June 24, 2021

Felicia “Flames” Elizondo, !Presente! Remembering the life of a beloved SF trans activist. Plus, Julián Delgado Lopera on the award-winning queer novel Fiebre Tropical

Felicia ‘Flames’ Elizondo speaks at an anniversary event of the 1966 Compton’s Cafeteria Riots. A celebration of life for Elizondo is planned for July 24, 2021 in San Francisco. Photo by Pax Ahimsa Gethen, licensed under CC 4.0

On this show:

0:08 – Two news stories: Katherine Monahan reports on the Assembly District 18 Special Election to fill Rob Bonta’s seat which was left vacant once he was confirmed as state Attorney General earlier year; Sam Anderson reports on a machinists strike at a diesel engine plant in San Leandro.

0:17 – The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to strike down a hard fought California access rule which went into affect in 1975. Dan Bacon, a journalist and photographer who covers labor, immigration and the impact of the global economy on workers joins us to discuss the ruling’s impact on farmworker unions.

0:34 – Felicia “Flames” Elizondo was a trans Latina activist, and longtime AIDS survivor living, performing, and organizing in San Francisco. She was outspoken about the Compton’s Cafeteria Riots of 1966. And this year on May 15, she passed away in hospice care at the age of 74. We remember her life on this show by re-airing this 2016 Salima Hamirami (@salsham13) interview with Elizondo.

0:50 – Sue Englander, a close friend of Elizondo joins us to talk about their campaign to name a street after Vicki Marlene. She touches on Elizondo’s activism, her drag performances, her community advocacy, and how she inspired others. A celebration of life is planned for Elizondo on July 24 in San Francisco – click here for more details.

1:08 – We spend most of the hour with Julián Delgado Lopera (@julianadlopera) a San Francisco-based queer Colombian artist and author of the novel Fiebre Tropical, which just won the 2021 Lambda Literary Award for lesbian fiction. We talk about what inspired the book, which follows a queer teenager who has moved from Bogotá to Miam and develops her first deep queer crush while being enveloped in Evangelical Christianity.

1:50 – Oakland’s biennial Budget is up for a big vote today. liz suk (@liz_suk), Executive Director of Oakland Rising and Cherri Murphy, a faith rooted organizer with Faith Alliance For A Moral Economy, an initiative of the East Bay Alliance For A Moral Economy join us to discuss the stakes.

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