Ep. 54 Laughter Is Our Medicine with Teresa Choyguha
About this episode
Teresa Choyguha shares her family's migration journey and the role of humor in their survival amidst hardship.
In Indian Country, teasing is a love language and humor is survival. In this episode I catch up over the phone with Tesera Choyguha (Tohono O’odham), a multi-talented Native comedian, cultural educator, utilitarian potter, and retired Toka player. Tee and I go way back to around 2013, when I first joined their Toka team called Gewkdag, in Sells, Arizona. For those unfamiliar, Toka is a traditional O’odham women’s game similar to field hockey. We have stayed connected ever since, and it is always a joy to run into each other and catch up. Photo of Teresa (left) and Tina (Right) during the Mul-Chu-Tha Toka Tournament in March 2014 Teresa (right) and her daughter Summer (left) Hard Work, Humbling Times, and Healing Laughter Teresa brings a deeply grounding and human story, sharing her family’s profound migration journey from the traditional O’odham homelands in Mexico across the border into southern Arizona. Growing up alongside her family working in the grueling farm fields, Teresa’s upbringing was shaped by relentless hard work and intensely humbling circumstances. Amidst the sweat, exhaustion, and financial struggles of laboring under the desert sun, humor became their ultimate…
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