Cholxing the Strip: A Chuco Counterstory with Elvira Carrizal-Dukes, Ph.D., MFA

Dr. Elvira Carrizal-Dukes, author of A.W.O.L, discusses her comics and her research project on Cholx consciousness as a set of beliefs

About this event 

Cholxing the Strip: A Chuco Counterstory

Elvira Carrizal-Dukes, Ph.D., MFA

DUKEScomics explores themes of personal and social significance in long-form storytelling comics known as a graphic novel (Hatfield & Beaty, 2020). The writer Elvira Carrizal-Dukes will discuss her cross-disciplinary approach and collaboration with artist Ronnie Dukes and their independent comic book publishing venture. Ronnie is inspired by manga mixed with his Chicago influences and expressive arts. As the writer, Elvira uses Critical Race Theory as an analytical lens and counterstory as a method for examining family narratives in the borderlands, especially the El Paso- Juárez border community, where Elvira is from. Counterstory is a method that advances minoritized stories and disrupts standardized majoritarian perspectives (Martinez, 2020). Elvira will also discuss her research project on Cholx consciousness as a set of beliefs put forth by Cholos, Cholas, and Cholx artists on how to create in a world that is increasingly oppressive and hostile toward minoritized communities. By Cholxing the comic strip and other art forms, the consciousness of Cholos and Cholas may act as a guide for future generations to combat negative representations of themselves. Cholxing is a term Elvira uses to refer to the demonstration of Cholx activism through visual and written rhetorics (Carrizal-Dukes, 2020). There are very few graphic novels and comics that showcase borderland culture and created by Latinx and Black people. DUKEScomics inserts themselves into comics spaces that have traditionally kept us out. The mission of DUKEScomics is to tell stories through comic art and minoritized perspectives and to own the means of production. In this presentation, Elvira will discuss the critical importance of being the writers and artists of our own stories in order to address social justice issues and to construct our own heroes and heroines.

The workshop delves deeper into Cholx consciousness and Cholxing to develop characters, storylines, and environments for comics and graphic novels.

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Elvira Carrizal-Dukes, Ph.D., MFA, El Paso native/New Mexican-raised is Co-Creator and writer for DUKEScomics.com. She is the author of the graphic novel “A.W.O.L” about a Xicana soldier who leaves the military without permission to search for her missing brother. The graphic novel is in English (2017), Japanese (2018), and Spanish (2020). To learn more go to: dukescomics.com. Dr. Dukes is an Assistant Professor of Instruction for Chicana/o Studies at The University of Texas at El Paso, where she earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Rhetoric and Composition. She earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Film from Columbia University in the City of New York and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities in Journalism and Chicano Studies and a minor in Theatre Arts. Dr. Dukes proudly serves as a Board Member for Equal Footing, a nonprofit whose mission is to empower women to tell their stories. To support this initiative, visit: https://www.equalfootingcharity.org/