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Voices Of San Anto VI (5-17-25)

Voices Of San Anto V (2-21-25)

Platica Y Poetics S3E12 w/ Candy 'The Love Poet' Nieves

Candy ‘The Love Poet’ Nieves
In opening this interview, I honored the voices of Indigenous poets by reading from Enriqueta
Lunez—whose words in Tsotsil reflect the depth and dignity of oral traditions that long predate
colonization, a perfect segway to enter our plática with Candy “The Love Poet” Nieves, whose
work pulses with ancestral memory, sacred sensuality, and poetic resistance. As Candy read from
The Invention, a poem that honors Mayan cosmology and the brilliance of her ancestors, who
introduced the world to the number zero, an ancesntral reminder of the cosmic entered the room.
Our discussion on how the Maya tradition of understanding time, love, and purpose, not as
linear, but as cyclical, infinite, and rooted. Candy’s voice reclaims space for both Mayan and
Mestiza identity, weaving in Spanish and pre-colombian references to confront erasure and speak
back to colonizing narratives. She exhibited that translanguaging isn’t just a stylistic choice but
of survival, sovereignty, and reclamation. In Las Atravesadas and I, Woman, she declared “I will
preach, teach, break your master’s tools”, a direct homage to Audre Lorde’s revolutionary spirit
and Gloria Anzaldúa, speaking about how the word atravesar means to cut through, and how
“las atravesadas” has become those women who cross spiritual, cultural, and societal thresholds,
and expectations. Women often shamed for their boldness, and evolution. Candy writes from the
body, griefs, pleasures, and sacred thresholds. The spirit is a capsule of sacred ancestral
knowledge, navigating decolonial terrain. It reminds, it prays, resists.

Platica Y Poetics S4E1 w/ Rita La ‘Golondrina’ Ortiz

The smell of lingering PEMEX gas fumes, fresh masa on comals, along with echoes of traffic
horns resonated in the studio as my interview began to take flight. I had the honor of
interviewing La Golondrina, Rita Ortiz, a multidisciplinary artist whose work transcends genre
and boarders. I opened with a poetic offering, by reading Coral Bracho’s Desde esta luz, a piece
whose sensory lyricism, spiritual depth, and metaphysical textures echo and parallels Rita’s
artistic voice. Bracho’s dreamlike language and delicate attention to presence helped set the tone
for what would become a layered exploration of film, poetry, memory, and voice. After watching
the short film and hearing about how the idea came about for Aldebaran, Rita’s haunting
cinepoem, left me navigating a dreamlike liminal space, between the astral and the ancestral.
She balances visual silence with poetic narration using symbolism of máscaras, or masks. It was
moving how the film invites us to confront what lies behind and beyond identity and the
subconscious. Rita described her process as one that honors rhythm, mystery, and visual
invocation. It was a treat to hear her sing, Paloma, joining in spirit as her spirit took flight toward
emotion. The folkloric depth in her voice carries memory like plumas de ganzo, down feathers,
both soft and heavy. As she read from Boleador de Zapatos, and El Buen Morir we both took
part in sharing how Mexico is so enriched with visual and olfactory visual language, and how
poetry becomes an altar, word offering of smells, sounds, and ritual. La Golondrina, a name
representative of transmigration, memory, and return is rooted in the crossing of demarcated
boarders, spiritual, and linguistic. Every thread in her practice expands the possibilities of how
art can heal, hold, and set free.

Platica Y Poetics S3E11 w/ Diamond Braxton

Diamond Braxton
My plática with Braxton just lacked a cafecito and a sliver of pastelito as we divulged into queer
legacy, creative intuition, and building literary home. I opened with a reading of ‘Sobre La
Mesa’, my personal prose vignette ‘Like Water for Chocolate’ queer version, knowing the
culinary connection would take us down a sensory lane. Diamond, from the Gulf Coast, has
shaped her work by matrilineal memory and storytelling is both a personal ritual and collective
act. Diving into her acclaimed works like “Sugar Rush” and “Dreams of the Fam Who Came
Before Me,” she spoke to how her writing weaves together queerness, history, and hauntings into
narratives that are both expansive and emotionally precise. In discussing “Sugar Rush,” Braxton
revealed how a deceptively simple moment—a tasting of cake—transforms into a meditation on
mother-daughter love, body image, cultural critique and inherited silence. Food became a
metaphor for unspoken care and longing, as well as a tool to excavate desire and familial
complexity within queer narratives. She invites listeners into her sensory world, where ritual and
intuition guide as she reflects on the spiritual and emotional origins of “Dreams of the
Fam,” and how her identity as a queer, mixed-race Southerner informs the themes she returns
to—embodiment, memory, and resistance. Her time as a Tin House and Lambda Literary fellow,
she notes, granted her permission to take creative risks, affirming the urgency of telling stories
that live beyond binaries. Braxton shared her insights into her novel-in-progress: a collection of
interwoven Texan queer stories, speaking to the desire to archive lives that are often overlooked
or misrepresented, and to create a literary space, making room for storytellers from historically
excluded communities. As founder and director of Abode Press, her role extends far beyond the
page. Abode’s editorial vision is unapologetically expansive, welcoming voices that challenge
dominant literary norms. Through both her fiction and her stewardship at Abode, she hopes to
contribute to a future of Southern queer storytelling that is lush, layered, and liberatory.

Platica Y Poetics S3E10 w/ Dr. Hector Garza

Dr. Hector Garza
In a wholesome and intimate conversation, Dr. Héctor Garza, a celebrated San Antonio artist and
educator, opened up to us about his lifelong journey as a creator rooted in borderland identity,
queer expression, and pedagogical purpose. Known for his vibrant fusion of Mexican
iconography with American pop culture, Garza’s work transcends boundaries—most notably in
his reinterpretation of la lotería, where sacred figures like la Virgen and political symbols like
Uncle Sam co-exist, inviting viewers to reflect on cultural dualities. He traces his hybrid
aesthetic to early visual memories from his childhood, living in el barrio El Pateon where lucha
libre, calaveras, and vibrant neighborhood murals shaped his imagination. He described
nepantla—the liminal in-between space—as central to both his life and work, reflecting the
borderland condition of navigating queerness, cultural tension, and identity multiplicity. Through
collage and mixed media, he shapes to shapeshift bodies and experiences, crafting pieces that
feel as nostalgic as they are subversive. Influenced by both contemporary Latinx queer artists
and iconic Mexican visual traditions, Garza draws inspiration from the likes of Keith Haring and
María Félix to mask-wearing luchadores and street altars he has spent over 20 years teaching,
recently honored as Educator of the Year at Incarnate Word High School sharing how his
students, especially queer, bicultural youth, are at the heart of his creative drive. Hector
emphasized that academic research enhanced his ability to contextualize his work, but that his
visual voice has always been rooted in instinct, memory, and the hybrid body. We spoke of the
evolution of queer Latinx art both unapologetic, and sacred. A direct reflection on the politics of
duality, beauty of contradiction, and visual storytelling that reveals within every hue and stroke.
Dr. Héctor Garza reminds us that art is survival, and hybridity is power.

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