Platica Y Poetics S3E8 w/Osmani Ochoa

Migrant Futurism, Poetics, and Survival were themes in my cosmic resonant conversation with Osmani Ochoa—queer Mexican-Xicanx poet, editor, and immigrant rights organizer. He shared insight into their creative and political vision, deeply informed by lived experience, collective struggle, and radical imagination. Their forthcoming chapbook, ‘How to Survive an Asthma Attack in a Climate Apocalypse’, fuses bodily precarity with ecological collapse, revealing the intimate links between environmental violence and racialized breathlessness. His poetry pulses with urgency, queerness, and tenderness, all while channeling migrant futurism as both a political framework and a narrative strategy. Drawing on their work as an organizer in San Antonio, Ochoa’s voice is rooted in solidarity and survival where they explore the queer, brown body as both vulnerable and defiant—alive despite dispossession. Their commitment to amplifying marginalized voices is further expressed through their editorial work at Maíz Poppin’ Press, where they uplift writers pushing against colonial and capitalist frameworks. Their love for Mexican musical icons reveals an aesthetic lineage for artists who transgress norms with flair and emotion. Reflecting on place, Ochoa emphasized how San Antonio and Mexico inform their consciousness—culturally, spiritually, and politically, by embracing hybridity, write for those who come after you, and dare to imagine beyond survival—toward liberation.