM Media with Maria you know, Josa.
13:23
Speaker 1: And Amanda Um published this book, Chula, and she sent
13:26
Speaker 1: us a couple of copies. So I read it and
13:29
Speaker 1: I loved it. And what I really loved about Amanda's
13:32
Speaker 1: book Tula is the way that she weaves in her
13:35
Speaker 1: Dominican Spanish into all of the poetry and the pros
13:39
Speaker 1: and the memoir and it really gives it UM just
13:42
Speaker 1: a really different energy when you're reading it, when you're
13:45
Speaker 1: walking through it UM. The way that she lays out
13:48
Speaker 1: visuals and she describes things. It really is very beautiful.
13:52
Speaker 1: So I really enjoyed reading it. Yeah, I've picked it
13:55
Speaker 1: up and I haven't finished it, but I do like
13:57
Speaker 1: how she also incorporates like music to it, and like
14:00
Speaker 1: if you can definitely feel it even though you're reading it.
14:03
Speaker 1: It's like you can only I don't know, you can
14:04
Speaker 1: definitely just feel like the presence of the music and
14:07
Speaker 1: the culture within the store, within the poems. Yeah, it's beautiful.
14:11
Speaker 1: And I also like the way, similarly, how she jumps
14:15
Speaker 1: between English and Spanish and English and Dominican Spanish specifically.
14:20
Speaker 1: She also her upbringing, which she details in the book,
14:24
Speaker 1: is one of jumping between the United States and d
14:27
Speaker 1: R Right, So like having this experience having lived in
14:31
Speaker 1: both places um and back and forth, back and forth,
14:35
Speaker 1: and her mother being back and forth. And I think
14:37
Speaker 1: that's interesting as far as like identity development and culture
14:40
Speaker 1: and making friends and community. She talks a lot about
14:43
Speaker 1: like um, first love and first lust and her first
14:47
Speaker 1: time and things like that. Uh, this is a survivor
14:50
Speaker 1: centered podcast, and Amanda in Chula also talks about like
14:54
Speaker 1: some stocking that she's experienced, right and going into detail
14:57
Speaker 1: about that and how that affected her. So I was
14:59
Speaker 1: just really appreciated the body of work. Um. I thought
15:02
Speaker 1: it was really beautifully done. And we want to thank
15:04
Speaker 1: Amanda for sending us to read. Yes, thank you so much,
15:09
Speaker 1: Amanda for sending those copies over. We love to support
15:12
Speaker 1: women of color, artists, poets, all of the swords, you know. Um,
15:17
Speaker 1: and yeah, it's just really amazing to see all of
15:20
Speaker 1: the work that women are out here doing. Um. And
15:23
Speaker 1: you know, especially I really like to see work by latina's. Well,
15:28
Speaker 1: I like to see all work by latina's obviously, but
15:31
Speaker 1: I you know, I can enjoy as like a Latina
15:33
Speaker 1: living in l A, like reading the work of latinas
15:36
Speaker 1: on the East coast of the of Caribbean descent. You know,
15:39
Speaker 1: I just think it's it's also such an important narrative
15:42
Speaker 1: to have within the conversations that we may not have
15:45
Speaker 1: direct access to. Not that Caribbeans aren't out here, but
15:49
Speaker 1: just thinking about the communities that I'm in, like on
15:51
Speaker 1: my Provian side and maybe on the Mexican Chicano side,
15:54
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So being able to see
15:57
Speaker 1: read a different type of narrative. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, und percent.
16:00
Speaker 1: And I think also to like, you know, um, Dominicans
16:04
Speaker 1: in the United States have just been really making their
16:07
Speaker 1: presence known and their impact, and whether it's Dominicans who
16:10
Speaker 1: are on the East Coast or Dominicans out here in
16:12
Speaker 1: l A. Like you know, Dominicans and Dominicanos are really
16:16
Speaker 1: like pushing culture and pushing things for it. I mean
16:19
Speaker 1: I think of like, obviously there's uh the kid Marrow
16:24
Speaker 1: just suck killing the game. We got Julisa, Julisa Danco
16:29
Speaker 1: da Polanco. There's plenty more. There's plenty more. I mean, Amanda, Amanda,
16:34
Speaker 1: you know, of course Dominican side of Kelly um Milania, Yes,
16:40
Speaker 1: Luisa who is a poet as well, who's um uh
16:46
Speaker 1: poet and friends with Yes, And I don't know, there's
16:50
Speaker 1: just so many d nasty I was going to say
16:53
Speaker 1: CLOUDI off, she runs the Mammy Chola Social Club in
16:56
Speaker 1: New York. Very cool, very like, just so many like
16:59
Speaker 1: dope dominica us in the game really like, as you're saying,
17:02
Speaker 1: creating culture, just making moves and yeah, it's just super
17:05
Speaker 1: cool to see, very cool to see. So keep it up.
17:08
Speaker 1: We love it, we support we support um and all
17:12
Speaker 1: that to say, if you are an artist or a
17:14
Speaker 1: creator and you're a woman of color, you're a fem
17:17
Speaker 1: of color and you're interested in maybe having your work
17:20
Speaker 1: discussed the review'm you know d MS emails radio dot com. Yeah,
17:25
Speaker 1: email us ola at look, I thought our radio dot
17:28
Speaker 1: com and we'll see what's up. But we'll see what
17:29
Speaker 1: we can do. Yeah, definitely. Um, one of the books
17:32
Speaker 1: that I just finished reading is you know, Sabrina and Cordina.
17:35
Speaker 1: So I'm really excited that we actually get to interview
17:37
Speaker 1: the author today the second half of the interview. UM,
17:41
Speaker 1: this book kind of just fell into my lap via
17:44
Speaker 1: social media because I was just looking for something to
17:48
Speaker 1: read and I had just ordered Poet X by Elizabeth
17:52
Speaker 1: Another Dominicana, and I was just looking for something I
17:56
Speaker 1: wanted to read something fiction. Short fiction is actually one
17:58
Speaker 1: of like my first loves when it comes to literature,
18:00
Speaker 1: and I wanted to read something by a Latina author.
