Chair: Louis G. Mendoza, University of Minnesota
Panelists: Alan Eladio Gomez (ASU), Annette Portillo (UTSA),B. V. Olguin (UTSA)

Invited Guest Speakers to Discuss HB2281 and SB1070

• Gregorio Montes de Oca and Daisy Cruz - ASU students, MEChistA organizers, participants in the “Capitol 9” (students arrested during protest against SB1070)
• Nicolette Gomez and Crystal Terriquez – Tucson student/youth organizers, (participants in protests against HB2281)
• Kat Rodriguez - Coalición de Derechos Humanos (grassroots organization which promotes respect for human/civil rights and fights the militarization of the Southern Border region)
• Sean Arce – Director, Mexican American Studies Program for Tucson Unified School District

Revised Panel Description

Who is Native? How do we define American? Does Naturalized Citizen also
imply the existence of Unnatural Subjects? And how have these categories
been deployed in imperialist politics as well as undertheorized
counterhegemonic interventions?

Initially intended to explore the complex iterations of identity, history,
and politics existing between native peoples and people of Mexican
descent in the US that both bind us together while also sometimes serving
as a source of tension, the current circumstances in Arizona remind us that
imperial eyes draw no distinctions. In light of SB1070 (Arizona¹s intensified cooperation with ICE) and HB2281 (the bill targeting ethnic studies in Arizona), the planned scholarly presenters will be in dialogue with invited guest activists who will report on grassroots resistance and avenues for further interventions.