UC Santa Barbara’s Interdisciplinary Humanities Center presented Assistant Professor in the Chicana/o Studies Department Daina Sanchez’s book, “The Children of Solaga: Indigenous Belonging across the U.S Mexico Border” on Jan. 21 as part of their “Humanities Decanted” series. 

Daina Sanchez discussing her book, “The Children of Solaga – Indigenous Belonging across the U.S Mexico Border.” Salma Maytorena / Daily Nexus

The event series highlights new faculty publications and creative projects, including progress in their research and findings. 

Sanchez’s event featured a presentation based on her creative focus and background of her research that developed her work, followed by a discussion with Omar Pimienta, an assistant professor in the Spanish and Portuguese department, and a question answer panel with Sanchez. Roughly 95 people attended the event including students, faculty and staff. 

The Director of the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center (IHC), Susan Derwin, discussed Sanchez’s book and the significance of the event series.

“It’s showcasing the vibrant work of our young scholars, our accomplished researchers. I think the story of border life, culture, relationships and the way culture crosses back and forth is just alive today, to our world,” Derwin said.

Sanchez’s specialization is in transnational migration, children of immigrants and identity and community formation, primarily looking at the U.S and Mexican border in Los Angeles and in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, which her new book focuses on. In her book, Sanchez examines how Indigenous Oaxacan youth form racial, ethnic, community and national identities away from their ancestral homeland.

The presentation allowed for Sanchez to display the book’s beginning with Sanchez’s experience, who participated in keeping the Oaxacan community and culture alive, growing up in Los Angeles. 

She then transitioned to her research on Oaxacan youth, exploring how they carry on the traditions of the community in the U.S., while also highlighting Solaga, a Zapotec town in the state of Oaxaca, and how that community extends beyond borders and generations.

“It shows the movement of the people, but also the movement of the culture, the sounds, the language … Being the child of immigrants, I’m able to both recognize different people’s perspective and where they’re coming from, but also incorporate my own into it, and kind of guide the reader into the text,” Sanchez said.

She continued by discussing different themes in the book, such as communal joy or “el goce comunal” in Spanish. Combined with the inheritance of culture, their community working together is a kind of celebration Sanchez expresses.

They try to preserve the “joy” they create in their own community, and by doing so, continue to be a part of Oaxacan life through their traditions, including the generations in the U.S.

“Across generations, you do want to be a part of this communal life and will do what you can to be in it,” Sanchez said.

Different from her research specialization in the Latine community broadly, her book allowed her to express her Indigenous pride within the Latine community and how that acknowledgement of indigenous population started.

“We didn’t have land acknowledgments; we didn’t necessarily identify as Indigenous, right? We’re not only recognizing the diversity of the Latino community — but we’re also reckoning with what it means to be Indigenous people on other Indigenous peoples’ lands,” Sanchez said.

Among the attendees at the event, some audience members mentioned how Indigenous voices should be highlighted in the department and how the work of Sanchez shows both sides of pride and discrimination.

“I think representation is such a big issue in academia and for Indigenous perspectives to be more celebrated,” Gabriela Lúa, a second-year Ph.D student in the Chicana/o studies department, said. “How [Sanchez] was framing a lot of discourse on Indigenous issues or topics was framed by a lot of pain and suffering, but It’s really important to highlight those moments of joy as well…that’s what Daina does in this book.”

The lack of representation and discrimination of indigenous identity was another key highlight during Sanchez’s presentation, not only within the U.S. but also in the Latine community.

“I think a lot of the times our Indigenous identities, we get kind of pushed all the way to the end, because we’re not recognized, like in the Latinx and Chicanx communities, even in some of the organizations here on campus that claim to be inclusive to the Chicano and Latinx communities,” Erica Martinez, a fourth-year undergraduate in Chicana/o studies, said.

The Chicana/o studies program at UCSB was enlisted in the fall of 1970 and Sanchez, being a professor in the department, mentioned how her book represents the diversity in the area of study.

“I think we are highlighting different issues that might not necessarily have been addressed before, and drawing in students that are also doing similar projects as well,” Sanchez said.

Sanchez said her work is not done and she will continue to pursue her research which involves looking at college campuses forming organizations for Latiné and Indigenous communities. 

“What I’ve seen since arriving at UCSB is that people are organizing with other indigenous communities,” Sanchez said. “I’m interested in learning what it is like for those students when they come together … what that moment or what that type of organizing does for students.”

For now, she promotes her book with  hope of these Indigenous traditions to be carried on in second and third generations to come.

A version of this article appeared on p.5 of the Jan. 30, 2025 edition of the Daily Nexus.

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