Puntorojo: first anniversary and relaunch

With this issue of Puntorojo, we celebrate our one-year anniversary and announce the re-launch of our magazine and our new Patreon page. We want to take this opportunity to thank our first supporters, the handful who joined with us to get the magazine up an running. Starting a brand new publication has been a challenge, but we have been able to build Puntorojo from the ground up–con sólo un puñado de tierra pero mucho amor.

This comes from the commitment of editors, writers, and a small crew of others who have been driven by the need to build a political platform that can contributes to the growth and development of a socialist and internationalist left; one that amplifies voices, viewpoints, and cultural visions of Mexicanx, Chicanx, Latinx, transborder, transnational, and radical people of color. 

We started Puntorojo with the goal to provide a place for discussion and debate of political theory, history, and analysis of current events in the United States and Latin America. By looking at the pages of our magazine, we could say that overall we’ve accomplished this task.

Over the last year, we published a base building primer for the socialist movement in working class communities of color. We’ve reported on the condition of Mexicans and Latinxs communities and the historic racism they continue to face in the United States. We’ve provided a class analysis of late-stage capitalism and critiques of  U.S. and international anti-immigrant policies that keeps people divided across the world; and have published perspectives for building movements to abolish border walls and divides and the class oppression they maintain. We’ve published reports and ways that Central American immigrants combat xenophobia that they face while migrating through Mexico, and more.

We’ve expanded our arts and creative writing sections featuring poetry from Brooklyn based Xicana, Crystal Stella Becerril, Bronx native Marta Burgos and the mixed-media art of our very-own co-editor Lupita Romero. We complement the work of these New York based compañeras with creative correspondence from the Tijuana-San Diego border by Vannessa Garcia and a digital art exhibition by Cesar Montero, based in Los Angeles. Moving forward, we plan to commission original pieces to support radical cultural workers and to bring art to the struggles where we intervene. We have published over 70 articles, essays, exhibitions, pieces, interviews, statements, and reports; and featured over 30 writers, activists, and artists.  

The goal to develop Latinx radical voices remains incomplete and through this relaunch we recommit to that goal and its end: the dissemination of revolutionary and socialist politics and ideas in the Latinx community in the 21st century.

Yet, we have just scratched the surface of the potential of this project. The goal to develop Latinx radical voices remains incomplete and through this relaunch we recommit to that goal and its end: the dissemination of revolutionary and socialist politics and ideas in the Latinx community in the 21st century. The transnational and international working classes, youth, and cultural workers are essential and have a central role to play in building up the revolutionary struggles of today and tomorrow. The echoes of history and the voices of our revolutionary ancestors are beckoning us.

As we enter a period of imperial decline and a generational crisis of capitalism, political developments have unfolded at a dizzying pace. The task is daunting and opposition is immense. With unidad, solidaridad, organización, y el poder de las ideas y la teoría we can build up our fuerzas and rise to the challenge.

Puntorojo has argued from the perspective of revolutionary socialism and now more than ever, we are convinced that these politics of anti-racism, anti-fascism, radical feminism, internationalism and socialism from below, give us the tools to continue this struggle. Through this re-launch, we redouble our efforts and commitment to continue fighting inside and against the empire, and to build a socialist movement by and for the most oppressed.

This month, the United States commemorates “Hispanic Heritage month” from September 15th to October 15th, coinciding with the independence dates of several Latin American countries and Columbus Day celebrations of October 12th. Throughout the month, liberal mainstream media, politicians, civil society, and cultural institutions will highlight the sacrifices and contributions of Latinxs communities, reduce the histories, culture and politics of an entire continent to symbolic cultural consumerism and representation politics, while debating the difference between Hispanic and Latinx and other blanket terms that erase Black and Indigenous communities. 

Meanwhile, behind this façade, US Imperialism continues to trade in death: propping up authoritarian governments, militarizing conflicts and borders, exporting policing, and killing land, labor and water defenders. In this crisis, we’ve seen these weapons of imperialism turned against us. In opposition to this, we turn to the material force of the Latin American rebellion that has erupted in the region and to move forward we draw strength from its font: the working class.

Puntorojo is building an alternative independent media platform to center the experiences, intellectual, and creative contributions of radical self-identified Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Chicanx, LGBTQ and marginalized transnational people. Today, these communities are at the forefront of struggles against racial capitalism in all of its forms; from imperialist policies to systemic racism, economic exploitation, and gendered violence. We aim to also grow the ranks of participants who contribute and follow Puntorojo to use the publication as a tool to help organize a collective network to apply ideas into action.

Moving forward, Puntorojo team will publish monthly editorials that lay out a view of the political landscape, continue to report on national and international news and culture. Puntorojo is open to all contributors and artists whose work and political orientation are radical and anticapitalist in nature. We see the importance of creating an inclusive political culture where ideas can be exchanged, in dialogue, and debated. If you have read and enjoyed our work and would like to support the ongoing development of BIPOC writers and artists, join with us! Submit to Puntorojo, join our collective, and please donate to help us grow.

Support Puntorojo and help us move forward by joining through our new Patreon page.