Movidas are subtle yet strategic actions through which Latina/x artists forge solidarities, mobilize for justice, and reclaim space. In Place-Keepers, Jessica Lopez Lyman centers Latina/x women and gender nonconforming artists from Chicana/Mexicana, US Central American, and Caribbean backgrounds and examines how these artists respond to systemic oppression through public performances and behind-the-scenes negotiations with the state, nonprofits, and other institutions—establishing a crucial framework for understanding art as activism. Here, Lopez Lyman is joined in conversation with Kristie Soares and Karma Chaves.

Jessica Lopez Lyman is an interdisciplinary performance artist and Xicana feminist scholar, assistant professor in the Department of Chicano and Latino Studies at the University of Minnesota, and author of Place-Keepers: Latina/x Art, Performance, and Organizing in the Twin Cities.

Kristie Soares is associate professor of Women & Gender Studies and Co-Director of LGBTQ Studies at University of Colorado Boulder. Soares is author of Playful Protest: The Political Work of Joy in Latinx Media.

Karma Chávez is Bobby and Sherri Patton Professor of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies and Chair of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at The University of Texas at Austin. Chavez is author of The Borders of AIDS: Race, Quarantine, and Resistance; Palestine on the Air; and Queer Migration Politics: Activist Rhetoric and Coalitional Possibilities. 

EPISODE REFERENCES:

Laurie Carlos

María Isa Pérez-Vega

Stephanie Lee Batiste

Methodology of the Oppressed / Chela Sandoval

FEATURED ARTISTS in Place-Keepers:

Teresa Ortiz

Guadalupe Castillo (La Lupe)

Deborah Ramos

Adriana Rimpel (Lady Midnight)

María Isa Pérez-Vega

Lorena Duarte

Olivia Levins Holden

Magdalena Kaluza

Rebekah Crisanta de Ybarra

Maria Cristina Tavera

NOTE: This podcast episode was recorded in December 2025. More recently, Jessica Lopez Lyman spoke with Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan on LitHub’s fiction/non/fiction podcast about the history of state violence in Minnesota.

Place-Keepers: Latina/x Art, Performance, and Organizing in the Twin Cities by Jessica Lopez Lyman is available from University of Minnesota Press. Thank you for listening.