Inaugural
WARRIOR ROOTS Training Camp
March 24-26, 2017 Por Vida Academy, San Antonio, Texas
To raise consciousness and develop the collective leadership skills of People’s Movements in S. Texas; with the vision of building a sustainable network of communities capable of mobilizing to protect and defend ourselves accordingly. WELCOME to the first Warrior Roots Training Camp in our beautiful Yanaguana (land of the Spirit Waters), also known as San Antonio. We are grateful that you took the time to join us in this journey of building community, visioning, healing and rooting ourselves in the wisdom of our Ancestors – wherever they may be from.
Friday, March 24
Saturday, March 25
3:00pm
Training Camp Check-In
8:00am
Breakfast @ Yanaguana Hall
7:00pm
Opening Blessing @ Ceremonial Fire
9:00am
Blessing conducted by a local tribal elder
Sunrise Centering Kinam: Toltec Movement Practice
from the Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation. •••
@ Ceremonial Fire Setting intentions for the day.
Isaac Cardenas, American Indians in Texas
Kinam is “an art to harmonize the body with the
7:30pm
Self Care Station: Healing Justice Space
@Yanaguana Hall
Healing Space Hours: 9 am - 6 pm
Participants will have an understanding of
SEE BACK PAGE FOR INFO
the space & how we hope the weekend will flow by establishing community guidelines
8:30pm
spirit”. ••• Vanessa Quezada
Welcome Dinner: Orientation and Community Guidelines
9:30am
Basic Self-Defense for Activists
and agreements. ••• Karla Aguilar
@ Hawk Room
Plenary Session: Intention Setting
partners against potential bodily harm when doing
@ Yanaguana Hall
social actions. You will have increased situational
Collective intention setting from a Native
awareness and avoid being a victim to violence. You
American perspective using prayer ties. •••
will also learn how to defend against a potential
Madelein Santibañez
aggressor and boost self-confidence. This workshop
Learn basic techniques to defend yourself and your
will have movement. Participants are suggested to wear comfortable clothes and bring a bottle with water. ••• Jovanni Reyes
Decolonizing Direct Action
Important basics
@ Buffalo Room
to please read and respect as we are all guests of the Por Vida Academy:
This experiential, participatory workshop will serve to explore participants understandings, share
• This is absolutely a drug and alcohol free
examples, stories and experiences and co-create
site. You will be asked to leave camp.
knowledge around how to decolonize direct action
• If you smoke cigarettes, find the designated
while confronting power directly. Participants will have a deeper understanding of the principles,
smoking area, keep your filters and throw them in the trash.
practices, tactics and strategies around direct action led by and for people of color through the lens of
• We all cooperate and take care of each
decolonization.
other. Mutual aid is more beneficial after taking care of yourself first. Please pick up after yourselves and help each other out.
••• Jayeesha Dutta & Remy Fredenberg
Decolonizing Intergenerational Community Building @ Deer Room
• Please look after all the children, youth and
This workshop will provide participants with a
elders. It does take a village!
tool kit for healing intergenerational traumas that
• Bathrooms are genderless. Mutual respect
tend to carry over into community organizing
is the language of harmony.
efforts. Participants will be engaged in skill building
• Lights out and camp goes quiet at
activities that help address common issues that
midnight. Gates close at midnight, if you leave please be sure to return in time. No exceptions will be made as we keep our word with the Por Vida Academy.
arise in intergenerational and intersectional causes
• Our Ceremonial Fire, is a sacred space. It is
communities. ••• Laura Yohualtlahuiz Rios-Ramirez
only to be used for prayerful purposes. If you have a question, ask the fire keeper.
and will learn how to build sustainably healing and compassionate spaces from within that positively impact their respective movements within their
11:00am
Coffee Break @ Yanaguana Hall
11:15am
BEAH Ripple in the Pond Movement @ Deer Room The purpose of Beah Ripple is to have a clear, concise, clean, comprehensive conversation that will shift the European/white identified, white supremacist mindset and it’s effects on women’s relationships, both internalized and externalized. The solution for the societal challenges that we are going through globally is through the power of women in unified, healthy and productive relationships. ••• Busi Peters-Maughan
Direct Action Media Strategies @ Hawk Room Too many times the mainstream media gets it wrong or doesn’t cover important local issues. That’s why it’s important that grassroots organizers produce as much of the content that goes out initially as possible. Controlling the narrative can mean campaign wins and shifts in public perception around social, racial, and
things to know: • If you feel threatened, or there is an emergency
please call 210-446-9474 and someone from the Organizing Committee will respond.
