A review by sneezysleeves
Imaginary Borders by Xiuhtezcatl Martinez

4.0

This was my introduction to Xiuhtezcatl Martinez’s work, but I can already tell it’s only the beginning of what I’ll learn from his environmental activism. I really love learning from these little books, and this one is no exception. It’s thesis connects Martinez’s personal and ancestral histories to arguments of how catastrophic devastation is caused by extraction-based economies on a global scale. I found his explanation of hip-hop as a vehicle of social change to be particularly imaginative and powerful. Martinez intimately reminds us of our responsibility and collective power to redesign our culture in a way that will generate sustainable and radically interdependent solutions to the ongoing crises of climate change, racial oppression, and xenophobia.

“If we wait for the floodwater to reach our doorstep, it’ll be too late.”