The masa that holds us: Indigenous epistemologies and the food we share

Author

Necahual Gamboa, Cal Poly HumboldtFollow

Graduation Date

Spring 2025

Document Type

Project

Program

Master of Arts degree with a major in English, emphasis in Applied English Studies

Committee Chair Name

Renée Byrd

Committee Chair Affiliation

Cal Poly Humboldt Faculty or Staff

Second Committee Member Name

Cutcha Risling Baldy

Second Committee Member Affiliation

Cal Poly Humboldt Faculty or Staff

Third Committee Member Name

Robin Day

Third Committee Member Affiliation

Community Member or Outside Professional

Keywords

Indigenous epistemologies, Community, Food, Latine, Latinx, Latino, Latina, Grandmothers, Abuelas, Masa, Aztec, Nahuatl, Aztec philosophy, Photography, Film, Video, Art practice, Art, Family, Traditions, Constellating

Subject Categories

English

Abstract

The U.S. higher education system is built on histories and infrastructures of colonization, white supremacy, and western imperialism. Among many of the institutions produced from a history of domination and genocide, the systems of higher education need to shift their focus to decolonial frameworks including Indigenous epistemologies (ways of knowing and being) in order to work toward true reparations between these imperial systems and the Indigenous people they have displaced and disregarded. This project brings these systems into question, but also uses art, prose, and storytelling to better align with what it means or what it could look like to engage with Indigenous knowledge production in a way that is active and not purely theoretical. We are still healing from the historical events of colonialism. I use food making and sharing as well as engaging with conversations with my late great grandmother Alicia, “Licha”. This project weaves together multiple philosophies including Aztec philosophies of movement or spaces where movement occurs, “Olinkas”, as well as works from Gloria Anzaldúa, Qwo-Li Driskill, Sasha Lapointe, Enrique Salmón, Roberto Cintli Rodríguez and many others. I mix together in a bowl of masa, ideas of “nepantlas” introduced by Anzaldúa, conceptualizations of indigenous skillshares from Driskill, the personal narratives of Lapointe and Salmón, and the history of maíz from Rodríguez. I use all of these authors and others to mix the masa of who I am and where I come from, as well as how to implement Indigenous epistemologies and decolonial methodologies into the academic sphere. Here I remain unconvinced if true decolonization can happen within the institution, but nonetheless what I present here is a practice in trying, in survivance, and a process of grieving.

Citation Style

MLA

Recommended Citation

Gamboa, Necahual, "The masa that holds us: Indigenous epistemologies and the food we share" (2025). Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects. 2294.
https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/etd/2294