• We may need extra hands in the kitchen, extra help is welcome. Check in if you want.
• The Self-Care Central Healing Justice Space has
slots when you can sign up for various healing methods. Make time to stop by! You’ll be glad you did!
• There will be an open mic Saturday night, sign up at the Operations office.
• Use the hashtag #warriorroots and
#warriorroots2017 so we can track our mentions.
• Any additional donations will help us to put this on again in 2018.
• Please turn in your ID after the camp so we can use it next year!
economic issues. This workshop is not designed for one particular campaign, but rather to build a bedrock of knowledge for communicators on how to get journalists to cover direct action. ••• Desiree Kane
Water Storage and Keyhole Gardens @ Buffalo Room Participants will learn about rainwater harvesting and soil building. The first goal of the workshop is to discuss water storage by learning steps to retain water, though demonstrating a rain harvesting barrel set up. We will also explore key hole garden beds that include a garden bed and compost area that retains moisture and promotes healthy soil organisms. ••• Brian Gordon
12:45pm
Lunch | Keynote Address: Movement Lessons with Mario Compean @ Yanaguana Hall
2:00pm
Constructing a Decolonial Analysis for Organizing @ Deer Room Participants will gain an understanding of power, colonialism & liberalism. They will learn how these constructs show up in our organizing and community efforts, and why it is important to ID them and work to dismantle them. Participants will walk away with a fresh understanding of it can mean to “decolonize”. ••• Rockie Gonzales & Dr. Tane Ward
Dreaming of Another World @ Hawk Room Participants will walk away with reflections on the importance of self care through traditional medicine practices and visualizing skills that
Sharing knowledge from one generation to the
look at the world we aim to build through
next is extremely important in our development
organizing. With the current state and weight
of an ongoing movement which honors the
of the world, how can we connect with plant
lessons of the past, and the creativity of the
medicine and nurture our spirits so we can
future as the context of our society evolves.
continue imagining and creating a better/more
This discussion will frame the times of the rise
just world? Join us in circle as we explore
of the “Raza Movement”, it’s lessons to the
together what yearns to be healed within
ongoing struggles for recognition and justice in
organizing spaces and how to make medicine
our society today. This is also an opportunity for
for your own self-care. Format: Talking Circle;
us to question how we support our elders, as
Skillshare: Intro to Artemesia, moxabustion
they have paved the way for us. ••• Moderator
demo, herbal dream sachets ••• Nam Thu’ Tr`ân & Beto De León
- Esmeralda Baltazar
2017 Warrior Roots | 2
2:00pm
Propagation for the People
cont’d
@ Buffalo Room After participating in this workshop you will know how to propagate native and adapted, easy to
Saturday cont’d 5:15pm
Collective Nap Time
grow fruit trees for free. We will talk about the
@ Ceremonial Fire
basic how, when, why, and what to expect over
Decompress by the fire, network or take a nap.
the lifetime of these plants. The group will then make some willow bark rooting hormone and
6:30pm
make cuttings of pomegranate, fig, elderberry,
Dinner | Keynote Panel 2: Defining Warriorship @ Yanaguana Hall
mulberry, and persimmon. Participants will each
This community dinner will be followed by
get to go home with a cutting to plant.
panel and community dialogue on defining
••• Dani Slabaugh
what warriorship means to our generation.
