Be a Better Relative - Tuesday, June 9, 2026

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5. Tuesday, 730.
6. Here we are visiting with relatives.
7. Eagle in the Condor.
8. How to be a better relative.
9. It's a question I ask every day.
10. I'm right now visiting Texas, and I'm going to be hanging out with the Carizo Comecrudo tribe
11. and Corancoan, a couple people from that tribe, and definitely our relatives who relocated from
12. California in San Antonio and in Austin. And I'll be returning back to Califas in a couple months.
13. I have some family stuff to take care of, you know, just got to beat with family for a minute.
14. Needless to say, this is KPFK 90.7 FM.
15. And at Tuesdays, we get to visit with Sunrose.
16. Hey, Lydia, definitely safe travels out there and everybody getting ready for their summer gatherings and spending that quality time with family.
17. It is the best way to be a better relative, actually.
18. Yeah, yeah.
19. And I'm still tired from the trip.
20. Let me just tell you that America does not care about the roads or the infrastructure in Arizona and New Mexico.
21. The roads were atrocious.
22. I give it a big fail grade.
23. It got a little bit better in Texas, and I got to go through some parts that were just a lot of roadkill, a lot of roadkill.
24. And I felt so bad for the animals trying to cross, traverse at night, trying to get probably to water or food or their babies.
25. This is a time right now where there's a lot of birds, a lot of nests, a lot of different creatures, a lot of different relatives coming through. And I say that because Texas is different, as we all know. It's like its own country. And I'm on my P's and Q's, but I crossed the U.S. border. It wasn't a border. It was actually a check, a U.S. border patrol.
26. and the guy asked me a bunch of questions and the short answer is u.s citizen yes i'm a u.s citizen
27. born and raised san diego part of my life and then the other part san pedro he says go ahead
28. my daughter pointed out that i have a v for vendetta mask on the passenger side of my
29. of my car so he waved me through and all the arrows pointed to why they should pull me over
30. and asked me 101 questions, but they didn't.
31. And thank Creator because, yeah,
32. I felt like I didn't want to be messed with that day.
33. It was our fourth day, and it was a hard time to travel.
34. It was really difficult, but I got here safe.
35. Awesome.
36. Yes.
37. So we're going to be able to hang out this summer.
38. And I wanted to bring on Gina Cabeza de Vaca,
39. our lead dance instructor in Santa Monica in California,
40. because the two of you have loads in common,
41. and being artists yourselves, and being instructors, and giving the youth some kind of glimmer of hope
42. within your interactions, your offerings, your teachings. And I just know that looking at the
43. LA budget, there's not a lot left to be desired when it comes to the whole greater city of Los
44. Angeles. And what I mean is that if you've got children who are younger than 18, and this summer
45. is just upon us, and we have the price of gas and inflation, everything becoming more expensive,
46. As my dear friend says the arts always are the first to suffer And it appears to me that I really am out of the loop My daughter already 32 and my grandchildren are the ones that are younger and it different
47. I'm in Texas, and that's where they're at. So the price is different, the offerings are different.
48. So I wanted the two of you to talk, and I'm going to chime in where I can,
49. with regards to how to present your teachings. And let's just start with the introduction with
50. Gina, and then we can lead into what's different from the past, the present, and the future
51. of summer with children, especially trying to keep them with their head raised up. They're proud
52. in their culture and their heritage, and also in the teachings of what they need to experience.
53. Play is learning and learning through play, and they need to be able to make mistakes,
54. and they need to be able to experience life at their age-appropriate challenges, right? So anyway,
55. Gina, take it away. Who are you, my dear? Tell everybody who you are.
56. Gina De Vaca, but really, originally, Gina Cabeza De Vaca. That's all part of the assimilation
57. process, not done by me. But, you know, previous, you know, our families, you know, and prior
58. generations, they were just trying to assimilate. So, names got changed. So, anyways, I live here
59. in Santa Monica. I teach here in Santa Monica and I've been a dancer my entire life. We've always
60. had dance, you know, folklorico dance, Aztec dance. We've had these dance forms here in Santa
61. Monica for years, forever. And they were taught by, you know, others prior to me. I'm the only
62. one that runs Valle Folklorico here in Santa Monica and Aztec dance here in Santa Monica.
