Thousands if not millions of Oaxacan people packed their things and left north for the United States in the 80s, 90s and 2000s. They took up jobs in service industries, construction, agriculture, and any other work available to immigrant people in cities across the West. Back in Oaxaca, the mass exodus of people has left entire small towns without young folks. A whole generation of people, some Black, some mestizes and some indigenous, left traditions, languages, and families behind in hopes of escaping poverty. These escapees settled in Los Angeles, the Inland Empire, Fresno, Santa Maria, the Bay Area, and all along the West Coast. A couple of generations later, these migrants still struggle for survival. My family is among the thousands if not millions.

This project is for those scraping by in the vast wealth of the west coast. For declared or undeclared enemies of the settler-colonial state. For compxs that blast cumbias and corridos in the innocence of west coast suburbia. For those that know that life requires we act to abolish this world.

We speak for an experience in a moment and in a particular city. We speak because of the world we see and our burning desire to build something new. We speak against the forces acting to destroy us and those we love. We hate cops, abusers, prisons, the state, property, white supremacy, and capitalism. We act for the world we want, not the world that exists.

We’re not here for bastarized representations of Oaxaca or romantic notions of people from Oaxaca. We’re here to end it all.