#give me the Mexican AND Indian representation I DESERVE

[kuramirocket]

Created by Elizabeth Ito, the animated series City of Ghosts explores the history of different neighborhoods in Los Angeles through friendly ghosts that make the past of this metropolis real. Our guides into these adventures, created in documentary style, are a diverse group of children, the Ghost Club, who navigate each encounter with curiosity and compassion.

For episode six, focused on Koreatown, the creators recruited professor Felipe H. Lopez, a Zapotec scholar to help them portray the Oaxacan community of L.A. With Ito and producer Joanne Shen’s support, Lopez brought authenticity to the depiction of certain visual elements, such as the grecas de Mitla, geometrical designs specific to the Indigenous people of Oaxaca. More importantly, he voices an animated version of himself, as well as Chepe, a lovable alebrije ghost at the center of the story. Lopez’s dialogue is both in English and Zapotec.

A native of the small Oaxacan community of San Lucas Quiaviní, where the vast majority of the population speaks Zapotec, Lopez has become a binational bastion in the preservation of this Indigenous language and the culture it gives voice to. He came to the United States when he was 16 years old speaking mostly Zapotec. He learned English first and then he worked on improving his Spanish while at Santa Monica Community College.

In 1992, Lopez got accepted into University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the Latin American studies program; he has restlessly devoted himself to preserving the identity of the Zapotec diaspora, which has been present in the United States since the days of the Bracero program. Lopez first found support in linguist Pamela Monroe with whom he created the first trilingual Zapotec dictionary, which was published in 1999 via the Chicano studies department at UCLA. Today he is a postdoctoral scholar at Haverford College.

Below, he expands on his life’s work and the significance of the positive mainstream representation of Indigenous peoples.

What was the impulse or situation that made you realize you wanted to dedicate your professional life to preserve the Zapotec language and culture?

There’s always this relationship between economic gains with language. I saw how a lot of families in the Oaxacan community were raising their kids. Even if they didn’t speak Spanish fluently, they wanted to teach their kids Spanish rather than Zapotec. In a sense, they didn’t see a lot of usefulness in teaching their kids Zapotec. Interestingly, some of them actually were teaching their children the little English they knew. They even skipped teaching them Spanish. The parents would speak with each other in Zapotec but then would talk to the kids in English.

Being a college student back then and thinking about those things made me realize that the language was being lost and being substituted by either Spanish or English. At that moment I thought, ‘Maybe my language is going to be lost. I’ve got to do something about it. Even if it is just to leave a record. I want it to at least be known that we spoke this language at one time.’ That’s what really drove me to seek out somebody to help me because I’m not a linguist. Ever since then, we’ve been creating a lot of open source materials in Zapotec for people to use. We now have dictionaries. We’ve really used the technology in order to make our language, our culture, and how we are visible. City of Ghosts is another component that continues the work we started in 1992.

One of the interesting things about Indigenous languages is that sometimes they are not seen as real languages. You have this battle against the established ideology that Indigenous languages are not really languages. It’s almost like being salmon going against the current, if you’re trying to preserve your language because there are very few spaces for you to use your language and it’s not being taught in public schools in Mexico. But I was fortunate to be able to teach one of the very first courses in Zapotec. In 2005, UCSD [University of California, San Diego] asked me to teach a course in Zapotec. We needed to create all the materials from scratch because unlike Spanish or English or French, which are the dominant languages, you have tons of materials. If you want to teach Spanish you can go to the library and you have tons of materials to teach. But for us as Indigenous teachers we really need to create materials.

Language is deeply connected to how a culture sees the world. In that regard, why do you think it’s necessary to protect and teach Zapotec and other Indigenous languages in Mexico?

A lot of our Indigenous knowledge is embedded in the language. For example, when I think about how we’re being taught math in school from a Western point of view, we have the decimal system of counting: 10, 20, so on. But in Zapotec we have a different counting system, which is a base 20. We do 20, 40, and 80. Sadly, in Mexico something people say, ‘Why do you want to preserve the language? It’s not even a language. It’s a dialect.’