18:03
Speaker 1: And I just saw a couple of people I think, yes,
18:05
Speaker 1: he guy for example, shared this book and that's just
18:09
Speaker 1: really how I came across it and just completely was
18:11
Speaker 1: enamored by her work. So definitely recommend that book. I've
18:15
Speaker 1: shared it on my Instagram a couple of times, and
18:18
Speaker 1: I mean, we're going to get to interview the author
18:20
Speaker 1: right now. Super exciting, Yeah, super exciting. So it just
18:24
Speaker 1: so happens, um that the author of you Know Sabrin
18:28
Speaker 1: is here ambol Heights doing a book reading and assigning
18:33
Speaker 1: at a spa. She's actually like doing it right now
18:35
Speaker 1: as a record as a record, So we're gonna bring
18:38
Speaker 1: her on to talk about her process and her work
18:41
Speaker 1: and her origins and all that good stuff. Yeah, yeah, alright,
18:45
Speaker 1: So I think we have one final question, and it's
18:49
Speaker 1: about Instagram and what do we think about the recent
18:53
Speaker 1: changes in Instagram? What is being shadow band mean? And
18:57
Speaker 1: how are we dealing with the algorithm? So we've noticed,
19:02
Speaker 1: and I think other of our friends who have run accounts,
19:05
Speaker 1: small businesses, projects, who are creatives have also noticed like
19:08
Speaker 1: really low engagement across platforms, but especially on Instagram, really
19:14
Speaker 1: low engagement. And I think there's multiple things happening. So
19:16
Speaker 1: I think, on the one hand, like I think every
19:18
Speaker 1: platform has its heyday and then a decline, and I
19:22
Speaker 1: think Instagram has now been around for long enough and
19:26
Speaker 1: has been impactful enough that we could maybe be just
19:29
Speaker 1: seeing that decline in the platform itself. A Facebook effect
19:33
Speaker 1: and MySpace effect. It happens, that's one thing, the other pieces.
19:38
Speaker 1: They are constantly making changes, like to the algorithm and
19:42
Speaker 1: what pushes the content onto someone's timeline or discover page.
19:46
Speaker 1: It's changing, it's changing, changing, um and I think it's
19:49
Speaker 1: just I think we're going to step into an era
19:53
Speaker 1: of Instagram and Facebook because they're owned by the same
19:56
Speaker 1: Facebook owned Instagram, right. I think what we're going to
19:59
Speaker 1: see is just a lot more paid content. So it's
20:02
Speaker 1: going to be more difficult for indie creators to really
20:04
Speaker 1: put their stuff out there because they're going to have
20:07
Speaker 1: to to get a lot of traction with their posts,
20:09
Speaker 1: because they're going to have to start paying for ads,
20:12
Speaker 1: which is not feasible for indie creators. You know, we
20:15
Speaker 1: just did our first actual in the three years we've
20:17
Speaker 1: never done a paid ad. We did our paid a
20:19
Speaker 1: paid ad for the brunch that we're hosting, just to
20:23
Speaker 1: kind of test it out and be like, does this
20:24
Speaker 1: even work? Is this an investment? I didn't actually see
20:27
Speaker 1: any significant difference in traction it did. I did see
20:33
Speaker 1: from the analytics that it did reach a lot of
20:35
Speaker 1: people that were necessarily following us, but that doesn't necessarily
20:38
Speaker 1: translate the ticket sales, you know, because I mean I
20:41
Speaker 1: don't know about y'all, but like, I don't know if
20:43
Speaker 1: I'm going to go to a brunch for folks that
20:45
Speaker 1: I don't know, you know what I mean. Like the
20:48
Speaker 1: community that comes out are y'all our listeners, and y'all
20:50
Speaker 1: bring your people that become new listeners, you know what
20:53
Speaker 1: I mean. So I don't know if that necessarily works
20:56
Speaker 1: for us, but we tested it out just to see it,
20:59
Speaker 1: and I don't think GET really made a difference. Neither
21:01
Speaker 1: do I UM. I think that part of the reason
21:05
Speaker 1: why the project has worked is because, like we've talked about,
21:08
Speaker 1: but our base, our demographic is mostly Latina as women
21:12
Speaker 1: of color in general, and the way that we find
21:15
Speaker 1: out about things is by word of mouth and by
21:16
Speaker 1: telling each other. So somebody told somebody check out, check
21:20
Speaker 1: this out, brought them in, invited them into the space,
21:23
Speaker 1: and now we're community. So the ads has just never
21:26
Speaker 1: been really part of our business model. It really hasn't
21:29
Speaker 1: getting strategy at all. No, no, So I just yeah,
21:33
Speaker 1: it's I don't know if sad is the right word.
21:36
Speaker 1: It's more disappointing to see that it's going to become
21:40
Speaker 1: even more It is already becoming more difficult for indie
21:42
Speaker 1: creators to get their stuff out there. But I think
21:45
Speaker 1: it's also a really important reminder that we can't use
21:48
Speaker 1: just one platform that we don't actually even own to
21:53
Speaker 1: like get our followers, to get our community. Like it's
21:57
Speaker 1: just I think just shows us that we really need
21:59
Speaker 1: to own whatever it is that we're creating and where
22:01
Speaker 1: we're putting it. You know so, I think like our
22:05
Speaker 1: website isn't really fully um it's not fully complete. Like
22:10
Speaker 1: our website is just it's up and running. You can
22:12
Speaker 1: get like the basics of like where to catch our
22:14
Speaker 1: next event, where to listen to our latest, but it's
22:17
Speaker 1: definitely not done, you know. So I just think it's
22:19
Speaker 1: an important reminder that, like, wherever you're going to have
22:22
Speaker 1: your content live, like make sure that it's somewhere that
22:25
Speaker 1: you own it, if that's a website, a newsletter, whatever
22:29
Speaker 1: that may be. Because at the end of the day,
22:31
Speaker 1: like we don't own Instagram. No. Digital real estate is
22:34
Speaker 1: a real thing. Digital real estate is a real thing.
22:37
Speaker 1: And it's like right now we're like renting or borrowing
22:40
Speaker 1: our space on i g um, and you know it
22:43
Speaker 1: was only going to be free for so long because
22:46
Speaker 1: nothing is truly free. No, And then I think it's
22:48
Speaker 1: like they saw like the impact Instagram and Facebook like
22:52
Speaker 1: saw the impact and like, oh, we can actually be
22:54
Speaker 1: making money off of this free account because yeah, sure
22:57
Speaker 1: it's free to have an account, but now to actually
23:01
Speaker 1: get traction with your with your post, with your feed, like, well,
23:04
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to pay an ad yeah, And I, um,
23:07
Speaker 1: you know, so on the topic of shadow banning, right,
23:10
Speaker 1: So I got a d M. Um, so we each
23:12
Speaker 1: got d m s and from a follower listener who's
23:16
Speaker 1: been supporting us for a few years now and who's
23:20
Speaker 1: just kind of been around, and uh, he said, you know,
23:23
Speaker 1: I haven't been seeing your post on my feed. I
23:27
Speaker 1: think you've been shadow banned. So I screen shot that
23:30
Speaker 1: d M and I sent it to the l side
23:31
Speaker 1: and we're like, what the fund is shadow banning? So
23:33
Speaker 1: the aside doesn't search for like a definition what a
23:37
Speaker 1: shadow banning? Let me pull that up. Um. Well, also,
23:41
Speaker 1: you know, it became kind of apparent what was going
23:44
Speaker 1: on because yesterday as well, I saw Joanna from the
23:48
Speaker 1: Unapologetically Brown Girl or unapologically Street series. She um shared
23:57
Speaker 1: something about that, and it says creatives don't let algorithms
24:02
Speaker 1: discourage you from creating and sharing your purpose, your work.
