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UC San Diego UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Returning to Yuma: Regeneración and futures of autonomy Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/29f9626d Author Salomón Johnson, Amrah Publication Date 2019 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO Returning to Yuma: Regeneración and futures of autonomy A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Ethnic Studies by Amrah Naomi Salomón Johnson Committee in Charge: Professor K. Wayne Yang, Chair Professor Gloria Chacon Professor Dayo Gore Professor Curtis Marez Professor Luis Martin-Cabrera 2019 Copyright Amrah Naomi Salomón Johnson, 2019 All rights reserved. The dissertation of Amrah Naomi Salomón Johnson is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: Chair University of California San Diego 2019 iii DEDICATION a los muertos incomudos, los difuentes al futuro, rebelde y el presente, más a mi abuelo que me dío sus cuentos y me enseñó como escuchar a mi hijo quien va a recibir los mios iv EPIGRAPH vamos hacia la vida. Ayer fue el cielo el objetivo de los pueblos: ahora es la tierra... los revolucionarios vamos adelante. El abismo no nos detiene: el agua es más bella despeñándose. Si morimos, moriremos como soles: despidiendo luz. Ricardo Flores Magón, San Francisco, CA. julio,1907. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page............................................................................................................................... iii Dedication...................................................................................................................................... iv Epigraph.......................................................................................................................................... v Table of Contents........................................................................................................................... vi List of Figures............................................................................................................................... vii Acknowledgements..................................................................................................................... viii Vita................................................................................................................................................. x Abstract of the Dissertation........................................................................................................... xi Poem: My body is an archive.......................................................................................................... 1 Introduction: Mapping regeneración: Returning to Yuma, Arizona............................................... 6 Chapter 1: Bodies as knowledge, bodies as place......................................................................... 16 Chapter 2: Felt methodologies: a descendant in the archive......................................................... 48 Chapter 3: Cartographies of dispossession....................................................................................68 Chapter 4: Geographies of memory.............................................................................................120 Chapter 5: Conclusion: Unbound: Futures like water..................................................................150 Coda: Burn the mission, free the rivers.......................................................................................156 References.................................................................................................................................. 159 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 4:1: Rosa Orosco Salomón with children and grandchildren, Juan Macias missing.................................................................................................................................. 138 Figure 4:2: Rosa Orosco Salomón with children and grandchildren, with Juan Macias................................................................................................................................... 139 vii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project began in liberated Zapatista territory in the highlands of Chiapas in 2007 when I began to work deeply on the question of how to form substantial relationships of solidarity between Chicanx folks and Indigenous autonomous communities in resistance. Angelo Moreno and I tucked into a San Cristobal bookstore to avoid the rain one afternoon and he suggested that if I really wanted to understand the history of zapatismo and how a multi-ethnic coalition could create a revolution for autonomy and contest the violences of the U.S.