BIO:
Dr. Ernesto Todd Mireles has been an organizer and educator for over three decades, training young Xicanos and Xicanas in the basics of community mobilization, as well as organizing and researching indigenous insurgency, national liberation and anti colonial resistance at the intersection of political sovereignty, mobilization and party building.

Mireles is a professor of Xicano studies, community organizing, and social justice at Prescott College. His book Insurgent Aztlán was awarded an International Latino Book Award this year placing second in the Best Politica/Current Affairs category. Mireles does a weekly podcast called The Reality Dysfunction and is completing a documentary about student organizing called War of the Flea.

Mireles wants to work with people who are passionate about social justice and the preservation of Xicano Indigenous culture through political action, people who are ready to take on the challenges of being on the front lines of the battle against socio-economic inequalities, and political repression. Working closely with intellectuals, artists, activists, and organizers to bring the full force of cultural resistance to bear on the problems RAZA faces every day.

Visit his website here: Home | WarofTheFlea v2

BOOK DESCRIPTION:
Insurgent Aztlán: The Liberating Power of Cultural Resistance reconstructs the relationship between social political insurgent theory and Xicano literature, film and myth. Based on decades of organizing experience and scholarly review of the writings of recognized observers and leaders of the process of national liberation movements, the author, Ernesto Todd Mireles, shares a remarkable work of scholarship that incorporates not only the essence of earlier resistance writing, but provides a new paradigm of liberation guidelines for the particular situation of Mexican Americans.

Mireles makes a solid case for addressing the decades-long decline of Mexican American identity within itself and broadly among sectors of American society by asserting the powerful role of culture and history, each value unable to exist without the other, in the preservation and political advancement of a people. In the case of Mexican Americans, which consists of an estimated 40 million people and boasts the highest birth rate in the U.S., they constitute “a nation within a nation.” The intellectual challenge, Mireles asserts, is connecting insurgent social political theory with the existing body of Xicano literature, film and myth. The organizing challenge is how to build an insurgent identity that fosters a “return to history” to build a consensus among Mexican Americans, who are a complex collective of culturally, educationally, politically, and economically diverse people, to reclaim their historical presence in the Americas and the world. Insurgent Aztlán must be read by students from high school to graduate studies, their professors, organizers in the fields and factories, union shops, and urban community organizations, wherever Mexican Americans sense the need to re-evaluate their goals and aspirations for themselves and their families.

Insurgent Aztlan | WarofTheFlea v2

About BorderLinks:
BorderLinks is a non-profit organization based in Tucson, Arizona. We offer experiential educational delegations that explore issues of global economics, border militarization, immigration, community formation, movement- building, and social justice in the borderlands.

Insurgent Aztlán Book Talk with Dr. Mireles

By BorderLinks

Insurgent Aztlán Book Talk with Dr. Mireles

Dr. Ernesto (Todd) Mireles joins BorderLinks for a conversation about his book Insurgent Aztlán: The Liberating Power of Cultural Resistance