24:05
Speaker 1: Your reach is bigger than Instagram. It's in the folks
24:07
Speaker 1: you've touched and the incredible gift within you that continues
24:10
Speaker 1: to grow and deserves to be made. Absolutely and and
24:14
Speaker 1: then the caption is Instagram is playing everybody's shadow, banning accounts,
24:18
Speaker 1: deleting accounts, specifically POC centered accounts. Right. So this is
24:23
Speaker 1: a thing, right because multiple people are noticing um listener
24:28
Speaker 1: like d m s s to tell us about it.
24:29
Speaker 1: I've had other friends tell me I didn't even know
24:31
Speaker 1: this event was going on. I haven't seen your stuff
24:34
Speaker 1: in my timeline at all. So it says Instagram shadow
24:37
Speaker 1: band is a band that renders your hashtags undiscoverable by
24:40
Speaker 1: the vibrant users. Only your followers will be able to
24:43
Speaker 1: see your feed, and not the entire Instagram community. It's
24:46
Speaker 1: easy to know if you've been shadow band. Search your
24:48
Speaker 1: post under the tags and see if they appear. So
24:50
Speaker 1: I did that. I went and I searched hashtag. Look
24:53
Speaker 1: at our radio our hashtag? So I go to search
24:57
Speaker 1: it and I see that the top posts, but the
25:02
Speaker 1: top post under the hashtag we're not from the look
25:05
Speaker 1: at the account, like the first three interesting our post
25:08
Speaker 1: that like Julisa's when she posted our flyer, hers was
25:13
Speaker 1: the first one that came wow, and she has a
25:15
Speaker 1: big account and that yeah, and even though like that
25:18
Speaker 1: flyer was posted a while ago. Now this week when
25:21
Speaker 1: I checked, hers was the first and I had a
25:24
Speaker 1: recent post. My most recent post is from Cat Dahlia's
25:27
Speaker 1: interview and I had hashtag look at the radio. So
25:30
Speaker 1: I checked the hashtag look at our radio. My post
25:33
Speaker 1: is not up there. Interesting, So I'm like, yeah, a
25:36
Speaker 1: bitch has been shadow bands and like, I don't know
25:38
Speaker 1: how it happens or what how do you get swept
25:41
Speaker 1: up in it? Into it? All this to say, if
25:44
Speaker 1: you're creating, if you're using Instagram, don't keep all your
25:47
Speaker 1: ship on there by yourself a website started Google slides like,
25:51
Speaker 1: start to archive your stuff elsewhere and let people know
25:54
Speaker 1: where else they can find you. We're really lucky because
25:57
Speaker 1: we do have like we have Apple podcasts. We have
26:00
Speaker 1: to you a boom like our content. The actual podcast
26:03
Speaker 1: is not located on Instagram. It's just where we share
26:06
Speaker 1: about the podcast and we've cultivated community there. So you know,
26:10
Speaker 1: just thinking about your own work like, how can you
26:13
Speaker 1: decentralize it from I definitely necessary? Alrighty, So we're going
26:17
Speaker 1: to move into a quick shout out from our sponsors.
26:21
Speaker 1: If you can hear getting a little loud, that's is
26:25
Speaker 1: talking in the background. He's introduing Gali because she does
26:28
Speaker 1: have a book signing right now. So we're going to
26:30
Speaker 1: move on to a word from our sponsors. You scroll down,
26:37
Speaker 1: it should be there, it's not there. Therapy Yeah, okay,
26:42
Speaker 1: so we wanted to shout out one of our sponsors,
26:45
Speaker 1: Therapy for latin X. She is a online database making
26:51
Speaker 1: it easy to find a latin X therapist, mental health advocate,
26:56
Speaker 1: or counselor in your area. And you know, we're all
26:59
Speaker 1: about the mental a glow up globe in every way,
27:02
Speaker 1: and we really think it's really a valuable resource to
27:05
Speaker 1: have a Latino Center directory for mental health. So make
27:08
Speaker 1: sure you check out the registry, yes, and find a
27:12
Speaker 1: therapist near you. Yeah, definitely. You know, having a therapist
27:16
Speaker 1: that you can culturally relate with and understand is really important,
27:19
Speaker 1: So definitely check out Therapy for latin X. Yes, So
27:24
Speaker 1: we are going to move into a song break. We
27:26
Speaker 1: want to introduce our guest, our interview guys before we
27:30
Speaker 1: get into our song break, because we do have a
27:32
Speaker 1: really exciting author with us today. Yes, so we have
27:36
Speaker 1: the author Callie Fajardo and Steen, and she is from Denver, Colorado.
27:40
Speaker 1: Her fiction has appeared in the American Scholar, Boston Review,
27:45
Speaker 1: Bellevue Literary Review, the Idaho Review, Southwestern American Literature, and elsewhere.
27:50
Speaker 1: She is going to be talking about her new book,
27:53
Speaker 1: Sabrina and Corina. So Callie's magnetic story collection breathes life
27:59
Speaker 1: into her indigenous Latina characters and the land they inhabit,
28:03
Speaker 1: set against the remarkable backdrop of Denver, Colorado, a place
28:06
Speaker 1: that is as fierce as it is exquisite. These women
28:09
Speaker 1: navigate the land the way they navigate their lives, with caution, grace,
28:14
Speaker 1: and quiet force. So we're gonna bring Kali on or
28:18
Speaker 1: Casa bell Ros and and and and and and and
28:31
Speaker 1: and and and and and um um um um um
28:54
Speaker 1: um um um of it and all right, and we
29:04
Speaker 1: are back. We are so excited to be welcoming Gali
29:09
Speaker 1: into the studio today. Hi hi, hi, thank you for
29:13
Speaker 1: joining us. Can you please just give our listeners a
29:16
Speaker 1: quick intro For those of our listeners who maybe are
29:19
Speaker 1: new to your work. Awesome, Yeah, I'd love to. Um. So,
29:22
Speaker 1: my name is Collie Fajardo Anstein and I'm from Denver, Colorado.
29:26
Speaker 1: I am the author of the debut short story collection
29:30
Speaker 1: Sabrina and Corina, that was just published in April from
29:33
Speaker 1: One World Penguin Random House. UM. I have been writing
29:37
Speaker 1: stories since I was a child. I've always wanted to
29:40
Speaker 1: be a writer, and um yeah, I'm just so excited
29:42
Speaker 1: to have my first book in the world. And I
29:44
Speaker 1: also have a novel that will be published student from
29:47
Speaker 1: One World, Um probably the next year or two. That
29:51
Speaker 1: is amazing. I am a big fan of your work.
29:54
Speaker 1: Recently finished Sabrina and Corina and just immediately fell in love.