Fortunately, last year, I think if I’m not mistaken, Mexico changed the constitution to recognize more than 68 languages spoken in Mexico as national languages. There has been a long struggle. I’ve been doing work both in the U.S. and Mexico. Currently I’m teaching a free course on Zapotec in one of the universities in Mexico, because I want to contribute. Indigenous languages are important because they represent our history. They represent our identity and the ways in which we see our surroundings. There are even words in Zapotec that I can’t even translate into Spanish because there are no concepts that are equivalent. They need to be explained.

With the constitutional changes that you mention and someone like actress Yalitza Aparicio inspiring conversations about racism in Mexico and across Latin America, do you believe we are on the brink of a deeper appreciation of Indigenous culture and language?

It’s interesting that you mentioned Yalitza because when she first came out people attacked her. They would say, ‘She’s an Indian. She doesn’t deserve to be there.’ It is the sentiment that has endured in Mexico and Latin America. It’s a colonial mentality. If you look at the soap operas and Mexican TV shows just about every single actor or actress is white. There has been a push historically for Mexico to aspire, to be white. We, as Indigenous people, have been perceived to be a problem for modernity. They feel like, ‘How can Indigenous people be modern?’

We tend to be very fluid and move into different cultures, into different eras. I can speak my language in my pueblo, but at the same time I can use the Internet and I can speak English.Being Indigenous is never a detriment.In Mexico, the dominant culture, the politicians and the [non-Indigneous] intellectuals, see us as something less than Mexican. They speak about Mexicans versus Indigenous people. I’ve always questioned that because they like to talk about Mexico’s Indigenous roots, yet ostracize and put us on the margin. When they speak about Indigenous communities, they tend to think of us in a museum because once you put us in a museum it means that we no longer exist. There is this contradiction in terms of where we are, where we fit in Mexican society. That’s why we’re pushing so hard to make ourselves visible.

Specifically speaking about Zapotec people, and other immigrants from Indigenous communities, in the United States, what are the major obstacles in resettling?

Indigenous immigrants go through two steps of assimilation, because a lot of us who move into the States, we bring our indigenous language and culture. But the dominant culture that exists in LA is a Mexican or Mexican American culture. It’s a mestizo culture and there’s Spanish. So we as Indigenous people first need to assimilate into that culture and then assimilate into the mainstream culture. We need to speak English, but we also need to speak Spanish. There are two steps of assimilation for us to even try to situate ourselves in mainstream American society.

Tell me about your experience working on such a unique show as City of Ghosts, which really digs deep into the cultural fabric of Los Angeles. What convinced you that this could be positive for Indigenous communities?

One of the things that I asked Joanne [Shen] was, ‘How much say do I have?’ Because I didn’t want to be there if they already had an idea and they just want me to emulate something. So she said, “No, we want to sit down with you and talk about what are some of the important aspects of Zapotec society and what is it that really impacts you guys? How do you see the world?” That was one of the most important things for me in order to agree to do the project.

We had several meetings in terms where they asked me questions. Once I looked at the whole script, not just mine but also those for the alebrije ghost Chepe and Lena who is voiced by Gala Porras-Kim, I made some changes according to how I felt it represented Zapotec culture. For example, tying the idea of the ghost with the idea of the nahual orthe alter ego in Zapotec and Mesoamerican culture, as well as the use of alebrijes and the colors, which properly represented Zapotec culture on the screen.

They were very sensitive and they wanted to get it right. I really commend them for that, because I’ve worked in projects where they don’t really care. They have an agenda. But for this project they were so attuned with me.I think that’s what makes City of Ghosts such an important program for kids and just for the public at large to understand who the Zapotec are, because when we think about the Mexican community we assume that everybody speaks Spanish. This program, and specifically episode six, will help people to at least begin to rethink Mexican society and that not all Mexicans speak Spanish. Not all of them are mestizo, but rather that we are a multilingual and multicultural society, and we are bringing that to the States. I hope it makes people at least curious.

One aspect prominently mentioned in your episode is how certain Oaxacan communities use a whistling language. Why was this a significant element?

