Anzaldúing it: podcasting, Pláticas, and digital Jotería counterspaces

Abstract

When we started the Anzaldúing It podcast in 2017, we were trying to find a healing space outside of academia to process our everyday experiences as first-generation queer Latina/xs in graduate school. We chose the medium of podcasting as our platform because of our shared experience of pláticas being transformative spaces of knowledge sharing, consciousness-raising, and connection. Drawing on the tenets of Chicana/Latina Feminista Pláticas and coupling it with jotería identity and consciousness, and literature on academic counterspaces we conceptualize five tenets that make up what we refer to as digital jotería counterspaces. As co-creators and co-hosts, we engage in digital pláticas to enact self and community care through co-learning and co-construction of knowledge, this digital presence affirms our commitment to centering queer and trans Latinx identity and consciousness. We share our pláticas with the public through the digital and host them on an online repository, and as a result, create opportunities for multiple pláticas and consciousness-raising to occur.