63. No one else does it. But when I was growing up, there was probably about three
64. folklorical groups in Santa Monica. And the entire West Side, the Four Corners,
65. each had their own for sure. I know West LA had a folklorical group, so did Culver City,
66. and so did Venice. But again, Santa Monica had probably two to three just for Santa Monica.
67. and then suddenly all of a sudden it was probably the second you know gentrification process during
68. that time might have been the third gentrification i've lost count in all honesty that sweep all of
69. a sudden our culture was gone not only were you know they getting rid of our people but they were
70. getting rid of our culture and so um i was like hold up can't get rid of our culture too and so
71. I started our dance company, our dance school here in Santa Monica.
72. I have always been a dancer.
73. I love dancing.
74. Never did I think I was going to run a dance school, though.
75. That was not my goal in life.
76. I have six children and 11 grandchildren.
77. But I started this 20 years ago.
78. Yeah, I'm busy.
79. Beautiful family.
80. Thank you.
81. But our dance, our culture is so beautiful.
82. And we need, we have to.
83. We have to pass it on to the next generation. And in doing that, it doesn't matter the nationality, religion, culture, whatever, color, skin, it just doesn't matter. We've had all people of all colors, all religions in our classes and all abilities at that.
84. you know all abilities are welcome in our classes because we all move just like the stars we all
85. move the water we flow this is the human body and so yes our culture is very beautiful our native you know ancestors then it became Mexico and now we United States Dance has always been here
86. Dance is part of the human race.
87. And I just happen to have the skills in four dance forms.
88. Hawaiian, our native relatives on the islands.
89. Belly dance, that's a female form of dance.
90. I'm a female, I'm a woman.
91. And then Aztec dance and drum and then Valle Folklórico with the big, beautiful skirts.
92. And those things are heavy, too.
93. Yes.
94. So in meeting the past now and talking about present, I know COVID took a lot out on a lot of us.
95. And we're going to have Sanros join us in this conversation because it really changed the trajectory on socialization for our children.
96. and I want both to describe where it went from in your personal lived experience and also with
97. your family because you both have smaller children and smaller grandchildren. So I'm
98. going to go ahead and figure out what we could do to figure how do we share the resources.
99. For me personally, our dance company, we have, again, continuous for 20 years,
100. we're still offering it and we're still offering these dance classes to everyone.
101. Again, everyone, all abilities, all colors, all nationalities, we don't care.
102. We take joy in, you know, sharing this knowledge.
103. It was shared with us, and now we share it with others.
104. And COVID, as you brought up, it did change things.
105. You know, we went to not teaching dance for nine months, and that was awful.
106. That was just awful.
107. And when we did return, we returned in parking lots.
108. And it was kind of ironic because when I started this dance company 20 years ago, that's how we started. I didn't have money to rent a dance studio. And I was offering the classes for free, you know. And so now here we are, nine months, you know, eventually we got to have dance studios and what have you eventually.
109. but we started literally in our parking lots of our apartment buildings.
110. And then we got into the dance studio.
111. And then here we are, COVID.
112. Now we're back out in the parking lots again.
113. But now we're back indoors again.
114. We are renting spaces, so we're indoors again.
115. But it wasn't a bad thing to go back to our roots of being outside.
116. It wasn't bad at all.
117. It was actually kind of refreshing.
118. things seem to circle back around in good ways and i know for some reasons right we're like
119. scared of crowds now the whole population and i think it'll circle back around too
120. and i guess i have a question for you is as an educator and i just did a little search
121. about you? I'm the web. And it says you're an activist. And would you say that's because
122. you're advising or promoting? What is that? Trying to uplift culture? And then that's the
123. activism part? Or are you actually going after different issues and uplifting? How is that?