To be honest with you, I have no idea where it came from, but as far back as I remember when I was a kid we would just whistle to communicate basic phrases to each other. Also when we go to work on the field and you see somebody far away, you whistle at that person just to get some information like, ‘How are you doing? What’s going on?’ Since, we didn’t have any phones back home then, we whistled to communicate, but it’s not entirely just Zapotec communities. There are other Indigenous communities in Oaxaca and Mesoamerica that use whistling as a means of communication. So when I was asked to be part of the show, I did a lot of whistling in the episode just demonstrating how we communicate and that we don’t need words. Whistling is another expression of language.

When you think about Angelenos you think about Mexicans or mestizos at the pueblo of Los Angeles. But we rarely talk about the Indigenous people in LA. By having the Zapotec people in this sho2, we begin to have this conversation go beyond thinking about this land only having Latinos, African Americans, and whites. There are these hidden multicultural societies here that have been fighting and resisting against all these forces.

One thing that is so interesting to me is that when we are on the margins, we tend to fight and resist at the margin to maintain our language and culture. So then by bringing us into the light and being visible, even by asking, ‘Where do you guys come from?’ We can say, ‘Well, we’ve been here all along. You just haven’t seen us.’ With these particular episodes on the Zapotec, all of a sudden some people might learn something. I’ve seen on Twitter the young Indigenous people express they feel so proud of the fact that Indigenous people are represented in this show. There’s something unique about this show, because it really brings some of the historical aspects of the composition of LA, specifically of the Pico-Union area.

The most important thing people should take out of those two episodes that talk about Indigenous communities, it’s the very first time that we see Indigenous communities well represented and not objectified, but just as human and what they do in everyday life. And also how we bring our traditions and cultures to some of the megacities in the world, coming from small communities, such as mine where we have about 1700 people, yet we are being represented in such an incredible episode.

City of Ghosts is streaming on Netflix.

[ashleychristina73]

I really need for y'all to stop blaming Black Panther 4 being more successful than your own movie

How about we leave the vilification of Black Panther and black people's support of Black Panther in 2018. Black panther did so well because black people as a whole came together and supported it. No matter where we were from. whether we were afro-latinas, Africans, African Americans, afro-Irish, afro-cuban, afro-indian and etc. it didn't matter we all came together to support a movie featuring predominantly dark skin black people.

Not to mention the fact that some of the movies that you guys are flaming didn't do as well as they should have because black people didn't support them as much as black panther are actually doing quite well. For instance Aquaman is doing exceptionally well. As of January 2nd 2019 Aquaman has grossed 846.3 million worldwide. So these Aquaman deserves more support post are absolutely ridiculous. Aquaman is doing amazing right now. People seem to love the movie it seems to only get good reviews. Y'all are honestly just looking for a reason to blame black people for something.

Now as for movies like Coco and crazy Rich Asians that is still not black people's fault. Like I said in the beginning black panther did so well because black people supported it. I remember when Coco first came out I'm afro-latina and I barely heard any Hispanic people talking about that movie whether they were Mexican or not. I also remember when crazy Rich Asians came out and I remember that most of the posts that I saw talking about crazy Rich Asians we're coming from non asians. There were barely any Asian people talking about supporting this movie. I barely saw any post saying that everybody who identified as Spanish or Hispanic no matter where they're from should go and see Coco. Like I did for Black Panther. And that is not black people's fault.

Coco only made 154.4 million worldwide. Crazy Rich Asians only made 238 million. Maybe instead of blaming the lack of success of your own movies on black people and black panther you should ask yourselves why didn't Asian people come out and support crazy Rich Asians like black people did? Why didn't Hispanic people and people of Spanish descent and anyone who identifies as Spanish come out and support Coco like black people? Our movie did so well because we supported it. And from that support we have started a movement. now film companies are busting their asses to put black people in their movies because they now see that when black people have proper representation we will come out in droves to support.

I am a huge believer in supporting all people of color and I absolutely adore Constance Wu and Jason Momoa. And when Coco,Aquaman and crazy Rich Asians came out I had and still have every intention of seeing them but I'm tired of y'all trying to act like black people should feel bad for supporting our own movies. I'm tired of y'all trying to Guilt us supporting your movies just because your people won't. If you want something you have to fight for it. That's something that black people we have known since forever. I think some of y'all need to start realizing that too.

