Origins
Zines are do-it-yourself libritos;
books for the people by the people, without censorship and
completely unapologetic.
Zines With Sol formerly Zines Rasquache is a collection of Zines that tell stories that challenge the dominant narrative present in mass media.
The first zine I helped make was born out of a sit-in I helped organize with student activists at SF State. We took over the administration building sometime in 2010 to bring focus to the ridiculous fee hikes in tuition, on going since 2008. Folks wrote their grievances on sticky notes and hung them all around the wall. Rather then letting the custodian throw them away, a friend and I gathered them and put them into a zine, which we then delivered to the SF State president at the time. I hope he read it.
Since then, I've been making zines as alternatives to typical forms of literatures: school projects, short stories, interviews, historical non fiction, civil disobedience. I don't rely on someone to publish the work I choose to put out into the world. I am therefore not edited, censored or silenced by an outsider, though I greatly take into consideration the safety of the people whose voices carry over the pages.
My work focuses mostly on the Xican@ experience, living in the United States, being of Mexican/Central American descent. I tell stories of resistance to government oppression, social inequities, misogyny and capitalism. And now with the birth of my sun, my work is shifting to focus on destroying the violent systems of the medical industrial complex and all its many arms y legs as well as bringing forth the stories and practices of bad ass parents/communities raising bad ass, free babies.
I am honored to have several collaborations under my belt.
I am brown and proud, mujer, madre y xingona.
Contact me if you want to collaborate, have a space for my zines at your event/shop/distro, need someone to teach a zine making workshop, or would like to have me speak in your classroom/community space.
Follow me on Instagram @zineswithsol for updates.