124. So I've been an activist most of my life. I'll tell you this. I was probably about
125. five years old, going to age myself now. I was probably about five years old. And I remember
126. telling my grandmother, she raised me, my mother's mother. I remember telling her,
127. because it would be on the news the Black Panthers these bad guys right And so I remember telling my grandmother they not bad They for the people Now they weren saying that on the news and neither were the neighbors No one was saying that Don
128. ask me where I got that from. Don't ask me how it got in my head. But I remember to this day,
129. telling that to my grandmother. And this is a short little brown woman who's just trying to
130. assimilate into the American culture. And mind you, she is American citizen because our family
131. has been here forever. The border crossed us. We didn't cross the border. So this little brown
132. woman who just wanted to be accepted into American society is looking at me like I'm crazy.
133. But then, you know, at 13, 14 years old, there was a man, he's still around, he's still an activist,
134. Ernesto. You know, he brought me and so many other young people into the Chicano movement
135. and fighting for the rights of our people as Chicanos.
136. But then later, as an adult, when my sons, I have three daughters and three sons,
137. when my two older sons were being, and this was part of the gentrification process in Salmonica,
138. they were rounding up our black and brown young men.
139. And so my two older sons got pulled in and were part of the juvenile justice system,
140. more like juvenile injustice.
141. so I immediately got involved and you know we were fighting the juvenile justice system and the courts
142. the juvenile courts which were a joke it's just a three-ring circus and we formed Mothers for
143. Justice here in Santa Monica and most of us Mothers for Justice are still involved in different issues
144. I moved on to the prison industrial complex there's been so many issues I've been a part of
145. But juvenile justice system and the prison industrial complex, my top two that I've been involved with. But yeah, and then, you know, 20 years ago, that's when I started the dance, but that had nothing to do with my activism. It just had to do with, yeah, I knew we were being gentrified, but I didn't know they were going to still, you know, just dump our dance to our culture, get rid of that. But I guess that's part of the erasure, you know, getting rid of our culture, getting rid of our language.
146. so it just came natural for me. I was already a dancer. I've been taking dance classes since I was
147. probably three or four years old so it was just I had to do it. I didn't have a choice. It was like
148. I'm not letting our culture be erased so yeah they were two different things but I don't know
149. that leadership part I guess played a role in it. It's also the balance too because we got to seek
150. out happiness after we are being such activists and fighting and oh it's wild that we even have to
151. fight for our culture is like we should be uplifted like to me it's so backwards to be erased
152. and not be celebrated i live in a town called sioux city and i'm a sioux indian and a lot of
153. our cultural stuff just gets yeah erased oh we don't have budget for that nobody yeah it's wild
154. so I just commend you you know and thank you for all your services and the work of dance I've been
155. into some dance circles as a young person in Denver and it's really strengthening to see that
156. in other brown people and to see that in other circles as opposed to being like sometimes I
157. I felt like the whole world on my shoulder, being a brown person in the city trying to do culture.
158. But then when I see other groups, I'm like, yes, we're not alone.
159. There's power in numbers.
160. And the more of us can step up into that cultural identity is really something.
161. It's really powerful.
162. So I know you're doing great amounts of work for the young people to do that moving and that sharing.
163. taking around and you know there's something I heard there's something I heard from a Canadian
164. woman her name is Amber Dawn Bear Robe she's a fashionista like a fashion curator one of my idols
165. so I've been just watching all the interviews about her and she lives a different experience
166. because she's from Canada and I visit there a few times and I've been treated different and the vibe
167. is different and what she said in this interview was that when you are indigenous in America
168. it is a political identity but here in Canada you can just be indigenous there's no political
169. attachment to it at all and I guess that's why I had the question for you in the beginning of like
170. how is it that you're an activist because in places like Canada they're just indigenous like
171. they don't have no like they don't talk about Miruchona you know I don't want to pan-Indianize
172. it either but what I've seen from Canadians is like they're able to thrive and live and navigate
173. their businesses in a way where we're not erased or being like no budget and it's really different
174. it put me as a different perspective because I was like wow yeah being indigenous in America is a
175. political identity, whether we like it or not. Would you feel that same way?
176. Oh, yeah. That is so true. It totally is. And it shouldn't be. We're people. We're the original
177. people. We're the original people. Can you show us some kind of courtesy, some kind of respect?
