Fall 2025
Palabras del Pueblo
First two weekends of October: October 4-5, and 11-12.
Apply NowCloses Sep. 14th
Instructors
Lorna Dee Cervantes, Juan G. Berumen, Ernesto Mireles, Diosa Xochiquetzalcóatl, Ernest Hogan, Estella Gonzalez, and M.M. Olivas.
Presenters
Amalia Ortiz, author of The Canción Cannibal Cabaret, Ernesto Mireles, author of Insurgent Aztlán, Angel Dominguez, author of Desgraciado
Presentations happen to all participants the first hour of the workshop with topics on craft and Xicanxismo. The first day is orientation with no presentation.Classes
Comics con Corazón y Comunidad
Dr. E C Dukes and Ronnie Dukes
This workshop centers the voices of Xicanx and BIPOC creators, bringing together storytelling, drawing, and community. Through guided writing and art prompts, participants will clear the mind, spark fresh ideas, and craft comics that celebrate identity and amplify our collective voice. Together, we’ll explore how comics can be a tool for creativity, self-expression, and activism. No experience needed—just bring your corazón.
Comunicaciones Ancestrales: Escritores Multidimensionales Ancestral Communications: Multidimensional Writers (Class is conducted in Spanish)
Diosa Xochiquetzalcóatl
Comunicación Celestial: Escritores Multidimensionales Por medio de una serie de meditaciones, participantes aprenderán a abrir y a limpiar sus chakras o "totonalcayos" en el mundo de Nahualísmo. Ya alineados los totonalcayos, participantes aprenderán a conectarse con sus ancestros: revelando sabiduría ancestral, al femenino divino: desbloqueando la energía fundamental de la creación y la creatividad, y al masculino divino: descubriendo fuerza interior y aumentando auto-confianza. Al abrir las mentes y los corazones, participantes podrán viajar por una sin fin de mundos llenos de colores y visiones con el fin de capturar estas experiencias, iniciando nuevas escrituras - escrituras multidimensionales. Celestial Communication: Multidimensional Writers Through a series of guided meditations, participants will learn how to open up and clear their chakras, or "totonalcayos" in the school of Nahualísmo. Once the totonalcayos have been aligned, attendees will learn how to connect with their ancestors: revealing ancestral wisdom, the divine feminine: unlocking the fundamental energy of creation and creativity, and the divine masculine: unveiling one's inner-strength and building our self-confidence. By opening the heart and clearing the mind, participants will be able to travel through an array of worlds filled with visions and vibrant colors all with the underlying purpose of documenting these experiences - the starting point for creating unique and personalized, multidimensional writings.
Conception, Gestation and Vibration: “Birthing”, Nurturing and Publishing Chicanx Fiction
Estella Gonzalez
This workshop will focus on helping Chicanx writers immerse themselves in their fiction and use their life experiences and cultural touchstones to find their voices. Through journal entries, generative prompts, and presentations on effective fiction technique such as robust points of view for strong storytelling, Chicanx writers will explore the literary possibilities for their prose. The final session will focus on constructive peer/group review, finding supportive publishers and sustaining a Chicanx writing community to “voice” (publish and peer-review) their fiction.
Crafting Nonfiction for Liberation
Dr. Ernesto Mireles
Dive into the transformative world of resistance literature and the fight for national liberation in the Insurgent Aztlán Workshop. Based on Ernesto Todd Mireles' work, this interactive session explores the role of cultural production in reclaiming identity, challenging oppression, and shaping revolutionary movements. Participants will examine how Xicana/o/x literature, film, music, and art confront colonial narratives, and foster collective will toward liberation. Through writing prompts, group discussions, and creative exercises, attendees will learn to connect cultural heritage to political identity, explore the principles of decolonization, and craft narratives that amplify resistance. Whether you're a writer, activist, or scholar, this workshop offers tools to deepen your understanding of insurgent culture and inspire impactful change. Join us as we analyze key thinkers like Frantz Fanon and Amilcar Cabral, and learn to reframe history, ignite self-determination, and envision a liberated future. No prior experience required—just bring your passion for storytelling and transformation!
Gonzo Science Fiction, Chicano Style
Ernest Hogan
Come, learn his gonzo techniques to use the weirdness of the Latinoid Continuum in your writing, and how to market yourself to the Anglo-centric publishing industry, use the social media for self-promotion, as well as hear outrageous--sometimes hair-raising--firsthand anecdotes of living a professional writer’s life. He will also answer your questions, wants this to be an interactive experience, hopes to learn a few things himself, and maybe even get his mind blown. During the course of the workshop, he will start and write a story, sharing how he does it (it will get gonzo), and help the students do the same. Then we will all set our creations loose on an unsuspecting world . . .
Speculative Fiction from Nepantla
Juan G. Berumen
If you were to journey through the borderlands, what stories would you encounter? Would they be of curanderas driving lowriding hovercrafts exorcising those possessed by The Curse of El Mal Ojo? For our gente, speculative fiction allows us the freedom to tell similar stories unfiltered without fearing the straitjacket while also envisioning wildly new worlds and possibilities.
The Monstrous Queer
M.M. Olivas
The Monstrous Queer with M.M. Olivas, a craft seminar on horror as a modality that centers queer indigeneity and diasporic experiences, with the intention of opening avenues to more diverse, cross-genre narratives. This seminar will focus on engaging with genre tropes, how to utilize the symbolism of them, their short hands, and how to subvert them. Olivas will also discuss her practice in translating the languages of other mediums into her fiction, such as the visual storytelling of cinema, to create unique ways to approach prose and voice. There will be generative exercises!
Writing Like A Chicana: The Whole Enchilada
Lorna Dee Cervantes
This workshop will focus on helping Chicanx writers immerse themselves in their fiction and use their life experiences and cultural touchstones to find their voices. Through journal entries, generative prompts, and presentations on effective fiction technique such as robust points of view for strong storytelling, Chicanx writers will explore the literary possibilities for their prose. The final session will focus on constructive peer/group review, finding supportive publishers and sustaining a Chicanx writing community to “voice” (publish and peer-review) their fiction.