About the talk:
If justice and solidarity are what love looks like in public, then we cannot enter this relationship without dialogue. In the so-called post-pandemic era, Chicanx, Latinx, and Indigenous peoples have not ceased implementing their traditional ways in community- based spaces. Concerning their re-Indigenization and re-humanization, they need to continue focusing on their well-being in educational institutions, academia, and communities. Given the overrepresentation of this population within the criminal justice system and their underrepresentation in K-12 and higher education, they must continue to focus on building extended kinship networks with self-identified males of color in a holistic, sustainable manner. To serve the needs of Chicanx, Latinx, and Indigenous peoples, they must incorporate intersectional, racially or ethnic-rooted, and intergenerational trajectories. Doing so will ensure their individual and collective healing. 

This talk examines how fifty (N=50) Chicanx, Latinx, and Indigenous self-identified males negotiate and navigate their healing and shared vulnerability in community-based spaces. Using ancestral knowledge rooted in a Maya-Nahua cosmology, Caporale describes the restorative practices that the Círculo de Hombres (or Circle of Men) create through their participation in healing circles and purification or temezkal ceremonies. Utilizing a liberatory praxis, supplemented with Indigenous pedagogies, men of the Círculo de Hombres learn to see themselves as historical knowledge creators and change agents who can transform themselves and the world around them. Caporale argues that this community of self-identified males provides a decolonizing non-patriarchal space for men (queer and straight) to reflect on their personal and collective experiences and stories. The Círculo de Hombres plays a pivotal role in revolutionizing men's lives by reconnecting them with their ancestors' traditional wisdom allowing them to heal from traumas while building solidarity through dialogue.

About the speaker:
Juvenal Caporale is an Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies at California State University, Stanislaus. He completed his Ph.D. in Mexican American Studies at the University of Arizona, an MA in Ethnic Studies from the University of California at San Diego, and another MA in Political Science from California State University, Northridge. Caporale's research interests include re-Indigenization and re-humanization, and his work centers on Chicanx, Mexican, and Indigenous men who participate in healing circles. Caporale is a Ford, Fulbright, and Bilinski Fellow, and he has authored essays in Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, Urban Education, Routledge, Springer, and the University of Arizona Press.