Researchers examining the political climate for immigrants across the U.S. recently ranked Arizona as the most hostile state for immigrants across the nation. In 2010, Arizona proposed Senate Bill 1070 which boasted some of the most aggressive measures to restrict labor and mobility for immigrants in the state. Simultaneously, Arizona targeted LGBTQ communities though legislation such as Senate Bi
lls1062 and 1045 (which both policed and/or criminalized q***r/trans bodies). Working against this climate of oppression, Arizona’s immigrant and q***r communities have been forced to negotiate the absence of outside support when a national call to “Boycott Arizona” emerged alongside narratives of shame and disgust directed at the state and its inhabitants. On the ground in Arizona today, local community members still face the daily terrors of workplace raids, neighborhood immigration sweeps, family separation, mass incarceration, and police brutality. Despite these conditions, the same streets where oppression weighs heavy are also the spaces where our resistance sings. The Association for Jotería Arts, Activism, and Scholarship holds as its mission: “To nurture q***r Latina/o, Chicana/o, and Indigenous individuals and communities through practices that recognize the importance of linking art, activism, and scholarship.” This year the AJAAS site committee invites you to join us in Arizona to stand in solidarity and engage with local artists, activists, and scholars, to share knowledge from your own communities and movements. We intend to open spaces for idea and skill sharing and dialogue in diverse community locations for conference activity. By linking our organizing capacity, creativity, spirituality, and our communities’ knowledge, we intend to create a stronger and more inclusive world. We encourage proposals by community members, social justice organizers, cultural workers, activists, students, scholars, teachers, media makers, and anyone interested in analyzing the conditions of our work, lives, and struggles. This gathering will bring together artists, activists, and scholars involved in a variety of creative and academic fields to examine our current state in a changing world and to re-imagine the future of our Jotería communities and cultures. Attendees will participate in panels that facilitate cross-disciplinary conversations: we welcome interactive workshops, screenings, talk-backs, teach-ins, and paper and poster presentations.
