COMMUNITY SESSIONS
KALAYAN’AN MENDOz
Co-Founder of Across Frontlines , Ruckus Society Trainer, Facilitator, Street Medic, Frontline Safety and Security Specialist and Your Protest Safety Kuya
KALAYA'AN MENDOZA
he /they
FAMILY ORIGIN
My Mom is Kapampangan and my Dad is Illocano and I was born in Maynila.
EDUCATION
Los Medanos Community College & UC Santa Barbara
I am a Queer Hard of Hearing Filipino Immigrant who works towards our collective safety and liberation. I’ve spent the last 30 years of my life organizing and working alongside frontline communities fighting back against colonization, white supremacy, environmental exploitation and patriarchy. From Aotearoa/New Zealand to Myanmar to Turtle Island, I have been very fortunate to be invited to support human rights defenders, land and water protectors and LGBTQ+ freedom fighters in their struggles. My background is in direct action and frontline safety and security. What that looks like can be running trainings on building community preparedness plans to treating chemical munitions used against protestors by the State. Along with my frontline work, I’m a HUGE nerd. Think Star Trek, Babylon 5, Andor and really anything that has an anti-fascist & anti-imperialist flavor.
The LGBTQ+ community isn’t a hegemony or a monolith, but rather a spectrum and prism of communities brought together by historical and societal oppression. Queer activist spaces are where I find my community. From student organizing to now (I guess I’m an Almost Elder) I have found that those whom I build the future with are folks with an intersectional, anti-imperialist and decolonial politic. I’ve been fundamentally shaped by Trans and Queer folks that came before me and many of whom I have been fortunate to have been “raised” by. My community is the one you find at the frontlines holding the brick, the respirator and the megaphone. Ready to fight for all our liberation.
Like every other Filipino, I’m the best vocalist in the room. Jk. The Filipino cultural aspects of Bayanihan and Kawpa have profoundly shaped how I operate in the world. I always thought that they were a given but as I got older in an individualistic society, the more I saw their necessity. Collectivism has and will always be (for both it’s positives and negatives) a guiding constellation in my work.