178. It shouldn't be politicized. We're human beings. And it is totally been politicized. And now it's
179. actually popular for people to go around. It's a trend, I guess, for people to say that they're
180. Native. But when I was growing up, that wasn't a thing. It wasn't. It was a hush-hush thing.
181. You knew you were Native because your grandparents were telling you, but keep that in the house.
182. Don't be telling outside people because you were going to, you know, it was a negative thing.
183. You're being ostracized. But on the West Side, from the Four Cornices you mentioned, and that's
184. totally without mentioning Mar Vista.
185. Mar Vista is kind of like the delicious cheese in the sandwich
186. because it's in the middle of everything.
187. And the crazy thing about the municipality of the area in which Gina speaks
188. is that everyone's doing their budget, their fiscal budget for the fiscal year
189. and blah, blah, blah.
190. Most of it, of course, is going to the sheriffs, the police,
191. and surveillance and trying to keep the streets,
192. the word is safe and clean. Whenever you hear anybody say safe and clean, you know, it's a cue
193. that they're proponents of the, you know, flock cameras and all of these things. And I say that
194. because I see the parks and the distribution of activities for you being minimized so much so
195. and everything being glorified with the Olympics coming and the games, all of these different
196. activities that no one I know and hang with can really afford. And they're probably going to be
197. working the events in different capacities. But I say that because I know that in Santa Monica,
198. they have their own budget. It's their own city. They're part of the Four Corners. But the
199. politics of it is, you and I have witnessed grants coming through to support murals,
200. to support discussions on the murals inside the city hall.
201. And it wasn't given to anybody from the West side.
202. It was given to somebody from outside the West side And had we done that that particular group would have been upset would have been angry And the whole thing is that we supposed to be all as one and we never got the invitation
203. to support the structure of the discussion. We were never asked to participate because
204. you have to be a local tribal people in order to have that discussion. And I always put them first.
205. Everywhere we go, we put them first. But there's a diminishment somewhat when you're
206. of Mexican indigenous descent or Central or South American descent of indigeneity. I don't get it.
207. If your family's been here six and seven generations, stand side by side with the
208. local tribes because we need each other. That divide right there and that kind of
209. European once over that look that people do, it no longer suffice. They're coming after all of us.
210. And it's this same pot of beans, different zip code, different area boat. So what are we doing
211. right now to reach out? As you say, your classes are multi-generational and all abilities and
212. does it matter what culture, what religion? What are we doing to help the children acquire
213. their regalia, their dresses, their shoes, the payment for? How can we help support the children
214. who need something kind of a subsidized class or pay it forward kind of class?
215. where can we find your information thank you so much for that and yeah for the record city of
216. san monica does not support us financially or in any other way even though i have gone to the city
217. of san monica i've gone to the city council i've gone to cultural fairs what have you so for the
218. record they do not support us and that would be great for them to support us we have money to
219. support everybody else, like people from East LA coming in to tell us what to do with our own murals.
220. So our city council, our city leaders in Santa Monica tend to give money to outsiders. They tend
221. to listen to outsiders, people that are non-Santa Monica residents, which is infuriating. It really
222. is. We have needs here in Santa Monica. We're not all rich. And we also have minds. You know,
223. we can think and decipher and tell you, we can tell you what we need and what we want.
224. But as far as contact information, you can support us on several levels. You can
225. reach out to us. You can donate, you know, financially because there is some of our
226. students that, you know, they don't have the money to, because now I do charge fees because
227. before I didn't, I literally was supporting this by working another job to support our dance school.
228. And that's not sustainable. So we do need financial assistance. Yes, we do need donations.
229. We do have students that can't afford the regalia. We do have students that can't afford to pay the
230. fees. But if they don't pay the fees, how do I pay our dance studio costs and all the other costs
231. that come with running a dance studio.