For example the movie Ghost in the Shell didn't really make that much but one thing I will always remember about that movie is the way in which so many Asian people supported the whitewashing of an Asian character. I also remember how so many people of color especially black people came together and complained and protested the white washing of the movie on the behalf of Asian people and we ended up looking stupid. We cannot fight your battles for you. We can be allies and help you fight but we cannot fight your battles for you. The first step to changing things like this is to fight. You have to show companies that you will not support ,financially, colorism anymore. Black people have been fighting for representation and fighting just to be able to live and not get killed for years and years and years. Y'all need to do the same thing. Why do you think that suddenly so many companies in the west and oversees all around the world are starting to include darker skin tones in their shade ranges? why do you think that so many movies are starting to include darker people? Because they now see that failing to do so can and WILL lose them money.

EDIT: and for the record I'm not looking for an amen corner. I don't give a f*** whether or not you agree with me or not. So if you start some sort of argument with me over my opinion be well aware that you will be arguing by yourself. I dont care. Also if you were not one of the people making those type of posts then this post is obviously not aimed at you. Reading is fundamental people. I

[adultswim2021]

Minoriteam #2: “Tribe and Prejudice” | March 20, 2006 – 12:00AM | S01E02

When most people do comedy based on a faulty premise, it usually doesn't work well. When I base comedy on a faulty premise it's subversive and impressive (see?). When Adam de la Peña does it, it's abysmal dogshit. This is abysmal dogshit.

I'm referring only to the intro bit of the episode, wherein the evil league of racist whatevers are trying to take down Native Americans. They do a little infographic that explains that they are in control of 10% of all sports logos and are making a killing off of kitschy wooden cigar store injun statues. Maybe it's a comment on how racist people have a perverted concept of representation. Maybe Adam de la Peña is an absolute imbecile. Actually, there's no question it's that, but could it be both?

Minoriteam is especially bad. I can't even follow it it's so bad. I'm not even sure what's happening from moment to moment because it's so abrasively unfunny and the storytelling is so shoddy. The last major concept that didn't cause me any confusion was also towards the beginning, involving a plot to shut down the construction of an Indian casino (using the parlance of a bygone era because, and I'm sorry, saying “Native American Casino” just doesn't sound correct to me! I acknowledge that I am standing on stolen platitudes, but it's the truth). The reason for stopping construction has to do with the discovery of a ancient pilgrim burial ground. A mildly clever reversal, but what do you WANT me to start giving Adam de la Peña points? He doesn't even deserve the gift of life.

This one has Chinese Dana Snyder being addicted to gambling? And then there's a part where they are testing the bones of the pilgrim to determine weather or not they are real and he takes a big bite after not being satisfied with the quack bone expert they take the bones to. From biting it he can tell it's a dog bone. This is the only thing that made me smile in the whole episode, not for the racist joke but the idea of a man, any man, chomping on a bone and it making a big cartoony chomp noise is fun.

There is another part where the Mexican guy in the Minoriteam is being held at the border trying to enter the USA. Does this happen in every episode? The thing is, he's as his alter ego who's just a clean-cut Mexican guy in a suit, and I had no idea what any of this had to do with the plot. I didn't know he was a Minoriteamer. Maybe I missed it. I'm guessing the shoddy storytelling is to blame. I was dumbfounded when he finally transformed into his superhero alter ego in front of the border patrol.

Speaking of things that make no sense: the main villain guy makes a joke at the very end about not delivering his line that he always delivers at the end of the episode. This joke, aside from it not being very original, also doesn't make that much sense because THIS IS THE SECOND FUCKING EPISODE. Man, fuck this show.

[forgetmenotthatstheanswer]

I just want to take a moment to Recognise the beauty and Relevance of sense8 - An Open Letter to you, Netflix

I have been with this show since the beginning.

I was home alone one night, and saw it pop up on the top of my Netflix screen. I googled it first, and read that the general consensus was that the show was a bit odd and not particularly good. I flicked past it on Netflix, couldn't find anything else to watch, had dinner, and decided to sit down and try the first episode.

I watched the first season within three days.

Sense8 is perhaps the most beautiful show I have ever watched, alongside shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Six Feet Under.

