By Yvonne Marquez
Cassandra Alicia, the 29-year-old founder of the popular Latinx feminist social media page Xicanisma, isn’t afraid of making her 106,000 Instagram followers uncomfortable. In fact, her tagline is “dismantling oppressive isms through tears.” Her Instagram posts highlight an array of social justice issues through photos, art, memes, and screenshots. One post, for example, is in the popular bingo meme format that points out how violent anti-sex work rhetoric can be, especially in light of recent events where a border patrol agent was charged with murdering four women, including one trans woman, all of whom were sex workers. Another post shines a light on how low-paying teacher salaries are rooted in sexism. Another is about the misogynoir Serena Williams faces as a professional athlete. And occasionally, you can find an inspirational quote or joke in between.
“I post a lot of different things because I can’t [imagine] only focusing on being a mom, or being bi, or this issue, or that issue, because not all Latinxs are the same,” Cassandra says. “We all live completely different lives. I try to highlight everything that affects us so everyone can connect to something on the page.”
Cassandra started Xicanisma in 2014 after she discovered Chicano politics and craved more visibility for Chicanas and for Latinas. Living in El Paso, a predominately Latinx city, Cassandra says that she was rarely the only Brown woman in a room, so she didn’t think much about race. She considered herself a “white feminist” at the time—that is, until she started interacting with Black women online. “I think being on Twitter and following Black feminists, Black womanists, and Black activists in general, I started thinking about race and how race impacts my life, feminism, and activism,” she says.
But as someone who isn’t Black or white, Cassandra still didn’t quite understand where she fit. At the time, there weren’t many social media pages devoted to Latinas. She eventually found people her own age who identified as Chicano/as on Twitter and began doing her own research, reading articles and books and watching Latina documentaries. That’s when she finally discovered Chicana feminism, which helped her understand her own oppression and learn about her culture’s history—one she wasn’t taught in school. “I was like, ‘Wow, I connect to this,’” she says. “But I didn’t really think about the problematic things that came with it until later.”
Although learning about the Chicano movement was empowering for Cassandra, she feels there hasn’t been a follow-up or critical analysis of what previous generations did wrong. “We’re still stuck in the same place and no one wants to have these conversations because it’s just been this way for years,” she says. Misogyny, homophobia, nationalism, xenophobia towards Central Americans, appropriation of indigenous culture, and anti-Blackness within Chicanx culture are all things Cassandra wants her community to unpack and unlearn. It’s also what she’s had to unlearn over the years since beginning Xicanisma. “My politics have evolved and they keep evolving for the better,” she says. “What I posted at the beginning of Xicanisma, it’s definitely not what I post now—and that’s a good thing. My follower count has grown, but so have my politics.”
Over the years, Cassandra’s understanding of her sexuality has also changed. She started identifying as bisexual two years ago after dealing with internalized biphobia for years. Cassandra started dating women when she was 18 and, when with a female partner, identified as a lesbian. However, when she would date guys, she wouldn’t disclose to them that she had dated women before. “I felt like I couldn’t exist as bi ever just because of the negative stigma that comes with being bi,” she says. “If you present as femme, then you’re just a straight girl who wants attention, or you’re confused, or it’s just a phase, or if you’re around men, they just see it as some threesome fantasy.”
The Pulse shooting forced her to reflect on her own experiences of growing up and going to gay clubs. She realized she never asserted herself as being bi, but instead, allowed everyone else to label her.
In addition to running Xicanisma, Cassandra is a single mom to a five-year-old boy, a community organizer, a student, and co-host of the Bitter Brown Femmes podcast with Rubén of Queer Xicano Chisme. The two met in person last year when they served on a panel at Portland State University, and they quickly hit it off as friends.
Cassandra had her own short-lived podcast called 1-900-9099-CRY. She says the podcast gave her the opportunity to explain things she posted on Xicanisma out loud. “There’s just a lot of things that I feel I can express better in conversation rather than just with [written] words,” she says.
After Rubén was a guest on Cassandra’s podcast, the two eventually decided to join forces and create their own podcast together. Bitter Brown Femmes debuted last September and has now reached 18 episodes. “We want to be able to have conversations that you would have with your friends, or that you’re scared to have online because everyone jumps on you if you make a mistake or you ask a question that makes you feel ridiculous,” she says. “We wanted to have those conversations [without them being] wrapped in academic language or boring, and [for them to] be based in humor, but also get to the bottom of things.”
It can be exhausting running a social justice-focused Instagram and Facebook page with hundreds of commenters asking questions, disagreeing, and perpetuating problematic ideas. But what keeps Cassandra motivated is the fact that she has a huge platform. “I have the ability to get people’s attention, to post something and know a lot of people will react to it,” she says. “I just can’t throw that away.”
Keep up with Cassandra and Xicanisma on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. You can listen to the Bitter Brown Femmes podcast on iTunes, SoundCloud, and all other podcast platforms. Follow Bitter Brown Femmes on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
