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Queer Xicana Indígena Root Work: Opening Dialogue towards Decolonization
Aztlán—as a territory, imaginary, homeland, and concept of belonging—is understood from multiple, often contradictory and conflictual, perspectives. I articulate meditations as queer Xicana Indígena root work with a focus on land and race to illuminate the possibilities of healing susto (fright), defined as intergenerational trauma that can be traced to colonization. This is possible through trabajo (work) that aims to unsettle Aztlán’s settler colonial tendencies and to trace queer ancestry. I argue the knowledge formation that emerged as Chicano studies in the late 1960s has outgrown its patriarchal male signification and exclusionary mode of resistance. Some of the seeds of this necessary shift came from early urgings of Chicana feminisms, Chicanx Indigenism, and Xicana Indígena philosophy and practice. This queer Xicana Indígena root work is part of articulating an emerg ing dialogue around a vision of Xicana/x Indigenous studies that is grounded and aware of itself and consistently reflective in praxis. This talk meditates on the concept of susto profundo as a pathway to healing intergenerational trauma with the tools and philosophies offered by traditional medicine as a system of root knowledge. In part, I argue for a recognition of spirit praxis—a pathway of doing spiritual trabajo to remember ancestral knowledge and sabiduría Indígena that was left out of early Chicano studies or spoken of as folklore that was not rigorous or intellectual.
Susy Zepeda, Ph.D. is an associate professor in the Chicana/o Studies department at the University of California, Davis (Patwin land). Susy (she/they/ella) was born on Tongva lands in Monterey Park, California to Adela and Armando Zepeda, Mexican migrants from El Limon, Jalisco and Chínipas, Chihuahua respectively. Susy remembers often climbing el cerro (the mountain) as a child and visiting el rio in her mother’s hometown following the guidance of her abuelita, Rosario. Susy is a student rooted in remembering and practicing Traditional Indigenous medicine of this hemisphere, and more specifically of Mesoamerica. Susy is a former 5 th grade teacher for the Los Angeles Unified School District, and from 2013-2014, Zepeda was a Visiting Assistant Professor with the Social Justice Initiative at UC Davis.
Dr. Zepeda’s scholarly work is intentionally transdisciplinary, decolonial, and feminist in a community-centered and grounded way. Her research and teaching focus on: Xicana Indígena spirit work, decolonization, critical feminist of color collaborative methodologies, oral and visual storytelling, and intergenerational healing. She established two courses at UC Davis, Decolonizing Spirit and Food Justice. Dr. Zepeda’s writing appears in the 2019 anthology Voices from the Ancestors: Xicanx and Latinx Spiritual Expressions and Healing Practices, and in 2020 published the essay, “Decolonizing Xicana/x Studies: Healing the Susto of De-indigenization” in Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies as part of the Dossier: Fifty Years of Chicana Feminist Praxis, Theory, and Resistance. Susy’s first book, Queering Mesoamerican Diasporas: Remembering Xicana Indígena Ancestries, published by the University of Illinois Press is part of the Transformations: Womanist, Feminist, and Indigenous Studies book series.
Please contact Nina Bell at nbell@ucdavis.edu with any questions.