La Sala by Itzett Romero Podcast

I just finished Circe by Madeline Miller, and in this episode, we talk about something that stood out to me from the book: how the gods in Greek mythology need human worship completely to survive, and yet treat humans with total contempt anyway.

That dynamic is part of an old playbook. It’s the same relationship between the ultra-wealthy and the working class today. Real wealth doesn’t just benefit from labor, it’s structurally dependent on it, the same way the gods are dependent on worship. And in both cases, the people at the top convince everyone else that the hierarchy is simply natural, simply earned, simply how things are.

We break down how this mechanism actually works, in Greek theology and in modern capitalism, and get into the harder question underneath it: if power was never really theirs to begin with, was it taken from us, or did we just never stop giving it away. And more importantly, what do we do to get it back?

Show Notes:Bookshop link with all my must-read books

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In February 2026, UT Austin folded four departments — including the two that shaped me most, Mexican American and Latino Studies and Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies — into one department.

In this episode I trace that decision back through the 1968 student strike that created ethnic studies in the first place, and the 2010 ban on Tucson's Mexican American Studies program, to make the case that this isn't a new fight — it's the same playbook, run every few decades, to keep us too busy rebuilding to actually move forward. I get into what these classrooms actually gave me: language, comfort, and permission to stop contorting myself into who I was told to be. And I talk about why, even now, this too shall pass — and what we can build in the meantime, with or without a university's permission.

Show Notes:

Bookshop link with all my must read books

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References:

* Texas Tribune — UT-Austin to merge race, ethnic and gender study programs

* Houston Public Media — UT Austin consolidates ethnic and gender studies

* The Daily Texan — UT Austin Consolidates the Department of Mexican American Studies

* KUT — Latino studies scholars protest elimination of UT department

* UT Austin Compliance Office — SB17 explainer

* NPR — Texas universities cut jobs after Texas bans DEI programs

* Wikipedia — Mexican American Studies Department Programs, Tucson Unified School District

* Wikipedia — Third World Liberation Front strikes of 1968

* Higher Ed Dive — A surge of DEI cuts hits colleges across the US

There's a comment trending on TikTok right now: "I don't care how you were raised, unlearn that s**t." In this episode, I use that as the jumping-off point to dig into the real, documented history of Mexicans in Texas: the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the deliberate deletion of land protections, the segregated "Mexican schools," and the 1917 Bath Riots, a piece of border history with a direct, documented line to Nazi Germany.

Then I break down the five-step system this country has run on immigrant group after immigrant group, and share the three things that helped me personally unlearn what I was taught and reclaim my history: reading real academic history, reading Black intellectuals, and doing the inner psychological work. It's not your fault how you were raised. But unlearning it is on you.

Show Notes:

* Check out the Libby App

* Must Read Books For Mexican Americans

* Audre Lorde’s The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle The Master’s House (Amazon link bc not available on Bookshop)

* James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time

* Robin Wall Kimmerer‘s Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants

* Article from my substack on this topic with pictures and sources for further reading: https://itzett.substack.com/p/go-back-to-your-country

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La Sala by Itzett Romero is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

I've spent decades in organized religion and philosophy looking for answers. And I've realized — the next phase doesn't live in a text. It lives in women. In intuition. In each other. This episode is about the question I keep wrestling with: if we are spiritual beings here to experience ALL of what it means to be human, why do we shrink ourselves into just one identity? And why did we stop wanting more in the first place? The patriarchy's greatest win wasn't force. It was making us forget to dream.

Thanks for reading La Sala by Itzett Romero! This post is public so feel free to share it.

In Other Rooms

* Follow me on Instagram, Tiktok, and Linkedin

* Top Books To Wake You up

This one started as a rant about Trump playing Jesus on the internet. It turned into something else - about the excuses we make for bad men, powerful or not, and why we're always harder on ourselves than we are on them.

I’m experimenting with audio and video in Substack because that’s what comes naturally to me. This is my first mini-episode to test the waters and get some thoughts on “paper”! Hope you enjoy it.

In Other Rooms

* Follow me on Instagram, Tiktok, and Linkedin

* Top Books To Wake You up