3:30pm
Coffee Break @ Yanaguana Hall
What is it to aspire to be a “warrior” for your
3:45pm
Decolonizing Direct Action
our relationships with one another and the
@ Buffalo Room
world that seeks to define who we are? •••
This experiential, participatory workshop will
Panel: Remy Fredenberg & Vanessa Quezada;
serve to explore participants understandings,
Moderator: Diana Lopez
share examples, stories and experiences and co-create knowledge around how to decolonize direct action while confronting power directly. Participants will have a deeper understanding of the principles, practices, tactics and strategies around direct action led by and for people of color through the lens of decolonization. ••• Jayeesha Dutta & Remy Fredenberg
people and the planet? How do we distinguish
8:00pm
Cultural Activity w/ Performance of Radio Aztlan + Jazz Poets Open Mic + featured artist Liza Garza @ Yanaguana Hall Teatro performance of Radio Aztlan. Then, a cultural exchange and open mic with the Jazz Poets of San Antonio, with a feature by the soulful Liza Garza.
Healing Internalized Colonial Oppression @ Deer Room Participants will receive a basic set of tools for identifying and addressing internalized racial oppression. A main focus will be addressing the colonial roots of racism, patriarchy and hetero-sexism and rediscovering our latent indigenous potential for transforming ourselves our communities and moving towards liberation. Through prompted discussions & healing exercises the collective will share personal and community stories in an open environment. Together we will locate and explore the mythological answers and collective solutions to our problems. ••• Rockie Gonzales & Dr. Tane Ward
Which Side Are You On?: Visual Mapping for Power
Bios Allis Ozornia, LMT, is a bi-cultured,
bilingual and queer full spectrum doula, integrative body worker, and holistic health educator who provides a safe space while realigning the body and reconnecting through integrative massages. Her work is devoted to promoting sexual health and reproductive justice in personal, professional, and clinical environments. // Aozornia@gmail.com
@ Hawk Room Participants will be guided through a large visual power map example on: ending family detention. Small groups will identify the agenda/issue they want to power map and will be supported through the creation of their maps. The workshop will end with an exhibit of each power map and a discussion about the ideas that emerge for next steps. We will close by building collective voice with the “Which Side Are You On” chant. ••• Esmeralda Baltazar
Beto De León (Lipan Apache/Xicano).
With a deep passion and respect for the study of native plants and preservation of traditional lifeways, Beto has spent much of his life learning and sharing in herbal medicine, gardening workshops and traditional food discussions and skillshares for adults and youth. He is a community organizer focusing on environmental justice, indigenous rights, and TLGBQ issues. He is the Just Transition Coordinator for Centro por la JusticiaSouthwest Workers Union. // gitano.arjay@gmail.com
Sunday, March 26 8:00am 9:00am
#warriorroots
Café & Pan Dulce @ Yanaguana Hall
9:30am
Sweet & Simple Brain Food
cont’d
Community Solidarity Caucus: No Ban - No Wall @ Yanaguana Hall Immigrant and Muslim/Jew Community
Sunrise Connections: The Glass Cobra
Solidarity Strategy Session. This caucus will
@ Ceremonial Fire
center strategies that safeguard immigrants
This Theater of the Oppressed exercise will serve
and create rapid response methods to
to help us dialogue again about: interconnection,
support vulnerable communities.
interdependence, reunification, remembering,
••• Judith Sanchez & Jeff Higgins
reclaiming identity, rebuilding, finding something or someone you’ve known or missed all along,
11:00am
Brunch @ Yanaguana Hall
trust, faith, power of the circle/village, mending
11:45am
Plenary Session: A Movement of Movements @ Yanaguana Hall
broken links, healing destroyed village, seeking solutions/problem solving - individual vs group ••• Nam Thu’ Tr`ân
9:30am
#warriorroots2017
This plenary gathering will give an opportunity for the caucuses to briefly
Community Solidarity Caucus: Anti-racists in Action @ Hawk Room
report back. Then, the whole group will
This anti-racist strategy session will center on
establish a network committed to ongoing
how to identify and challenge white-supremacist
community defense across San Antonio
thinking in our communities while we create
and S. Texas.
solidarity mechanisms in our region.
