Yunuen Rhi
“YER TAX $ CAGE KIDS: Kumeeyay lands. San Diego is the twin border city of Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. Their junction is the terrain of the US and Mexico federal governments. An open wound where the historical pacts between these two nations are reflected in the amount of energy and money spent to uphold the border wall. It is both the door to one of the richest states in the world and the door into Latin America. It is an ultra militarized city as it is a major US Navel Port, a border buffer zone and a tourist destination. It is as well, the busiest border/filter in the world, with huge international businesses operating through it, including the billion-dollar drug and human trafficking clandestine industries.
San Diego’s GDP is the 21th largest in the US. The median household income is $75,456, around $15,000 higher than the medium household income of the entire US. It houses six Fortune 1000 companies, including chipmaker Qualcomm.
The text is for citizens with properties and business to see, feel, and reflect on. As they are the ones who most support the prison/detention industrial complexes and the hugest cage—the border wall with the taxes they pay. However, they may also be the ones who can most effectively question the US hegemonic government.”
BIO
Yunuen Rhi are a two-spirit performance artist, anthropologist, martial arts instructor and healer. Our roots are in Mexico, the United States, and Korea. We have cultivated ourselves in western, eastern, native medicine pathways and practices as a way to deepen the understanding of “selves.” Our performance interest lie in ritual and social practice as a way to create effective bridges between performance and community needs in a decolonial setting. We have worked with native communities from Mexico and their diasporas in the US., through the creation of native language and culture revitalization efforts. Having specialized in border, gender studies as well as indigenous epistemologies the clear message that we want to constantly ask is what is our merit and for whom are we working. If it is not for the next seven generations and their surroundings then something has already poisoned our will. Engendering a high quality of being for all humans is the duty of all peoples especially those at the forefront of leadership and business because they have the most resources to aid in the expansion of consciousness or conversely, add to the misery of humanity.
OWN WORDS
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