Questions For Maya Jupiter

My name is Clarissa. I am a junior majoring in Gender, Women, and Sexuality studies. I'm excited about taking this class because for the early parts of my childhood, my grandparents lived in Guatemala and Mexico. They also did missions work in Honduras and El Salvador. Much of my childhood consisted of them speaking in Spanish when they didn't want my siblings understanding what they were discussing. I want to understand the parts of the culture they missed because of spreading "the gospel" and how now, that same "gospel" is used as a tool to force Chicanos/Chicanas out of the United States as well as force immigrants into low wage jobs that are often harmful to their wellbeing.

Thank you very much for joining our class today. Here are my questions:

1) In recent years, we have seen music and other forms of art being used in social justice movements, or even as a social justice movement itself. One of our readings even discussed the use of art in the Chicano Movement. Is your music used in social justice movements or do you have the goal of letting it speak for itself as a new movement altogether?

2) Our recent readings have also discussed the history of Mexico and the Borderlands and also the use of history in art, whether it be American racial history or personal histories. In your music video "Madre Tierra", you mentioned on YouTube that the scarf you wore was your grandmother's who was from Turkey. In your other music, to you ever use your personal history as a form of art or inspiration?