29:58
Speaker 1: And you're actually here today for a book side naing
30:00
Speaker 1: correct and a reading. Yeah, I'm so excited. So it's
30:03
Speaker 1: kind of funny. Um. Back in like I don't know,
30:05
Speaker 1: I was like fifteen or sixteen years old, I had
30:08
Speaker 1: a friend on my Space that now is my friend
30:10
Speaker 1: on Instagram that's like followed me throughout my my social
30:13
Speaker 1: media life. But he was like, you have to get
30:15
Speaker 1: into this place called Espasio. So I started like looking
30:18
Speaker 1: into Espasio a long time ago. So it's just sort
30:21
Speaker 1: of like coincidental and blissful that I get to be
30:24
Speaker 1: here and give a reading today. I'm really excited. I
30:27
Speaker 1: love that, and I love how full circle that is
30:30
Speaker 1: because we talk about our social media usage all the
30:33
Speaker 1: time and like meeting each other on Instagram and meeting
30:35
Speaker 1: other creatives online and how like it just brings great
30:39
Speaker 1: minds together. I love that. Yeah. Yeah, And Yosima is
30:43
Speaker 1: actually the one that organized all of this, correct, is
30:46
Speaker 1: that your friend or is that just no? I used
30:48
Speaker 1: my friend now the internet of course, So so two
30:51
Speaker 1: people really like kind of orchestrated, yes in a way, right. Yeah.
30:56
Speaker 1: And a lot of what I've seen Sabrina and Karna
31:00
Speaker 1: being posted online and things, it's just a lot of
31:03
Speaker 1: the push behind this book has come from the bottom
31:06
Speaker 1: up instead of like coming from huge media outlets telling
31:10
Speaker 1: people what to like. I'm seeing it on social media
31:12
Speaker 1: and I think that's where that's where it lives, and
31:15
Speaker 1: that's where I'm happy to live to. I mean, we
31:17
Speaker 1: can definitely relate to that to like the community really
31:20
Speaker 1: pushing you and pushing your work forward, and um, a
31:23
Speaker 1: lot of stuff for a lot of our art, a
31:25
Speaker 1: lot of our work is shared via word of mouth,
31:27
Speaker 1: So even the post is somewhat like a digital word
31:30
Speaker 1: of mouth, right, people sharing it, posting it, and then
31:33
Speaker 1: other people looking into it, following it, loving it, sharing
31:35
Speaker 1: it again. That Yeah, Yeah, I'm really interested in hearing
31:40
Speaker 1: more from you about like the role that that sort
31:44
Speaker 1: of model you described, pushing from the bottom, how that
31:48
Speaker 1: role in mash with social media and the internet has
31:50
Speaker 1: gotten you to where you are today in the process. Yeah,
31:54
Speaker 1: so it's kind of interesting. So in the literary world,
31:57
Speaker 1: I haven't had like the big publications like The New
32:00
Speaker 1: York or The Atlantic. I've had really good publications, but
32:03
Speaker 1: I haven't had like the giant magazines. And a lot
32:05
Speaker 1: of the time the hype will come from New York
32:08
Speaker 1: City as the center and then trickled down from there um.
32:12
Speaker 1: And there were times when I was like super depressed
32:14
Speaker 1: over this, like I have to quit writing. I can't
32:16
Speaker 1: get into these magazines, I can't get into this space.
32:19
Speaker 1: But what's ended up happening is I was able to
32:21
Speaker 1: get into on Random House, which is, you know, obviously
32:24
Speaker 1: like one of the biggest publishers in the world. I
32:26
Speaker 1: think it is the biggest publisher in the world. Thank you,
32:31
Speaker 1: and that was like this huge moment in my life,
32:34
Speaker 1: and I think that distribution and having all those eyes
32:37
Speaker 1: on my book really helped. But then I needed to
32:40
Speaker 1: still have that grassroots push because I still wasn't getting
32:43
Speaker 1: in these big, big magazines and these big outlets. So
32:46
Speaker 1: there were times when I was like, the book had
32:48
Speaker 1: just come out, I wasn't seeing a lot of I
32:50
Speaker 1: wasn't seeing any national coverage. But what ended up happening
32:54
Speaker 1: are you know, big social media influencers like the Locals
32:59
Speaker 1: podcast us, and they started pushing my book and posting
33:03
Speaker 1: out on stories. And then from that, you know, Latina
33:06
Speaker 1: actresses were starting to push my book and post it
33:09
Speaker 1: and from there I was just seeing sort of spontaneous
33:12
Speaker 1: wildfire of like, we love this book, We're going to
33:16
Speaker 1: take this book under our wings, and no one told
33:17
Speaker 1: us to like it. We like it ourselves. Before we
33:21
Speaker 1: started recording, UM, we kind of started having a conversation
33:25
Speaker 1: about journalists and newsrooms and if there are no people
33:30
Speaker 1: of color in the newsroom, no women of color in particular,
33:33
Speaker 1: are projects by women of color going to be covered.
33:35
Speaker 1: So it just seems like what you just shared, how
33:38
Speaker 1: many Latinas are at the New Yorker writing stories about
33:42
Speaker 1: Latina authors. Yeah, we we don't know. I don't I
33:45
Speaker 1: don't know. I don't think it's very many. But I
33:47
Speaker 1: will tell you something that's interesting that happened. So I
33:50
Speaker 1: was profiled on Bustle and that was my biggest at
33:53
Speaker 1: the time that happened. That was like my biggest coverage.
33:56
Speaker 1: It was a Latina editor who found it and pushed it.
33:59
Speaker 1: And what about for the New York Times because I
34:01
Speaker 1: know you were featured? Was that also a Latina writer?
34:04
Speaker 1: She was a woman of color. Yeah, she was a
34:06
Speaker 1: woman of color. And one thing I did know about
34:08
Speaker 1: the review, which I'm very happy with it. Um, it's
34:11
Speaker 1: one percent of books ever published again in New York Times,
34:13
Speaker 1: So I am very stoked in that one. But she
34:16
Speaker 1: did not mention that my characters are Latina's and I
34:19
Speaker 1: thought that was very interesting. Um. So I'm in these pages,
34:21
Speaker 1: but I'm still like, we don't know what this is,
34:24
Speaker 1: you know, interesting. So basically our hypothesis is just proven correct,
34:34
Speaker 1: yeah continuously. Um. So you know, you have your debut novel,
34:38
Speaker 1: your I mean your debut short stories, um, and I
34:41
Speaker 1: like am so enamored with the book, with all of
34:44
Speaker 1: the short stories because you really just you're writing about women,
34:48
Speaker 1: and you're writing about their stories and what, of course
34:51
Speaker 1: what they go through, and there's almost this underlying tone
34:55
Speaker 1: of violence against women, but how it's just so normalized
34:59
Speaker 1: and you know, be because we're a survivor podcast, we
35:01
Speaker 1: are a fem centered podcast. I wanted to discuss that
35:04
Speaker 1: and what that process was like for you writing about
35:07
Speaker 1: these women, writing about these stories, but also, um, still
35:12
Speaker 1: having some sense of power and being empowered through it. Yeah, definitely.