In the current climate of popular television, popular shows are usually one of two things (or a combination of both): they are extremely negative and cynical, and they are more about shock or twist than substance. Think about it: shows like Game of Thrones, as an example, are almost entirely about the dark side of humanity, psychopaths, manipulators, violence, sexual violence, death, destruction. The television landscape is often bleak, emotionally cheap, lacking in artfulness.

Sense8 is the antithesis of that. Sense8 is a television show that is explicitly and unapologetically about how diversity is our strength, love and compassion are our superpowers, and fear is our enemy. It is not a show that wants to suggest to us that we, as human beings, are inherently evil. It is not a show that wants to reel you in through shallow twists or gore or suicidal ideation. It is a show that says to each viewer: 'Can you feel your own humanity? It's right there, come with us into this story, and feel your humanity again'.

It is a show about Kala, an Indian woman who is equally dedicated to science and religion. It is a show about Nomi, a trans woman who is capable, happy, dedicated, loyal, clever. It is a show about Capheus, a man from Nairobi who is endlessly positive in the face of adversity. It is a show about Lito, a Mexican man who wants to entertain you, who is brave, gay, and dramatic. It is a show about Sun, a Korean woman who will sacrifice even for those who don't deserve it. It is a show about Wolfgang, a German man who is living with trauma and trying to find himself underneath it. It is a show about Will, a cop from Chicago who will protect us at all costs. It is a show about Riley, a woman with endless empathy and strength, who can lose a husband and child and still have a heart full of love.

It is a show about us. The best of us, us being individuals and humankind. It is a show that, I think more so than any other show that is currently on television or has been on television perhaps in my lifetime and maybe yours, that demonstrates the true power of art. Art can heal us, art can move us, art can tell us stories and educate us about people and experiences we don't personally know or understand, art can bridge gaps, art can challenge preconceptions, art can make us brave, art can challenge fear, art can repair.

Sense8, for me, has been an important show, and a very necessary show. In a time when the political conversation across the world seems to turn on whether or not we should start separating from each other, whether or not we should fear each other, Sense8 has been there to show us why fear and separation are antithetical to love and joy.

Sense8 is also a show that has the most wholehearted and kind and careful representation of queer people and queer culture that I have seen on television. The show contains four openly queer characters, all of whom are happy, successful, fulfilled and loved. It is a show that has had no interest in playing into the stereotype, as is often found in television and film, that queer people are inherently unhappy.

I had never had any particularly strong feelings about Netflix before I watched the first season of Sense8. But Sense8 to me, was the embodiment of what I, at least thought, Netflix was about. Bringing programs to an audience, programs that were fearless and new and boundary pushing and actually interested in artistic integrity over profit or perceived return; that was what Netflix was to me.

I feel that in cancelling Sense8, Netflix has betrayed it's own philosophical vision and what I think is it's artistic integrity, and responsibility.

But mostly I feel that today, an opportunity and a light has left the world. Art, in our darkest times, is often one of our strongest allies, one of our strongest antidotes. Sense8 was not only a television show that people loved to watch, it was a television show that people needed to watch. It radiated joy, friendship, respect, global community, hope, empathy and decency. It was a television show that did not simply encourage our base, unrefined, animalistic tendencies towards competition and violence, but one that tried to remind us of the conscious choice we can make to be kind.

Sense8 wanted you to feel that the world, every individual within the world, was a part of your cluster; if only you could broaden your mind ever so slightly to the idea. Sense8 wanted you to know you were not alone in feeling hunted, in feeling tired, in feeling overwhelmed. Sense8 wanted you to know that together, if we try, and we use each other's knowledge and skill and perspectives, we can be better.

I want to thank the entire cast, crew, and creatives of Sense8 for trying to give us that light. I want to say I am disappointed in Netflix for not realising it's potential as not simply a company, but as a patron and distributor of 21st century art. I would also like to note that as a queer person, I no longer consider Netflix a 'network' that actually values the stories of people like myself - especially since there seems to be no indication of finishing this show with the respect the audience deserves.

I hope we can all remember what this show gave us. Be critical and clever like Nomi, strong but forgiving like Sun, positive and courageous like Capheus, protective and loyal like Will, open and joyful like Lito, dedicated to your mind and your heart like Kala, strong in yourself and unapologetic like Wolfgang, kind, empathetic and resilient like Riley.

Remember, that you can be a sensate, if you just try.