232. Here's the simplest one.
233. Including the van that picks them up, right?
234. Yeah.
235. So they can always reach out to me.
236. We're on Instagram, we're on Facebook.
237. And of course, there's my email.
238. But you can find us, Santa Monica Ballet Folklórico.
239. And our email is santamonicaballetfolklórico at gmail.com.
240. But you can also find us on Instagram, like I said, and also Facebook.
241. And we actually still have a page, Cabeza de Vaca Cultura.
242. That's right.
243. And you know the thing about it is is that it different from the West Side to Iowa And I know that everyone is seeing the same things diminish It not just the roads I traveled on And it a lot of heart and a lot of thought put into making ends meet and having more co But this is not that And if anybody has any ideas on grants and what micro grants to support the school for Gina DeBaca then please email her
244. And can you spell Folklórico because I know I still trip up on it.
245. My daughter danced for 13 years and here I am not remembering how to spell it.
246. Yeah, people spell it different ways.
247. So that's, yeah, that's a good question, actually.
248. So it's Santa Monica, you know, S-A-N-T-A-M-O-N-I-C-A.
249. And then it's a ballet, B-A-L-L-E-T.
250. and then it's Folklorico, F-O-L-K-L-O-R-I-C-O.
251. And it's all one word, all four of those just merged all together,
252. no slashes or anything like that.
253. So Sunrose, what are you doing?
254. What are the activities your son's having?
255. And then pretty much I know that we have to go.
256. It's a quick half hour.
257. I know that you only have maybe about three minutes left.
258. What's your son getting into this summer?
259. well we are getting ready to go to the battle of the little bighorn that's the 150th year
260. anniversary so they can say happy 250 year anniversary happy birthday all they want
261. because i still get to celebrate my victory over america the same year yeah so we're excited he's
262. excited about that. He just started the Urban Native Center has their days where they gather
263. with all of the youth and they're still really grassroots. They don't really have a lot of budget
264. to go anywhere. So they did a whole brain session today to talk about what fundraisers they could do
265. to get places. There is what's known as the Jeffers Stone or the Jeffers Petroglyphs that
266. are the oldest petroglyphs here in the United States.
267. So that is just a few hours away.
268. So they want to go to some archaeological sites,
269. some sacred sites.
270. But yeah, everything is a travel here on the Great Plains.
271. And it's a great distance.
272. A distance.
273. So I would love to have a dance group like that here in Iowa.
274. These rural places definitely need it.
275. We have a lot of indigenous populations from below the medicine line, we like to call it, because that's what the Canadians call it to the borders. But there are families here who need that. Like, I definitely see the need. And I don't know Spanish. So I have this like huge language gap, but I just want to hug them and be like, Oh, my brothers and sisters, like coming out with the Indians. Like, let's let us dance, do this.
276. Well, then maybe we need to talk about a cultural exchange where the school can travel to Iowa, Iowa kids can travel to Santa Monica, the west side, and see the beach and do all that stuff. Let's do it. Let's be about it. But there's also a gentle reminder in the excitement of visiting relatives is that you're supposed to write a deadline. There's a deadline coming up upon us on the Kikestone, isn't there? You got to close with that.
277. Yes we have the last few days to do a public comment in support of removing or having a distance between the Magellan Pipeline and the Pipestone Quarry Yeah we going to go ahead and post up the informational memes on our Instagram Be A Better Relative And I want to thank Gina and of course Sunrose
278. Gina, thank you for being our guest on the radio show.
279. We hope that we figure out how to be a better relative and support the school,
280. Santa Monica Baile Poquitico, and the cultural school with regards to your name
281. and your fame, being an elder now, Santa Monica.
282. So we have to figure out best practices in showing up for one another.
283. And that's the best way that we could do it.
284. We will talk about that cultural exchange.
285. I think that's a more solid way to move.
286. But kids can travel, youth can travel and know the importance of sharing and exchanging culture.
287. I'm so serious about that one.
288. Thank you for having me.
289. Anytime.
290. And Subrose, thank you for being the better relative as well.
291. I can't wait to see you next coming week.
292. And yes, throw down.
293. yes or died for all of our sins yeah and thank you both and if you are in santa monica i know
294. they're probably doing different events and it's a lot for them to come out and dance but it's
295. really good thing and it'll uplift your human spirit you don't have to be of the culture because
296. we're all human beings so much love relatives and we'll see you another week for another episode of
297. Be a better relative.
298. Thank you, Gina.
299. Thank you, ladies.
300. Thank you.
301. Tuesday, 730.
302. Right here on 90.7 KPFK.
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315. Hello, this is Martin Sheen and you're listening