35:17
Speaker 1: So that's one of the questions I get a lot,
35:19
Speaker 1: And you know, the truthful answer is I had to
35:22
Speaker 1: write about what I knew, and I grew up watching
35:25
Speaker 1: a lot of violence. I grew up steeped in generations
35:27
Speaker 1: of violence, hearing stories that I didn't really understand why
35:30
Speaker 1: I was being told those stories, And later I thought, Okay,
35:34
Speaker 1: maybe this is some instructions for my own life or
35:36
Speaker 1: a warning or that kind of thing. Um. But being
35:40
Speaker 1: around violence makes you feel very isolated and lonely because
35:43
Speaker 1: you're not able to always go and share with somebody,
35:46
Speaker 1: especially when you're taught don't tell anybody what's happening, don't
35:49
Speaker 1: talk about this. UM. So I think in some ways,
35:53
Speaker 1: writing Sabrina and Karina in a story like Sabrina and Krena,
35:57
Speaker 1: for example. You know, there was a woman in my
36:00
Speaker 1: my community who had been killed when she was fifteen
36:02
Speaker 1: years old, and I remember being a little girl going
36:04
Speaker 1: to her funeral and just not having anywhere to put
36:08
Speaker 1: that pain like what. I couldn't talk to my family
36:11
Speaker 1: about it. It was just something I had to accept.
36:13
Speaker 1: So I think in some ways, writing this book and
36:16
Speaker 1: talking about a lot of the violence that I have
36:18
Speaker 1: witnessed in my own life and that people have told
36:20
Speaker 1: me that they have they have come from it, healed
36:23
Speaker 1: me in some ways, and I'm hoping by being able
36:26
Speaker 1: to share these stories, it's creating healing out in the world,
36:29
Speaker 1: um larger than just me. And some of the you know,
36:32
Speaker 1: some of the comments I've gotten is this book is
36:34
Speaker 1: too sad, or why are you focusing on all this violence?
36:38
Speaker 1: And you know, the basic answer that I can give
36:42
Speaker 1: is that I have to make what I have the
36:44
Speaker 1: compulsion and the obsession to make, and it comes out
36:48
Speaker 1: of a deep place, and it comes from generations of pain,
36:51
Speaker 1: and this is all I you know, Hopefully my work
36:53
Speaker 1: will start to take on different tones as I grow
36:55
Speaker 1: as an artist. But this is the first one, and
36:58
Speaker 1: this is what I have to share with the world.
37:00
Speaker 1: Love it. I mean, I wonder too, um because it
37:03
Speaker 1: sounds like the writing is so personal and it's come
37:06
Speaker 1: from like sourced over the years. If there were any
37:09
Speaker 1: family or community members who like had difficulties with these
37:12
Speaker 1: stories being shared on such a large scale. Yeah, So
37:16
Speaker 1: I think it's kind of interesting. Because I write fiction,
37:19
Speaker 1: I'm able to have this mask over what's happening. And
37:23
Speaker 1: I actually like one of my cute little stories of
37:25
Speaker 1: growing up is I I kept a diary for years
37:28
Speaker 1: and years and my mom found it and I was
37:30
Speaker 1: talking about like wanting to kill myself because the boy
37:32
Speaker 1: didn't like me, and just like emotions to me that
37:36
Speaker 1: were normal, and she was so upset, like she was like,
37:40
Speaker 1: we're gonna have to put you in therapy all these things.
37:42
Speaker 1: And I thought, Oh, if I'm going to get in
37:43
Speaker 1: trouble for talking about these real emotions, I'm going to
37:46
Speaker 1: start lying. And that's when I started writing fiction. Um. So,
37:50
Speaker 1: I think in some ways people aren't able to see
37:52
Speaker 1: where I'm pulling from. So a lot of my work
37:56
Speaker 1: their composites of my own life organized in a way
38:00
Speaker 1: that serves the plot of the story. UM. So the
38:03
Speaker 1: story Sisters that set in the nineteen fifties, um where
38:06
Speaker 1: a character is brutally attacked, that is based on one
38:09
Speaker 1: of my ancestors. That was based on my antidote. She
38:12
Speaker 1: died before I was born. I never met her, but
38:14
Speaker 1: I felt hurt. I could feel her spirit, I could
38:16
Speaker 1: feel her talking through me. But I moved the story around.
38:20
Speaker 1: I moved the plot around, and in that way, I
38:22
Speaker 1: think I'm honoring her by sharing this violent act that
38:25
Speaker 1: happened to her. But I'm also, you know, not revealing
38:28
Speaker 1: things that I don't even know about. You know, I
38:30
Speaker 1: have to be able to create art um from all
38:34
Speaker 1: these different, these different facets in a way. Yeah, you know.
38:39
Speaker 1: And I think hearing you talk, what I'm hearing is
38:44
Speaker 1: healing the ancestral trauma through the artwork, which I think
38:47
Speaker 1: is kind of the mood of all artists right now,
38:49
Speaker 1: at least artists of color. Right That's definitely I feel
38:52
Speaker 1: a conversation that's being had is how can we collectively
38:55
Speaker 1: heal all of this ancestral trauma through our art, through
38:58
Speaker 1: our poetry, through whatever means. You know. Yeah, It's something
39:03
Speaker 1: I didn't even know I had, you know, like it
39:05
Speaker 1: wasn't like I was like eight years old and I
39:07
Speaker 1: was like, oh, here's the story about anti Toti being
39:09
Speaker 1: blinded again, that concestral trauma. I did not know what
39:12
Speaker 1: that was. It was just some sort of story my
39:15
Speaker 1: auntie would launch into every once in a while. And
39:17
Speaker 1: my mom has these, you know, these stories of violence
39:19
Speaker 1: as she went through that she would just launch into.
39:21
Speaker 1: And I didn't know what PTSD was, you know, I
39:23
Speaker 1: didn't have the vocabulary for it. Yeah, And I think
39:26
Speaker 1: that that's like similar, Um, like in our families, where
39:29
Speaker 1: are the women? And our families will tell these really
39:32
Speaker 1: share these really intense stories and then move on to
39:34
Speaker 1: something else, as if it's not intense, you said, if
39:36
Speaker 1: you weren't just like going through something hearing that story. Um,
39:40
Speaker 1: And yeah, I mean there's definitely something there. There's something
39:43
Speaker 1: too at to that. Yeah. I think. Um. I consider
39:48
Speaker 1: like the violence against women that especially women of color
39:51
Speaker 1: experience generationally, that we almost um come to look at
39:56
Speaker 1: it as very normal and like, well, these are just
39:58
Speaker 1: the social dynamics that we live with. And I think
40:01
Speaker 1: it takes a lot to actually stand in it and
40:04
Speaker 1: say not actually this is sucked up, Like, let's talk
40:06
Speaker 1: about it in specific terms. Let's call it violence, let's
40:10
Speaker 1: call it aggression, and let's call it abuse, like, let's
40:13
Speaker 1: name it for what it is, right, Like, my grandmother
40:15
Speaker 1: will just be passing under her breath, Like there's a
40:18
Speaker 1: story that she'll share randomly, and it's not when she
40:21
Speaker 1: tells it, it doesn't seem traumatizing to her, but it's
40:24
Speaker 1: about how she ended up having to pistol whips some guy.