••• Jayeesha Dutta & Karla Aguilar
••• Esmeralda Baltazar, Jenee Eady, and Busi Peters-Maughan
participate in a movement exercise to
1:00pm
Community Solidarity Caucus: Many Loves = Many Fears @ Deer Room This solidarity strategy session will center the ways that the TLGTBQ and 2 Spirit community seeks to be supported in increasingly dangerous times. ••• Ernesto Olivo & Polly Anna Rocha
Brian Gordon
Food Sovereignty Coordinator, Southwest Workers Union’s Roots of Change Garden. // brian@swunion.org
Busi Peters-Maughan is the CEO/
Founder of WHEW, Women Healing & Empowering Women, which confronts the intersectional issues of women of color in prison, and how it relates to family violence, homelessness, negative impacts of misogynistic lyrics, objectification of women, sexual abuse i.e. molestation, rape, incest, and the glorification of prison culture in Hip Hop. Busi is a teacher who has worked in Nairobi, Kenya, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Brooklyn, New York and Houston, Texas. She endeavors to share her perspective on the world as a Bronx native, an American, and as a child of the African Diaspora. // boo_peters@yahoo.com
Closing Blessing @ Ceremonial Fire Blessing conducted by local elder Linda Ximenes of the Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation
2:00pm
Tear Down & Clean Up @ Por Vida Academy Optional volunteer opportunity
Dani Slabaugh lives in Austin where
she is active in supporting fights for freedom, sovereignty, and community by rekindling right relationships with land and ecology. She built the Two River’s camp Poo Palace (composting toilet), and shower grey water recycling system and has worked professionally building similar infrastructure, gardens, and green storm water infrastructure for the past 7 years. // yard2table@gmail.com
Isaac Alvarez Cardenas is the
prayer and spiritual leader for the of the Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation, son of an Apache mother and a Coahuiltecan father, and raised in the west side of San Antonio. He is Director of Program’s for the American Indians in Texas at the Spanish Colonial Mission’s (AIT-SCM) where he works with high-risk, minority males, and youth by providing cultural arts education, spiritual support, parenting mentorship, social, and emotional enlightenment. // isaacacardenas@aitscm.org 2017 Warrior Roots | 4
Desiree Kane is a Miwok woman,
who lived for 7mos at Oceti Sakowin Camp near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation documenting & organizing around #NoDAPL with The Indian Problem, an all-Indigenous NVDA trainers collective. She’s the National Engagement Director for The People for Bernie Sanders and is working on opening #District13, a DC-based movement house aimed at empowering organizers // des@desireekane.com
Diana Lopez is a Xicana from
San Antonio. She is the Directora of Southwest Workers Union, which focuses on linking issues around environmental justice, living wage and accountable governance. With SWU, she has brought local struggles to 5 United Nations Conventions on Climate Change. She sits on coordinating committees of the Grassroots Global Justice and South by Southwest Experiment, and is a panzante with Zombie Bazaar Panza Fusion Dance Troupe.
Ernesto Olivo is a contemporary
visual artist born in Nueva Rosita, Coahuila, Mexico. He believes bringing art and artists into schools and neighborhoods is vital to the growth and development of our communities. He collaborates with the McNay Art Museum’s Communities in Schools program, is an Educator at Artpace and Girl Zone, and is a DJ & musician. He’s organized locally and nationally for social justice for 20 years. // ernesto1olivo@gmail.com
Esmeralda Baltazar Highlander
Research and Education Center, Xicana, Woman, She, too many grey hairs to identify as youth right now. // baltazar.esme@gmail.com
Jennifer Alvarado is a massage
therapist, Aura Soma practitioner, 21st century curandera healer, and energy worker. She is skilled in Card Readings as well. She lives in San Antonio, Texas, married, and mother of 4 beautiful children. She is the co-founder of Xicana Spirituality and Que Sauve Manos. // lubbj71@gmail.com
Jovanni Reyes is a 14 years Army
Veteran, former corrections officer; former boxer, current boxing trainer/ coach; trained in hand-to-hand combat; peace activist, bi-lingual: Spanish/ English; group affiliation: Iraq Veterans Against the War. // jreye003@hotmail.com
Judith Sanchez and Jeff Higgins
