Latina/e lesbian archival praxis and memory work: a plática/roda de conversa with Malflora Collective

Malflora Collective is a digital memory project dedicated to preserving the everyday lives, memories, and legacies of Latina/e lesbians through the publication of a podcast and magazine. In this article, members from Malflora Collective examine the nontraditional and community-based archival practices that Latina/e lesbians engage in, arguing that our memory work is rooted in collectivity, lived experience, and cultural reclamation as a form of decolonial praxis. We also explore how digital spaces provide opportunities for transnational engagement, solidarity, and discourse, while at the same time these spaces remain highly contested. This article theorizes a political praxis of Latina/e lesbian memory work through plática/roda de conversa, a blend of Chicana/e and Brazilian forms of knowledge-making through everyday conversation. These methods draw from familial archival practices and foreground the importance of our cultural identities in the process of archiving Latina/e lesbian stories. We offer our own plática/roda de conversa adapted from our inaugural Malflora Podcast episode to model the distinct archival practices Latina/e lesbians employ and assert the significance of this work within our current context of intensified state repression and erasure of LGBTQ+ and Latine communities. Altogether, this article highlights how noninstitutional archives and digital memory projects like Malflora Collective are crucial for preserving the stories of Latina/e lesbians and other marginalized communities, while fostering transnational solidarity in the face of cultural and political oppression.