40:27
Speaker 1: You know, well, what was he doing? I don't know
40:29
Speaker 1: what happened. I don't know, but it must have been bad, right,
40:32
Speaker 1: But it's very just in passing just under her breath.
40:35
Speaker 1: And so to take things like that and then build
40:37
Speaker 1: the picture around it, right, And it sounds like that's
40:40
Speaker 1: sort of what you've done with your book. Yeah, And
40:43
Speaker 1: I love that you both were like, you know what,
40:45
Speaker 1: I'm talking about these stories like this, and I am
40:48
Speaker 1: also I'm fascinated with storytelling. So storytelling comes up in
40:51
Speaker 1: every single story, the way that story moves between families,
40:55
Speaker 1: the way that tales are distorted. Um In Sabrina and Karna,
40:59
Speaker 1: the grandmother a character. You know, she's a pillar of strength,
41:02
Speaker 1: but she's also pushing this um this violence in a
41:05
Speaker 1: way by just you know, we're going to tell a
41:07
Speaker 1: story about it. Now. You know, she they say in
41:10
Speaker 1: that family, Sabrina didn't love herself enough and she loved
41:13
Speaker 1: men too much. I mean, these are actual phrases I
41:16
Speaker 1: heard people in my family say. And then they just
41:18
Speaker 1: move on. They're like, oh, yeah, well, this is what's
41:21
Speaker 1: on TV right now. That that's definitely like the victim
41:23
Speaker 1: blaming narrative, right It's like, oh, she, you know, she
41:26
Speaker 1: was a you know what else? What else did really
41:29
Speaker 1: really see coming? You know? So, Um, I'm wondering if
41:34
Speaker 1: you have any anything you want to share about the
41:36
Speaker 1: journey from beginning to writing to getting it published. Because
41:39
Speaker 1: there's a lot of Latina creatives who listened to our podcast. Um,
41:43
Speaker 1: you know, we're an indie project. A lot of the
41:44
Speaker 1: women in our community have like their small businesses, their poets,
41:48
Speaker 1: they're writing, their actresses, they're performing. What would you like
41:52
Speaker 1: to share with with folks like that who are trying
41:54
Speaker 1: to get their work off the ground. My biggest advice
41:58
Speaker 1: is not to give up. And the reason I say
42:01
Speaker 1: this is because there were so many times I was
42:03
Speaker 1: on the brink of just like, I can't do this.
42:05
Speaker 1: I'm running out of money, nobody will publish me, I'm
42:08
Speaker 1: being told that my my work is not good enough
42:11
Speaker 1: for these certain kinds of magazines. And there were just
42:14
Speaker 1: so many times that I felt like I have to
42:16
Speaker 1: stop UM and just you know, try to find strengthen
42:20
Speaker 1: yourself and during those times, and take solace in the
42:23
Speaker 1: stories of those whom you admire, those artists and creatives
42:26
Speaker 1: who have succeeded, because very few of us get there
42:30
Speaker 1: from zero to one hundred, like we have so many
42:33
Speaker 1: stops along the way, and then it seems like you've
42:36
Speaker 1: gone really far um in a short amount of time,
42:39
Speaker 1: but you can't see the trail leading up to that
42:41
Speaker 1: and how jagged it was. UM. So one of the
42:45
Speaker 1: stories that I've shared is that there was a time
42:48
Speaker 1: in my life where I had dropped out of my
42:51
Speaker 1: first m f A program, my first creative writing program.
42:54
Speaker 1: And I'm a high school dropout, so I already had
42:56
Speaker 1: the stigma in my family and you know, this dropout
42:58
Speaker 1: that quits things over and over again. But the reason
43:00
Speaker 1: why I had I had dropped out. And this is
43:03
Speaker 1: something that I just started sharing recently because a former
43:05
Speaker 1: student of mine said, why don't you tell the truth.
43:08
Speaker 1: I had been attacked by a male student in my program.
43:11
Speaker 1: I went to the administration. They said they would not
43:13
Speaker 1: remove him from my classes. And I was like, I'm
43:15
Speaker 1: gonna I'm gonna end my writing career here like this
43:18
Speaker 1: is there's no space for me. I can't get any
43:21
Speaker 1: in anywhere else. Um, So I dropped out. I went
43:25
Speaker 1: back home to Colorado and Sandra Cisneros was reading at
43:29
Speaker 1: my college campus. And I had been so depressed over
43:32
Speaker 1: that decision to leave, and she was. She was up
43:34
Speaker 1: there giving a reading, and then she stopped and she
43:36
Speaker 1: talked about how she had been so depressed at times
43:38
Speaker 1: in her career that she had even considered suicide. And
43:41
Speaker 1: I thought, if she would have done that, I wouldn't
43:44
Speaker 1: have had one of my major guiding lights. So think
43:47
Speaker 1: about yourself is like you are a guiding light. You
43:50
Speaker 1: just don't know it yet, and you are like revealing
43:53
Speaker 1: the path for so many people coming behind you. Thank
43:56
Speaker 1: you for sharing that. That's beautiful. Yeah, thank you so
43:59
Speaker 1: much for sharing that. That's that's important because I you know,
44:02
Speaker 1: often we see so much of the successes, we see
44:05
Speaker 1: the amazing press coverage, the amazing reviews, like I know
44:09
Speaker 1: sans she's on the back of your book, she like
44:11
Speaker 1: left a review, I gave you a review. So, but
44:15
Speaker 1: also to hold space for the really difficult times in
44:18
Speaker 1: the creative process and throughout the careers. Right, Yeah, it's not.
44:23
Speaker 1: I mean it's so up and down from day to day,
44:25
Speaker 1: and then once your work is in the world, you
44:29
Speaker 1: have to be prepared for how the public is going
44:31
Speaker 1: to respond, which causes a whole new set of insecurities
44:35
Speaker 1: and emotions that you didn't even know you could deal with.
44:38
Speaker 1: So I think the path prepares you for what you're
44:42
Speaker 1: facing when you actually make it to where you think
44:45
Speaker 1: you need to be, and the I mean the path
44:47
Speaker 1: is ongoing. You never truly make it. You always have
44:50
Speaker 1: made it, but you never truly make it. Yeah. Absolutely,
44:54
Speaker 1: that's I felt that. I'm like the whole last like
44:57
Speaker 1: two or three minutes, I'm like, okay, I need I
44:59
Speaker 1: need a drink. It's good though, No, yes, it's exciting,
45:03
Speaker 1: Like there's always more work to be done, there's new
45:05
Speaker 1: obstacles to overcome. Um, I'm curious about like things like
45:11
Speaker 1: respectability politics, when you go from being independent and then
45:15
Speaker 1: now like you're saying the work is out there, it
45:17
Speaker 1: is being covered, it is being picked up people responding
45:20
Speaker 1: to it. How have you have you failed to shift
45:22
Speaker 1: in how you carry yourself or how you talk or
45:25
Speaker 1: I'm really interested in that that process. This is funny.
