Table Talk: Latinx Healing
Please join facilitators Manuel X. Zamarripa and Tlazoltiani Zamarripa, co-founders of the Institute of Chicanx Psychology, to discuss the ways in which Latinx communities are reclaiming and sharing healing resources passed down from generation to generation. As we face individual and collective losses, where do we see the resilience, growth, and transformation in our community’s lived experience?
Topics include:
Identity: Who are we? Why does it matter? Am I Latinx enough? Where did we come from?
Brown Wellness: What are our shared wounds and strengths? How can we de-stigmatize care for our mental health? How do family, community, faith and spirituality affect our healing?
Ancestral Wisdom: What does this term mean exactly? How do we access and connect with these learnings? How can we recognize cultural appropriation and appropriate ways to honor rituals, ceremonies, and practices?
After a period of discussion, we will go into breakout rooms with a set of prompts. The main room during the breakout session will be reserved for those who do not self-identify as Latino/a/x, Hispanic, and/or Indigenous.
While all are welcome, this is a dedicated container to center Latinx voices. In addition, we invite allies to the Latinx community who wish to increase their knowledge of the current issues that impact the community’s health and wellbeing.
Manuel X. Zamarripa, PhD, is the co-director and co-founder of the Institute of Chicana/o/x Psychology based in Austin, TX, where he conducts community workshop platicas as well as professional development training for educators and mental health professionals on issues related to Chicana/o/x wellness, cultural identity, and mental health from a Chicana/o/x framework. Dr. Zamarripa is a trained psychologist, clinician, college dean, and danzante. He has been a student and teacher of Chciana/o/x Psychology for 30 years. A previous academic program director and associate professor, he was awarded the University of Texas System Chancellor’s “Innovations in Education Award” (2007). Manuel has been featured on NPR and in the L.A. Times. He is also currently the president of the National Latinx Psychological Association. Manuel’s publications and presentations in psychology and education focus on Chicana/o/x well-being, racial responsiveness, cultural revitalization, social justice, and leadership.
Dr. Zamarripa, is a licensed professional counselor and supervisor (Texas) and received his doctorate in Counseling Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, his master’s in Counseling Psychology from Our Lady of the Lake University, and his bachelor’s in psychology from the University of Notre Dame. @xicanpsych
Tlazoltiani Jessica Zamarripa is co-director & co-founder of the Institute of Chicana/o/x Psychology. Tlazoltiani is a Cultural Educator, Mental Health Advocate, & Keeper of our ancestral wisdom. She is a long time Austin, TX mami activist and community organizer working toward social justice within the Chicanx and Latinx community. She was an organizer for the collective, Latina Mami, for more than 15 years. Her community home is Kalpulli Teokalli Teoyolotl. The preservation of her culture and community is a driving force in her life. Jessica is a founding member of Academia Cuauhtli, a local Austin language and cultural revitalization school program for Spanish speaking Mexican American elementary students. She is also a past council member of Alma de Mujer Center for Social Change and a Danzante de La Luna and danzante with Danza Mexica Xochipilli. Her writing, dancing and community work is medicine toward the liberation, healing, and flourishing of her children and her people.
About the Institute of Chicana/o/x Psychology and Community Wellness
The Institute is a community-building entity focused on wellness and strengths of the Chicana/o/x community through the lens of Chicana/o/x Psychology. In our work, we address both risk and protective factors related to the wellness of the Chicana/o/x community, including historical factors of oppression as well as ancestral strengths and wisdom. We facilitate conversations about community struggles along with healthy development of self-image and positive cultural identity. We provide community platica workshops on cultural revitalization and overall community mental health and wellness by focusing on liberation, social justice, and self-determination. For us, Chicanx Psychology is “Gente Psychology”; meaning that we work to be responsive to the voices of the Chicana/o/x community while being aware of the generational wisdom of our people. The “answers” to many of the struggles we face are held within our cultural legacy. https://www.razapsych.org/ @xicanpsych
About Reimagine
Reimagine is a nonprofit organization catalyzing a uniquely powerful community–people of different backgrounds, ages, races, and faiths (and no faith) coming together in the hopes of healing ourselves and the world. We specifically support each other in facing adversity, loss, and mortality and–at our own pace– actively channeling life's biggest challenges into meaningful action and growth. www.letsreimagine.org
About Table Talk
We recognize that marginalized communities and cultures -- Black, Indigenous, Latino/a/x, Asian American, Disabled, LGBTQ+, etc. -- have their own unique perspectives and shared truths. All of these groups face tremendous challenges in dealing with serious illness, dying, grief, and discrimination. And there is a shared need for platforms to talk about these issues freely in order to connect, learn, heal, remember, and take action.
While individual Table Talks are developed by and for specific communities, we recognize that often these groupings are permeable. Many of us describe more than one group as “home,” and many of us have experienced oppression based on multiple aspects of our intersecting identities: race, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability, and more.
Reimagine invites people of all backgrounds to join us to witness, listen and learn at Table Talk. Ultimately we are creating space rooted in the principles of Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion in order for everyone to thrive.
