Join humanitarian professional, researcher and activist Carla Vitantonio on a journey exploring how coloniality is being challenged throughout the aid and development sector.
Seasons 1-3 of Living Decoloniality: Practical experiences of decoloniality throughout the aid sector explored how individuals and groups from around the world are tackling the harmful colonial legacy of the aid and humanitarian sectors, through various lenses and layers.
In the latest season, broadcast in Spanish, Carla explores practices of decoloniality in Latin America, sharing more conversations with practitioners, activists and consultants who are on a mission to decolonialise the aid and development sector.
Episode 1 – The colonial matrix of power and its manifestations
We are thrilled to kick off the fourth season of the Living Decoloniality podcast with Asier Hernando Malax-Echevarria, in conversation with Carla Vitantonio. In this opening episode, we explore the colonial matrix of power and its enduring manifestations, the transformative work of ACAPACA, and the role of solidarity in reshaping development and cooperation from a Global South perspective.
Asier has spent over 20 years in international cooperation, focusing on advocacy and campaigns defending Indigenous rights, human rights, women’s rights, and more. A turning point in his career led him to rethink traditional development models and work toward transforming international cooperation. He is now Co-Director of ACAPACA, partnering with social movements and advising organizations worldwide on development and cooperation strategies. He also contributes part-time at the European Climate Foundation, supporting 700 partner organizations with advocacy and communication strategies for a decarbonised Europe. A regular contributor to El País, Asier writes to challenge dominant narratives and foster new debates in the development and aid landscape.
Tune in to explore how colonial power structures persist and how solidarity and alternative development approaches can reshape our world.
Read more about the topic:
- Coloniality of Power, Eurocentrism, and Latin America by Anibal Quijano
- Modernidad, Colonialismo y Emancipación En América Latina by Rueda, Eduardo, and Susana Villavicencio
- Decolonizando la cooperacion internacional by Kelly Saavedra Flores, Acàpaca
- Solidarity Platform Cooperativism in Latin America Report, María Belén Albornoz, Daniel Vizuete Sandoval, Alexandra Belén Gualavisí, Rafael Grohmann, Alessio Bertolini, Jonas Valente
- Introduction, Feminist Solidarity and Collective Action, Caroline Sweetman
- En torno a lo poscolonial y lo decolonial en los feminismos del Sur Global, Érika Calvo Rivera
Episode 2: Gabriela
Gabriela Villacis Izquierdo
In this episode, Carla talks with Gabriela Villacís Izquierdo, an Ecuadorian feminist researcher based in the Netherlands, about how coloniality operates within academia and humanitarian work, and how feminist ethics of care can offer decolonial alternatives.
Gabriela shares her reflections on positionality, epistemic violence, and the importance of accompaniment, reciprocity, and collective care as political and transformative practices.
Tune in to explore how centering care challenges extractivist, patriarchal, and neoliberal models in both research and humanitarian action.
References
- Contra la colonialidad de la cooperación y solidaridad internacionales, Mounia Chadi
- The importance of practices of collective care: Exploring directions for an alternative productive paradigm fitting our times’ social, economic and ecological requirements, Ioannis Rigkos-Zitthen and Nikos Kapitsinis
- Feminismos del sur: recorridos, itinerarios, junturas, Mariana Alvarado
Episode 3: Maria
In this episode, Carla talks with María Arteaga Villamil, a Colombian anthropologist and feminist activist based in the United States, about women, migration, and the power of collective organization. From her work at The Women’s Building in San Francisco, María explores how feminist and decolonial perspectives can transform our understanding of migration, care, and solidarity.
María holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology and has extensive experience in qualitative methodologies grounded in feminist theoretical frameworks. Inspired by the feminist ethics of care, her work promotes generative communication practices that build impact, collaboration, and solidarity networks.
Her academic research focuses on how women navigate authority and identity in highly masculine work environments, using feminist narrative research to expose the structural barriers that limit women’s access to justice and equality.
Tune in to this episode to discover how migrant women are reshaping narratives of resistance and belonging, and how feminist solidarity can create new paths for collective empowerment and transformation.
Episode 4: Romel
In this episode, Carla speaks with Romel González Díaz, a Maya activist and human rights defender, about his more than three decades of work protecting natural resources, community development, and housing in Indigenous communities across Mexico.
Romel is a member of the Regional Indigenous and Popular Council of Xpujil and collaborates with the Chac Lol Cooperative, promoting community organization, education on collective human rights, and sustainable development practices such as agriculture, biocultural tourism, and natural resource management.In this conversation, Romel shares his approach to empowering communities to know and assert their rights, change the attitudes of businesses and governments, and ensure active participation in decisions that affect their environment and future. His message to the world is clear: we need international mechanisms and judicial spaces to hold governments accountable and effectively protect Indigenous rights, creating a sustainable and equitable future for all.Tune in to this episode to discover how Indigenous movements are reshaping cooperation and defending land, life, and the rights of their communities.
Episode 5: Pluriversa
In this episode, Carla talks with Isabel García and Miguel Bello from Pluriversa, a community of critical thinkers accelerating ecosocial transitions in the Global South through design and technology.
From their work inspired by Arturo Escobar’s pluriversal thinking, Isabel and Miguel invite us to imagine alternatives to development. What are other ways of designing which are rooted in regeneration, interdependence, and autonomy?
Together, they explore how decolonial design can challenge the extractivist, linear models of Western development and open paths toward collective well-being, diversity, and reconnection with Mother Earth.