45:28
Speaker 1: Like an old friend of mine, he he runs a
45:30
Speaker 1: boxing gym in Denver. He like DM me and he's like,
45:33
Speaker 1: you always look so fine now, And I was like, okay,
45:36
Speaker 1: I was like yeah, I was like but he I
45:39
Speaker 1: was like, I have to go and be a public
45:41
Speaker 1: person now, Like it's like I have to go and
45:44
Speaker 1: dress myself up and you know, present myself. So just
45:47
Speaker 1: like you know, that shift and knowing that I am public,
45:50
Speaker 1: that when I give a reading there's going to be
45:52
Speaker 1: I hope, like ten cell phones at least, like recording me,
45:55
Speaker 1: taking photos and just having that awareness, but also being
45:58
Speaker 1: more mindful of what I say, um and making sure
46:01
Speaker 1: that I don't say harmful things, that I don't say
46:04
Speaker 1: things that show some of the ignorance that I grew
46:06
Speaker 1: up with that I have had to work hard to
46:07
Speaker 1: get rid of, and owning a lot of my shortcomings
46:11
Speaker 1: and just being honest about who I am and that
46:14
Speaker 1: way I don't come across as somebody who thinks are
46:17
Speaker 1: better than they are or arrogant anything like that. I
46:20
Speaker 1: just I am here to help other people with my
46:23
Speaker 1: work and knowing that and using that as my guide,
46:27
Speaker 1: that is what That's what I'm trying to do and
46:29
Speaker 1: put that work into the world and put that energy
46:31
Speaker 1: into the world. That's beautiful. You have such a beautiful spirit,
46:36
Speaker 1: just like sitting across from you, like you're just so
46:38
Speaker 1: beautiful inside and out. Since we're talking about the d
46:42
Speaker 1: M S, I wonder, I wonder, um, do you feel
46:47
Speaker 1: that people from you already eve one example, like the
46:50
Speaker 1: men from either your hometown or you grew up are
46:52
Speaker 1: now in the d M slash our fans in the
46:56
Speaker 1: d M S, and like, how do you navigate that?
46:59
Speaker 1: So I this is like a new thing for me.
47:02
Speaker 1: So for a long time on Instagram, rested like at
47:04
Speaker 1: a thousand followers, and now it's like increasing exponentially, and
47:09
Speaker 1: I'm like, well, what's going on? There's so many eyes, um,
47:12
Speaker 1: But I try to respond. I literally try to respond
47:14
Speaker 1: to every nice note, to every picture at least with
47:16
Speaker 1: like a heart or tap or something, just to let
47:19
Speaker 1: them know I see you, I see you engaging with
47:21
Speaker 1: my work. Because like I said, this is coming from
47:24
Speaker 1: the bottom up. It's not coming from everybody was like, oh,
47:26
Speaker 1: this is a New York time supposed tollar. I have
47:28
Speaker 1: to get that book. So just making sure that my
47:30
Speaker 1: readers and my my fans know that I support them
47:33
Speaker 1: and I care about them. Um. But again, I think
47:37
Speaker 1: that social media it has become a job for me
47:39
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways. So I need to be
47:41
Speaker 1: writing a novel. You guys like I have another book
47:44
Speaker 1: coming out, and so there have been times where I'm like,
47:47
Speaker 1: I can't go in line today. It's going to be
47:48
Speaker 1: too much of a time sec. It's going to take
47:50
Speaker 1: away from my creative energy. And so holding sort of
47:53
Speaker 1: like office hours like when I was a professor or
47:56
Speaker 1: a lecturer. I wasn't not a professor. When I was
47:59
Speaker 1: a lecturer, I would have my office hours, and I
48:01
Speaker 1: kind of think of the same way, like d ms
48:03
Speaker 1: are open right now, this is when I'll respond to
48:05
Speaker 1: this window. And I did my first ask me anything
48:09
Speaker 1: on Instagram the other day and I just set aside
48:12
Speaker 1: time that day and this is what we're going to
48:14
Speaker 1: engage with and this is how you know it's going
48:16
Speaker 1: to be very cool. I love that I think we
48:19
Speaker 1: should borrow that idea of the office hours, that's when
48:21
Speaker 1: we respond to the messages and the d M. That's
48:24
Speaker 1: a great idea. Yeah, we'll give credit. UM. I had
48:30
Speaker 1: another question and just left my mind. Well, okay, I'm
48:33
Speaker 1: kind of jumping back again. But you know, you share
48:36
Speaker 1: the story about experiencing basically gender based violence in your
48:40
Speaker 1: program and how that affected your education the trajectory, and
48:44
Speaker 1: you know, I think this is a survivor centered podcast.
48:46
Speaker 1: We do talk about sexual assault violence against women quite
48:50
Speaker 1: often when it's relevant, right, And I think it's um
48:53
Speaker 1: really interesting to discuss like the me too movement in
48:55
Speaker 1: all these different industries and fields. So we had a
48:58
Speaker 1: musician here the other day. We talked about the me
49:00
Speaker 1: too movement in the music industry. So I'm wondering if
49:04
Speaker 1: on your end, if this is something that are people
49:08
Speaker 1: talking about this, is there a shift in behavior or
49:11
Speaker 1: men behaving better? Are people afraid? Like what is going on?
49:15
Speaker 1: Tell us? Yeah? So there definitely has been a me
49:17
Speaker 1: too movement in UM literature. There's been some major figures
49:22
Speaker 1: who were taken down UM like Juno Dias, Sherman Alexei.
49:26
Speaker 1: And it's kind of interesting because the Sherman Alexei thing.
49:28
Speaker 1: It's like you still see his books everywhere, and I
49:32
Speaker 1: think it's kind of similar with the dias situation. Um.
49:36
Speaker 1: What it's done, I think on a personal level is
49:39
Speaker 1: my network now is mostly women of color, and we're
49:43
Speaker 1: able to support each other without having to outsource two men.