-Mexico border that I should read Ricardo Flores Magón. I am thankful for the time and patience of my zapatista compas for teaching me and many others how to caminar preguntando. I am grateful for my maestros and cohort from Mexico Solidarity Network, and the folks at CIDECI, Promedios, el Congreso Nacional Indigena, Batsilk’op, Paty, Edith, Heather, y Las Gomitas, Gustavo Esteva, Ed McCaughan, John Gibler, Diego Flores Magón and La Casa del Hijo de Ahuizote. From the Bay I would like to thank mis primos Carlos Salomon and Dominica Rice without whom I would have never attended nor survived college, Clarissa Rojas, Felix Kury, Rabab Abdulhadi, Jason Ferreira, Andrew Jolivette, Robert Collins, Catriona Esquibel, Jeff Duncan Andrade, Isabelle Pelaud, Belinda Reyes, Larry Salomon, Nicole Watts, Mira Nabulsi, Loubna Qtami, Shoaib Ashraf, my SFSU Ethnic Studies MA program cohort, my compas in Mecha, La Raza, Skins, Gups, the Women’s Center, everyone at PODER San Francisco, Sue Homer and my City College compas, my zapatista and Unitierra compas, and the friends who accompanied me and put up with my tonterias and mandonitis as I learned, unlearned, and grew. From San Diego and SoCal I would like to thank K. Wayne Yang for being the best compa-advisor ever, my committee Curtis Marez, Dayo Gore, Gloria Chacon, and Luis Martin- Cabrera. I thank the following compas who have helped shaped my thinking and supported me in viii this journey: Andrea Smith, Tiffany Willoughby-Herard, Daphne Taylor-Garcia, Brad Werner, Edwina Welch, Fatima El-Tayeb, Dennis Childs, José Fusté, Jade Power Sotomayor, Ross Frank, Adria Imada, Elena Hood, Yen Le Espiritu, Roshanak Kheshti, Shelley Streeby, Julie Burelle, Roberto Hernandez, Ozzie Monge, Stan Rodriguez, Ami Admire, Esmeralda Saucedo, Joseph Ruanto-Ramirez, Jolie Proudfit, Andrea Gaspar, Omar Pimienta, Kent Wong, Saba Waheed, Devra Weber, Mishuana Goeman, the compas from Association of Raza Educators, my our Unitierra Califas Sur compas, the compas from Center for Interdisciplinary Environmental Justice, my comrades in the UAW 2865, the MALCS & NACCS adhoc committees to end institutional heteropatriarchal violence, my UCSD phd cohort and all of my co-student compas who accompanied this journey. From Arizona I’d like to thank my family in Yuma (especially Bill Mendoza, Chris Salomon, and Rick Montague), Laurie Boone from the Yuma Historical Society and Heritage Library, the O’odham Anti-Border Collective, Indigenous Action Media Collective, and all the o’odham who are resisting borders, protecting the sacred, healing, and living their autonomy. Other compas without which this would not have happened are Ayana Rubio, Paty Castaneda, Cassie Castillo, Marlene Brito-Millan, Gina Tiger Madueno, my compas in CESA, my mentors and fellow writers from Institute of American Indian Arts. I write always with love for my partner Reino, our son Sgewk I:bdak, y mis difuentes. Research for this dissertation was funded in part through the following grants: The California State University Sally Casanova Predoctoral Program, the University of California San Diego Tinker Field Research Travel Grant, the UCSD Friends of the International Center Fellowship, the Davis-Putter Fellowship, the Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship, and the Alliance 4 Empowerment Social Impact Scholarship. ix VITA 2007 Bachelor of Arts, San Francisco State University 2007 Semester Abroad, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana -Xochimilco, Mexico 2007-2009 Graduate Coursework, San Francisco State University 2013 Master of Arts, University of California, San Diego 2019 Doctor of Philosophy, University of California, San Diego PUBLICATIONS “Agua es Vida: Solidarity Science Against False Climate Change Solutions.” co-authored with M. Brito-Millán, A. Cheng, E. Harrison, M. Mendoza Martinez, R. Sugla, M. Belmonte, L. Quintanilla, J. Guzman-Morales, and A. Martinez. Science for the People. The Return of Radical Science. Spring 2019. “No Cops Needed: Collective Approaches to Violence and Sexual Assault Beyond the Prison Industrial Complex.” 2015 Chicana/o In/Civilities: Contestación y Lucha Cornerstones of Chicana & Chicano Studies. Annual Conference Proceedings. National Association of Chicana & Chicano Studies. San Jose State University Scholar Works. https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/naccs/2015/ “Chapter 15: Offering our stories: resistance narratives and the marketing of justice.” Research Justice: Methodologies for Social Change. Ed. Andrew Jolivette. Bristol, UK: Policy Press. 2015. When Social Media Becomes Social Justice: Denuncias Inside/Outside of Chicano/a Studies. Amrah Salomón J. Chicana/Latina Studies. Spring 2014. Book Review. Who Speaks for Hispanics? Hispanic Interest Groups in Washington