Empower House Radio KXEP-LP

The Resilience Within- Stories That Resonate 3

Platica Y Poetics S3E9 w/ Liz Coronado Castillo

Queer Lineage, Landed Memory, and Healing Narratives were the themes in an intimate and layered platica inspired by Gabriela Mistral’s “Dame la Mano,” with playwright and poet Liz Coronado Castillo to explore the intersections of queerness, ancestry, and storytelling. Just as Mistral’s work offers a quiet but potent manifesto of unity and sensual resistance, Liz’s voice emerges from the soil of West Texas and northern Chihuahua, to honor the complexities of identity and belonging. She spoke of how her family's roots—working-class, resilient, and deeply spiritual—continue to shape her voice as a queer Chicana writer navigating the liminal spaces between cultures and generations. Liz illuminated the power of duality: Xicana and scholar, poet and playwright, grief and healing, she reckons with trauma and transformation, describing how poetry and playwriting serve as tools for liberation, not just personally, but communally. Her advocacy work as Director of Student Success at St. Philip’s College shines through in her art, championing students from historically excluded backgrounds, and this ethos of radical belonging pulses through her poems and plays. The importance of presence, silence, and witnessing—practices that inform not just how she writes, but how she holds space for others is visible and felt throughout page and stage, carving space for queer, brown, and nonconforming bodies to exist fully and fiercely—without apology.

The Resilience Within- Stories That Resonate 2

The Resilience Within- Stories That Resonate 1

Platica Y Poetics S3E8 w/Osmani Ochoa

Migrant Futurism, Poetics, and Survival were themes in my cosmic resonant conversation with Osmani Ochoa—queer Mexican-Xicanx poet, editor, and immigrant rights organizer. He shared insight into their creative and political vision, deeply informed by lived experience, collective struggle, and radical imagination. Their forthcoming chapbook, ‘How to Survive an Asthma Attack in a Climate Apocalypse’, fuses bodily precarity with ecological collapse, revealing the intimate links between environmental violence and racialized breathlessness. His poetry pulses with urgency, queerness, and tenderness, all while channeling migrant futurism as both a political framework and a narrative strategy. Drawing on their work as an organizer in San Antonio, Ochoa’s voice is rooted in solidarity and survival where they explore the queer, brown body as both vulnerable and defiant—alive despite dispossession. Their commitment to amplifying marginalized voices is further expressed through their editorial work at Maíz Poppin’ Press, where they uplift writers pushing against colonial and capitalist frameworks. Their love for Mexican musical icons reveals an aesthetic lineage for artists who transgress norms with flair and emotion. Reflecting on place, Ochoa emphasized how San Antonio and Mexico inform their consciousness—culturally, spiritually, and politically, by embracing hybridity, write for those who come after you, and dare to imagine beyond survival—toward liberation.

The Resilience Within S3E10

The Resilience Within S3E12 Azul Barrientos

The Resilience Within S3E11 Julius

Platica Y Poetics S3E7 w/ Gina Ortiz-Jones

In an intimate and layered conversation, Gina Ortiz Jones, a proud daughter of San Antonio’s
Westside and former Under Secretary of the Air Force, shared how her upbringing, military
service, and education have shaped her deep commitment to public service and social justice.
From formative years at John Jay High School and lessons learned from her mother—a
Harlandale High School teacher for 25 years and inspiration of grit and resilience—Jones shared
how education and civic responsibility were foundational to her leadership journey. Bringing a
rare blend of tactical expertise and economic foresight, she offered a poetic lens to tackle San
Antonio’s complex challenges. Transparency, equity, and inclusion as cornerstones of her
platform. Her call for poetic accountability imagines civic systems that are not only efficient but
people-powered, inclusive, and emotionally resonant. She shared her vision of a city that
embraces progressiveness without losing its cultural essence, stressing the importance of local
activism, reminding residents that meaningful change begins at home—and that San Antonio has
the potential to become a global model for inclusive and visionary governance. I felt inspired,
motivated, listening to her conviction, sharing like myself belonging to the LGBTQIA+ and
Catholic communities, that we exist and are daughters, and catalyst of progressive change in our
communities. Her bridge-building spirit seeks to overcome political polarization through
collaboration, equity, and a renewed civic imagination. At the heart of her campaign lies a simple
yet powerful belief: that everyone deserves to be seen no matter the aisle, heard, and empowered
to help write San Antonio’s next chapter.

The Resilience Within S3E9