Judith is an indigenous immigrant, an educator and the product of popular indigenous rural education in southern Mexico. Jeff comes out of many years of industrial shiftwork and organizing among fellow workers in heavy industry. He participated in a small way in the underground railroad in the US in the 80s and more openly in anti-fascist activity. // zapotegator@sbcglobal.net
Karla Aguilar and her parents
immigrated to Texas during the Salvadoran Civil War. Karla was raised with social justice teachings from her grandmother who frequently spoke of her family’s participation in overthrowing military dictators in the 30’s. Making spaces for creative social solutions through the power of culture is a passion. She is a Danzante, and works at American Indians in Texas where she daily applies the teaching of La Cultura Cura (culture can heal).// karlitaguanaca@gmail.com
Laura Yohualtlahuiz Rios-Ramirez
Jayeesha Dutta is a tri-coastal Bengali-
American water protector, artivist and scholar who co-founded the Radical Arts and Healing Collective in the Upper 9th Ward of New Orleans, providing intersectional, intergenerational arts-based direct action and healing justice support services. She is pursuing a doctorate at the University of New Orleans researching the creative third space and relational trust in the climate justice movement. // jayeesha@gmail.com // www.gulffuture.org
Jenee Eady originally from Connecticut and now residing in San Antonio, is a community educator with the Girl Zone of the Martinez Street Women’s Center. She is the mother of a bright 4 year-old, wife, and member of the Native Youth for Equal Voices. // jenee347608@gmail.com
(Ameyaltonal Tejaztlan) is a performance artist and community organizer in central Texas. Her youth-based and culturally relevant programs include elements of Hip Hop, Mexican (Aztec), and Earth-based culture as a vehicle for empowerment and connecting ancestral knowledge to modern culture. She focuses on demystifying the legacies of Mexican indigenous practices and beliefs through the amalgamation of music, language, and art inspired by her journey in Hip Hop. // laura.k.rios@gmail.com
Linda Ximenes is a Sundancer, running
sweat lodges in San Antonio. She’s supported her community through energy healing work for the last 20+ years. She is the previous Board President of AIT, and currently sits on the Tribal Council of the Tap Pilam Coahuiltecan Nation. She is a professional facilitator and owner of Ximenes and Associates established in 1984 // lindax1944@gmail.com
Liza Garza is an Emmy Award-
nominated poet, vocalist and songwriter. Infusing the cultural soul of Mexican folk tunes in modern ballads with the intricacy of Hip Hop rhyme schemes, she bridges the ancestral with the modern. She’s performed at The Lincoln Center, The Apollo, the National Association of Latino Arts & Culture, HBO Def Poetry Jam and numerous stages world wide. // iamlizagarza@gmail.com // www.lizagarza.com
Madelein Santibañez is a
community organizer, educator and danzante born and raised in San Antonio, Tx. She is currently an Educator for an all-girls empowerment program at the Martinez Street Women’s Center and serves as the Youth Coordinator on Board of the Society of Native Nations. As an indigenous woman who values the importance of walking on the path of justice, living in balance with our environment, and honoring all our relations. // xicana.made@gmail.com
Mario C. Compean (Academia
America Inc., President/CEO) has worked toward social justice throughout his adult life, whether as the co-founder of historic political outlets such as the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO), the Committee for Barrio Betterment, and the Texas Raza Unida Party, or by building community organizations like as the Mexican American Unity Council and the Centro Cultural Aztlan. His decades of building mechanisms for power distinguish his journey as one that we are eager to highlight as we learn lessons from one of the most significant historical figures in our community. // www.academiaamerica.org
Remy Fredenberg (The Indian
Problem, Partner) is a multi-disciplinary and intersectional Navajo/Dine movement artist who helped coordinate & support the indigenous resistance in Standing Rock, ND. He lived at the Oceti Sakowin camp and possesses a depth of knowledge around the intersection of arts activism, narrative change, intersectional grassroots movement building. // remy@firstsevendesignlabs.com
Rockie Gonzales (they/hers)
