By Christopher Soto
FROM: LARB

TONGVA PEOPLE HAVE LIVED in the Los Angeles Basin since time immemorial. As someone raised in the outskirts of Los Angeles, I knew very little about Tongva history or culture until my mid-20s, even though I had to study California history in the public schools here. The first Tongva person whose name I learned was Toypurina. I read about her online, while browsing articles about settler colonialism and histories of Indigenous resistance in Southern California. Since then, I have come to recognize her face in murals and on a poster inside one of my favorite venues — the Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center in Venice. Toypurina was born in 1760 and is best known for leading a rebellion against colonization by Spanish missionaries.

As the years have passed, I have read and heard about other women in Tongva history, too, including Victoria Reid, Juana Maria, and the Water Woman. I also learned about the work of Tongva scholars and educators Kelly Stewart, Theresa Ambo, and the late Julia Bogany. Maybe it is because I identify as non-binary, or because I come from a family filled with strong women, but my learning process often begins with histories of women. Since I am also involved in the literary arts world — I serve as a Board Member of Lambda Literary and teach poetry in the Honors College at UCLA — creative writers and visual artists are often centered in my learning, too. As my knowledge of Tongva culture and history expanded, I started following the work and careers of several talented contemporary Tongva visual artists: Weshoyot Alvitre, River Garza, and Mercedes Dorame. My reason for dropping all of these names is not to stake some kind of group connection, but rather to give readers some grounding as they undertake their own readings about Tongva history and culture.

As a guest on this land — since Los Angeles is land stolen from the Tongva people — I feel it is my obligation to know to whom my respects are due. As a person living in Tovaangar (the name for the Los Angeles Basin in the language of its ancestral caretakers), my responsibilities fall first to the people who have stewarded this land for thousands of years, before the recent centuries of colonization. Through the last three centuries, the Los Angeles Basin has been colonized by Spain, Mexico, and the United States. With each wave of colonization, the Tongva people were besieged not only by settler violence but also by multiple waves of diseases those settlers brought along with them, including smallpox, influenza, and, more recently, the Coronavirus. The spread of these deadly diseases, alongside the histories of incarceration and genocide, the enduring pressure for Indigenous peoples to assimilate to the culture of their conquerors, and so many other forms of violence continue to contribute to the loss of Tongva culture, knowledge, and history. Colonization is not something that exists solely in the past, but rather percolates through the present in an unending chain of often unacknowledged atrocities.

I wanted to interview contemporary Tongva writers in order to not only raise awareness of their work, but also to raise awareness of the histories of the land currently called Los Angeles. The conversations below with five Tongva women writers — Cindi Alvitre, Jessa Calderon, Casandra López, Kelly Caballero, and Megan Dorame — offer an opportunity to hear them speak about their current creative projects, what inspires them, and their goals on the horizon. Following their lead, I hope we can continue fighting for Indigenous sovereignty and reparations. As a person who puts great stock in the power of literature to preserve culture and inspire change, I hope that reading the work of Tongva women can give everyone a glimpse into the past, present, and future of Tovaangar. Read Rest of Article Here