OTWay H🌀ME
As a nomad, child of immigrants on turtle island, I've learned from the turtles to carry my home on my back.
I'm grateful to have redefined what home means to me, with many of you. In West Chicago, the central valley of Mexico, NY, LA, or OTWay, I'm home wherever I can be myself. Maybe you haven't met all of me but I believe you have been or will be instrumental in my becoming, which is why I'm inviting you to join my journey,
OnTheWay H🌀ME.
After being locked up in my LA apartment for most of the pandemic, I thought my journey on the way home was a simple road trip from LA to my family in Chicago, and on the way I discovered that Home is much more expansive:
Driving through the South West on my way to Chicago, in the same shaky Rav4 that drove me to Los Angeles, CA from Syracuse, NY (2018): felt nothing short of miraculous. I made it all the way to my grandma's house with a tank half full and a heart full of memories. But the journey home continued... I was humbled to find home alongside Water Protectors in Minnesota in the ongoing fight to #stopline3. I drove all the way back to Onondaga (Syracuse) and fell in love with the people, the road, and myself. The circle was completed back in Chicago and I flew back to LA, changed.
season one - july to august 2021
In Spring 2022, I left LA to continue my life ontheway.
I moved out of my apartment to begin my journey of financial freedom: wish me luck!
I left for a month-long backpacking trip from Southern Mexico to my brother's wedding and my grandparents' graves: celebrating life, death, and love. I was privileged to anchor my journey in a fresh and ancestral truth. #OTWayHome
season two - april 2022
season three - may to october 2022
During season two's nomadic journey in Mexico, I secured housing in Colton, California.
For the first time in years, I finally felt like I had a stable home thanks to the support and love of family. Yet, within a few months, I was immediately on the road again.
My Mindful Media and DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) storytelling workshops paid off: I was flown to a (DKA) cinema convention in Miami to hold space and elevate individual and collective storytelling. I had not felt this alive in a long time: I was home and I continued home. From couch to guest bedroom from Washington D.C., NYC, and Syracuse and all the way back to family in West Chicago, I have had to rediscover home in my own skin. Arriving home in Colton on my first Amtrak, I reflected on the masks that come up and come off through different environments and was glad to finally get to just be.
Colton, California: An industrial suburb of the Inland Empire that like many of its neighbors deals with the consequential air quality of America's insatiable appetite for online shopping. I found home amongst local activists, drag queens & qüings, and my grandmother's sisters each about a 10-minute drive from my tía Carmelita's humble abode and the land I am still learning to steward.
Before the end of the year, season 5 had taken shape with a humbling opportunity: a community action fellowship in the Cuyama Valley. A rural bilingual community in Central California where, Creator-willing, I will be sharing my mindful media work with intergenerational audiences and supporting local public schools with mindfulness and digital tools.
season four - end of 2022, beginning 2023
I am blessed to celebrate this Aquarius season with my Aquarian sister through South America– before a small pitstop in Mexico City and Chicago as I continue to New Cuyama.
There is more to share here but for now, I check in to ask for a small Birthday favor.
1) share with me via, text, WhatsApp, or social media about a moment that you and I have shared at home or an upcoming visit you'd like to arrange and tag it #OTWayHome.
2) If and only if you are able and willing. Consider supporting this season of the journey. Housing in Latin America is almost fully secured but your financial support will help my mind and my tastebuds explore museums, local cuisine, and fresh fricking coffee.
season five - january to april 2023
Truth be told I would never have even made it this far without your support... and we're just getting started. Be it on my way to family in Chicago, my ancestral home(s) in Mexico or wherever else this journey takes us, I'd love to plant a seed with you on the way home.
join the journey
venmo: @sway-ontheway
paypal: @swayotway
zelle: @josue.e.munnoz@gmail.com
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Whether you join or not
OTWay invites everyone to share what home means to you. In our forum or on social media, spread love to your digital communities!
Tag @sway_otway with the hashtag #OTWayHome so we can see where your journey has brought you 😌
start a cultural conversation with some mindful media tools & talks to center your family's perspective
how can artists and storytellers come together to imagine and nourish a
radically better future.
As a humbled guest on your ancestral lands across turtle island: OTWay products and services will always make room for you at the table: your story will be included in this re-writing of history