Xicanindix - Rockie is Executive Director of the Equilibrio Women’s Worker Center and is an Undoing Racism trainer with the People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond. Rockie founded and serves as co-chair of the board of the Frontera Fund, an abortion fund serving the Rio Grande Valley. She is a council member for Alma de Mujer, an indigenous-woman led retreat and ceremony center of the Indigenous Women’s Network, and is on the board of the Vortex Theater & Butterfly Bar in Austin, TX. Her approach and direction are driven by an intersectional feminist lens with a strong focus on anti-racist organizing principles and a decolonial vision rooted in respect for the land and the spiritual practice of her ancestors. // MSROCKIE@GMAIL.COM
Dra. Susana N. Ramírez is a
queer nepantlera visionary, scholar, educator, and community sanadora living in San Antonio, Texas. As her life calling, she is a practitioner of Mexican traditional medicine (MTM) and indigenous ceremony. She can support folks with pláticas, limpias, blessings, and crystal therapy. // susana.n.ramirez@gmail.com
Dr. Tane Ward (they/his)
Nam Thu’ Tr`ân , born and raised in
Houston, is the descendant of immigrant parents who escaped the American War on Việt Nam. She completed 5 years in Moon Dance/Danza De La Luna Xochimeztli: a Meshika wombyn’s prayer & purification circle open to all 4 sacred nations. She’s pursuing a masters in Acupuncture & Herbal Medicine and hopes to combine bodywork, acupuncture and spirit-work to create a healing cooperative focused on serving POC, systemically marginalized and oppressed communities, particularly wombyn and those suffering with grief and intergenerational trauma. // tinathunamtran52@gmail.com
Polly Anna Rocha is a 24-year-old
queer transgender writer, journalist, musician, poet and activist of color born and raised in San Antonio, Texas.
Camaxtleca-Xicanx, works with Native communities to help protect lands and preserve their sovereignty in resistance to the capitalist state. He has served as senior advisor to the Cabildo Gobernador of the Arahuaco pueblo in the successful campaign to stop development of mining inside Arahuaco territory. Tane is the Senior Organizing Manager for the Sierra Club in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi and is a founding member of Undoing Racism Austin Collective. Tane aims to offer a space for organizers interested in the intersection of land based struggles with other social justice movements and spiritual practice that rejects new-ageism, Native appropriation and instead fosters connection with the spirit of the land and its inhabitants. // tane.ward@gmail.com
Vanessa Quezada is a San Antonio
native chaski with the Peace and Dignity Journey. She works to promote interfaith unity amongst all peoples throughout Abya Yala. // vquezad@gmail.com 2017 Warrior Roots | 6
SATURDAY Self Care Station: Healing Justice Space
MARK YOUR CALENDARS
Social Justice work is notorious for
2018 Warrior Roots April 6-8.
causing emotional fatigue, trauma and burn out. We have to learn new ways to heal ourselves not just
and tell your friends to get ready.
Join us at the
Stay in touch with us online and through our e-mail list. There may be mini-trainings on deck.
from the present work, but also the layers of pain and disconnection from our society at-large. This multi-modal healing space will give you the opportunity to release some of that muck so you can continue your journey of justice, with passion and joy. These resident healers will be
transformational community work
GRATITUDES
ahead.
We would like to thank the staff and administration of the Por Vida
available for you to come by and schedule some time to center and ground you for all the amazing
Healing Space Hours: 9 am - 6 pm Dra. Susana Ramirez 9 am - 6 pm Allis Ozornia 9 am - 11 am Beto De Leon 11 am - 1 pm Nam-Thu Tran 11 am - 1 pm Jennifer Alvarado 1 pm - 3 pm Laura Rios-Ramirez 3 pm - 5 pm Love donations are welcome, but not required.
Academy for welcoming the Warrior Roots Training Camp. Especially, Superintendent Rendon, Principal Francoviak and the stellar Mr. Barnes for all their help in making this a reality at an ideal facility. Thank you to the generous support of American Indians in Texas at the Spanish Colonial Missions and the Alternate Roots for providing the resources to cover costs. Thank you to all our presenters, speakers, moderators, performers, our elders, our children, the kitchen crew, security team, and volunteers for the countless hours that made this first camp possible. Your intention, time and energy is reflected in the beautiful gathering we have seeded together. Big thanks in particular to the Organizing Committee of Warrior Roots made up by members of the Native Youth for Equal Voices: Jenee Eady, Madelein SantibaĂąez, Ramon D. Vasquez, Miguel Lopez and the other planning committee members Ernesto Olivo, and Karla Aguilar.