Deep in the heart of Aztlan, a small group of powerful Xicanas are making their voices heard around the world through a digital project called Xicana Chronicles.
Since it’s launch in July of 2014, Xicana Chronicles has inserted itself into global conversations as an “herstorical archive” documenting the experiences of 21st century indigenous Xicanas.
Xicana Chronicles is described as another “Xicana-powered multimedia project” by Xica Media, the umbrella organization and passion project by Iris “Tejaztlana” Rodriguez, a longtime digital activist and Xicana artist from Texas. Her other digital works include End Family Detention, a trilingual “digital resistance” website making headlines for the Visions From The Inside collaboration with Culture Strike and Mariposas Sin Fronteras.
Xicana Chronicles is “a virtual space dedicated to the warrior sisters, hermanas en resistencia, the mamas, the healers, the movers and shakers, las xingonas and yes, the mañosas too. And through a small but powerful collective of Xicana artists and writers that share words on the site, Xicana Chronicles went viral and global, adding the narrative of indigenous Xicanas to conversations worldwide. It became part of a virtual codex that can never be burned.”
Joined on the Xicana Chronicles stage by community activists and artists such as Acaxochitl, Celeste De Luna, Noemi Martinez and Viva Flores, the project has reached across unimaginable and vast geographic divides, cultures and linguistic communities
Due to the success of the project, this week Xicana Chronicles launched their first IndieGogo campaign to crowdfund the publication of their inaugural set of 5 e-books.
Editor Iris Rodriguez had this to say:
“Since our launch in July 2014, Xicana Chronicles has blossomed into a virtual, home-based network collectively helping other wombyn warriors document, digitize, publish and share their stories.A lot of the sisters in our community are very powerful but are stuck in the 8-5 grind, working 3-4 jobs to survive, or volunteering in their communities towards positive change while struggling financially. Many hermanas keep journals, write poetry, do art and document reflections and lessons learned that need to be shared with the world, not kept hidden and stashed away in a journal that can never seem to turn into a book.”
Activist mom, blogger and artist Acaxochitl offered these words about her experience with Xicana Chronicles:
Writing and sharing my creative works with Xicana Chronicles this last year has shown me that my personal journey can empower Brown women in a direct way. What I hope to say is an unfiltered view of what it’s like to be Brown, conscious, and living in these times of political strife and racial tensions. Xicana Chronicles has given me courage to speak boldly from the heart. I am a mother of three and married to an undocumented immigrant. We have our share of struggles as this reality shapes every aspect of our life. For a long time, I felt it best not to speak too openly about our struggle. The stress of it all took its toll on my creative spirit. Through Xicana Chronicles I have found motivation and courage to speak up and to create work that is both healing and inspirational. These are love notes to the universe and to my mixed identity family. Despite our struggle, we are still here, feistier and stronger than before. Xicana Chronicles have given me the tools I need to:
- Create more positive & spiritually relevant works.
- Remind the world, that we, the children of the sun, are still here, and thriving.
- Give voice to those families like mine: Native American and Mexican. Documented and Undocumented.
The following is an excerpt from the Xicana Chronicles IndieGogo campaign page:
“Our individual and collective experiences, the ups, the downs, all those lessons learned, the tales of survival and even the mistakes matter. We can use that knowledge to avoid repeating mistakes or remaining in danger. Silence is an enemy.And historically we know all too well what happens when someone else writes our history books. We remember the burning and banning of our stories in our own ancestral lands. The loss and silencing of our perspectives and traditional ways has been used as a tool of war against us as “Latinos” and “Hispanics” with indigenous roots in the Americas, and in particular as wombyn.This project has helped push the conversation about our indigenous roots, experiences and lifeways into the more mainstream “Latino” and “Hispanic” sphere.We also realized we are having a global impact through the almost 20k visitors from 100 countries that have visited our site. And those numbers keep on growing.Our stories are being shared and discussed across vast geographic divides, cultures and linguistic communities. They are having a global impact.The Xicana Chronicles project is as an act of resistance and resilience and WITH YOUR HELP we can continue to share our stories in a global and meaningful way.We need your support to push Xicana Chronicles across the finish line by funding the completion of our first set of FIVE e-books.We currently have manuscripts for:
- two autobiographical, interactive e-books of Xicana experiences across spiritual, physical, political, legal and personal landscapes;
- a condensed reader and archival compilation of the Mission environmental justice campaign in the Rio Grande Valley, Texas;
- a compilation of contemporary Xicana Tejana art; and
- the Xica Media story how about using “rascuacha tech” can save the world.
We are asking for the support and apoyo of our relatives, friends and networks to help us birth this Xicana-powered and produced inaugural collection of 5 e-books.The completion date for this herstorical project is December 2015.
Please donate to Xicana Chronicles today!”
