A Genealogical Meditation on the Spiritual Conquest of California – A Talk by Dr. Charles Sepulveda

The Spanish established Mission San Gabriel on September 8, 1771. With the assistance of the local Taraaxam (Indian people), they constructed a church and housing. The strangers to Tovaangar (Taraaxam homelands / the earth) were initially viewed as kuuyam (guests) by the Taraaxam. They provided food and shelter, but the Spanish quickly became violent, sexually assaulted Taraaxam women, and killed the local tomyaar (chief). This talk will retrofit the founding colonial violence of Los Angeles, California, through a genealogical meditation centering on Sepulveda’s 5th great-grandmother, Maria Dolores, who was born four years before the mission’s founding at the village of Yaanga, also known as downtown Los Angeles.

Dr. Charles Sepulveda (Tongva and Acjachemem) is an Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of Utah. He earned his Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Riverside. He is the recipient of the Land Rematriation Fellowship and the Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship. His first book, Native Alienation: The Afterlife of California’s Spiritual Possession, is under review with a university press. His next project examines the environmental devastation to Sothern California’s largest riparian ecosystem and the efforts to rematriate land/water into a relationship beyond heteropatriarchy.

Event venue possible with support of UCLA Library.

RSVP with the following link: https://bit.ly/charles-sepulveda