Veganism as a decolonial feminist praxis plus Mesoamerican foodways.

Throughout my Master of Arts in Women, Gender, Spirituality, and Social Justice program at the California Insitute of Integral Studies, I conducted interdisciplinary research about veganism as a decolonial feminist praxis. Using Gloria E. Anzaldúa’s “autohistoria-teoría” (autoethnography) and “spiritual activism,” I examined my life as a vegan Chicana since 2018. I situated veganism—a lifestyle seeking to minimize harm by abstaining from all non-human animal domination, consumption, and exploitation—within the larger decolonial project. 

In addition, my feminist project builds on The Sexual Politics of Meat by Carol J. Adams, in which the author asserts that non-human animals are dominated and oppressed like women-identified humans. I then drew on intersectional scholars of color like Luz Calvo, Catriona Esquibel, Vandana Shiva, A. Breeze Harper, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Claudia Serrato, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and Layli Maparyan. Throughout my research, I argue that veganism can be a vessel for spirituality and socio-ecological justice by bringing oneself home to their body, spirit, and earth. The scholars mentioned above have mothered me into the academic study of intersectional veganism and inspired me to make my original Chicana contributions to this field.  

Today, I am an aspiring scholar seeking to research how Chicana/o communities use digital media and visual/performing arts to challenge misrepresentations about veganism and reclaim traditional foods. In Fall 2023, I will begin a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Chicana and Chicano Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) to research decolonial foodways. At UCSB, I intend to become an expert on Chicana decolonial food production, branding, and entrepreneurship in the 21st century across Turtle Island (North America). 

In my experiences being vegan, I have witnessed an increase in communities of color transitioning to a vegan lifestyle through a rise of social media “influencers” and eateries. I wish to explore how vegan and decolonial foodways shape our everyday lives, especially for Chicana/o communities.

Colonized foodways have caused my family generational chronic illness and early death; I hope my eco-feminist research can offer strategies for Chicana/o and other communities to find healing through ancestral foods.

Questions that animate my thinking include:

  1. Why do Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) become vegan?

  2. How does social media influence or compel BIPOC communities to become vegan or decolonize their diet?

  3. In what ways does the cyber world incite what Anzaldúa refers to as nepantla, a Nahuatl word meaning third "in-between'' spaces for vegans?

  4. How do BIPOC women use digital archives to teach, promote, or sell veganism?

  5. How do BIPOC women produce knowledge that contrasts dominant understandings of veganism as a white, upper-class lifestyle?

EVOLVING RESEARCH AND TEACHING COMMITMENTS: 

  • Comparative ethnic studies

  • Decolonial research methodologies

  • “Integral feminist pedagogy”

  • Youth development

  • Spiritual activism

  • Social movement theory

  • Chicano/a spirituality

  • Visual and performing arts

  • Media studies

  • Eco-feminism

  • Environmental and digital humanities

  • Multi-species studies

  • Critical food studies

  • Intersectional veganism