49:46
Speaker 1: And my editor is a woman of color. Yeah, my
49:51
Speaker 1: editor is a woman of color, my agents a Jewish woman,
49:55
Speaker 1: and I just I feel like it's very rare. If
49:58
Speaker 1: you look at the blurbs on my book, I have
50:00
Speaker 1: one man. There's one man who blurbed me, and so
50:03
Speaker 1: it kind of feels like, I don't I don't need
50:06
Speaker 1: to interact with you as much as I thought I
50:08
Speaker 1: had to in order to get to where I need
50:09
Speaker 1: to be. Nobody's asking me who I slept with to
50:12
Speaker 1: get this book published, because because they can look and
50:15
Speaker 1: see like, oh, she just loved with a bunch of women,
50:17
Speaker 1: I guess to get this book published. Um. So yeah,
50:21
Speaker 1: I think it's just it's created a space where there
50:23
Speaker 1: can be a lot more women supporting women, and we
50:26
Speaker 1: don't have to defer to positions of power that were
50:29
Speaker 1: traditionally held by men. Um. There was a very there's
50:32
Speaker 1: a very famous literary journal, to Paris Review. For years
50:36
Speaker 1: and years a lot of people had heard stories of
50:38
Speaker 1: the former editor. He was taken out by the Me
50:40
Speaker 1: Too movement. He was somebody who rejected my stories in
50:43
Speaker 1: the past. So maybe maybe I have I can try again.
50:47
Speaker 1: You should definitely try again. So just seeing women take
50:51
Speaker 1: on positions of power in the literary world, that's been
50:54
Speaker 1: super exciting. I don't think a book like mine would
50:57
Speaker 1: have the traction it has um prior to Me Too,
51:01
Speaker 1: and that I'm just I'm really excited about that. I'm
51:04
Speaker 1: sorry that women are being able to have, you know,
51:06
Speaker 1: bigger say in literature. Yeah, it's really exciting because it's
51:10
Speaker 1: kind of like plot twist. We don't actually need men
51:13
Speaker 1: to make our projects or business is successful. There are millions,
51:17
Speaker 1: billions of women in the world who have jobs, who
51:19
Speaker 1: are consumers, who read. I can imagine that's a podcast
51:24
Speaker 1: to invest on their own. We don't need really men
51:27
Speaker 1: investing in that way. No, And I was, you know,
51:30
Speaker 1: I was reading this statistic recently about just let the power,
51:33
Speaker 1: the buying power that Latinas have just in general, and
51:36
Speaker 1: how when a Latina finds a product or something that
51:39
Speaker 1: she likes, she will literally share it with every single
51:43
Speaker 1: you know. So going back to the word of mouth,
51:45
Speaker 1: it's like Latina's really truly like our culture shifters, influencers
51:51
Speaker 1: and their own right without having like the big Instagram,
51:53
Speaker 1: blue check or you know what I mean, Like really
51:55
Speaker 1: are moving the markets. Whether white people want to see
51:59
Speaker 1: it or not, but I think that they are paying
52:00
Speaker 1: attention now to the to the power and the influence
52:02
Speaker 1: that we have. Yeah, one of the coolest things I
52:05
Speaker 1: have seen. So a lot of my readings have been
52:07
Speaker 1: in non traditional spaces because I don't have a budget
52:10
Speaker 1: for a tour from the publisher, like I fund my
52:13
Speaker 1: own tour. So it's out of the question for me
52:16
Speaker 1: to fly to Houston and just do a reading at
52:18
Speaker 1: a bookstore. It has to be a purposeful choice. Um,
52:21
Speaker 1: but something that's been really interesting. So I've done um
52:24
Speaker 1: community theater for Latina's where I've had a book club meeting,
52:28
Speaker 1: and I did a recent book club meeting and this
52:31
Speaker 1: this young Latina she brought she bought five books. It's
52:34
Speaker 1: a lot of money, Okay, it's a lot, and she
52:37
Speaker 1: was like signed signed into all my friends, like all
52:40
Speaker 1: my home girls get a book. And I'm like what,
52:43
Speaker 1: And I've had like little old men come and buy
52:45
Speaker 1: one for all their daughters. I'm like, you can read
52:47
Speaker 1: it too. But that's adorable. Yeah, that's amazing. Damn, we're
52:54
Speaker 1: really out here. It's so exciting. It's so freaking exciting.
52:57
Speaker 1: And I'm wondering, Um, so you did mention you have
53:00
Speaker 1: a novel that you're working on. Is there any teasers
53:03
Speaker 1: that you would like to share about your upcoming work? Yeah?
53:06
Speaker 1: So my So, my upcoming novel is basically, I took
53:11
Speaker 1: the family migration story from northern New Mexico southern Colorado
53:14
Speaker 1: to Denver and I fictionalized it. And I knew I
53:17
Speaker 1: wanted to tell the story since I was a little girl,
53:19
Speaker 1: because again, this was one of the stories that the
53:22
Speaker 1: elders just told over and over again, the big walk,
53:25
Speaker 1: like when we left the country where we were the
53:28
Speaker 1: majority and we came up to the city and it
53:30
Speaker 1: was a completely different landscape. Um. So it is a
53:34
Speaker 1: story that starts in eighteen ninety and it looks at
53:36
Speaker 1: this sort of genesis generation, their wild West performers, their
53:40
Speaker 1: native Mexican and then they start mixing with Europeans and
53:44
Speaker 1: then because of racial violence. They're sort of a fall
53:47
Speaker 1: with that generation, and then it takes a look at
53:50
Speaker 1: the next generation living in Denver in the nineteen thirties
53:52
Speaker 1: during the depression. UM, and I'm really excited because there's
53:55
Speaker 1: so many people. It doesn't happen very often. But a
53:59
Speaker 1: big reason I'm creating the work I'm creating is because
54:02
Speaker 1: I felt invisible my whole life. I felt like people
54:05
Speaker 1: didn't know we existed. People from northern New Mexico, southern
54:08
Speaker 1: Colorado that you know, have this complicated ancestry. And I'm
54:12
Speaker 1: just really excited that I get to have this national,
54:14
Speaker 1: international platform to talk about my ancestors and my heritage
54:18
Speaker 1: and when I come from beautiful that's amazing. So thank
54:23
Speaker 1: you so much for chatting with us today. For folks
54:25
Speaker 1: that want to support your book, UM, that want to
54:28
Speaker 1: purchase one, that want to follow you, where can they
54:30
Speaker 1: do that? So the best way to purchase my book
54:33
Speaker 1: is to ask your independent bookstore to carry it. If
54:36
Speaker 1: they don't already carry it. Most independent bookstores will do
54:39
Speaker 1: special orders. UM. You can also get it online through
54:42
Speaker 1: the traditional places, but I'd like to suggest bookstores. UM.
54:46
Speaker 1: I'm really active on Instagram and it's CALLI maha um
54:49
Speaker 1: k A l I m A j A and you
54:52
Speaker 1: can kind of follow me on Twitter, but like I
54:54
Speaker 1: don't really like the GRAMA is where it's at. Definitely
54:59
Speaker 1: all right, Well this has in another cup. You look
55:01
Speaker 1: at thought. Our radio is always you know where to
55:02
Speaker 1: find us on Apple, on Spotify, on audio Boom, check
55:06
Speaker 1: us out on Instagram at look at Underscore radio, hit
55:09
Speaker 1: our Venmo, look at the dash radio. Check out the
55:12
Speaker 1: website radio dot com. You know what to do. You
55:14
Speaker 1: know what to do already, look at what as. We
55:16
Speaker 1: will catch you next times