“I don’t think people realize that it becomes dangerous to be outspoken.”
Eztli Amaya, co-founder of Fifth Sun Project, a grassroots-led community initiative, comes to this conclusion toward the end of our conversation. It’s a Friday afternoon and we’re sitting in a coffee shop with her 4-year-old daughter whose only concern is a craving for a cake pop. Her mother’s concerns for awareness and advocacy eclipse any dessert.
Founded in 2016 by Amaya and sisters Estefania and Giovana Rangel, Fifth Sun Project emerged out of necessity. The multifaceted collective, focused on Indigenous activism, serves as a beacon of progression and resilience, carving out a vital space for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) communities in Las Vegas. Fifth Sun’s programming includes a street vendor relief fund, self-defense classes and events focused on cultural resistance and awareness. They also host live music and DJ events with food vendors, artist booths and more.
Amaya spoke with the Weekly about Fifth Sun’s approach to addressing issues both local and global.
Have you always had an activist nature?
I started off with animal rights. I’ll be vegan for 11 years this spring, and I was involved with local groups that were organizing around animal rights and liberation. Then I got involved with Food Not Bombs and learned about mutual aid, the needs of our community and what’s not accessible.
Another thing that brought me deeper into activism was environmental injustice. That’s around the time the North Dakota Access Pipeline was being built and I reached out to Fawn Douglas [local artist and activist] and asked, how can I help? How can we get other communities to basically give a sh*t about this? We caravaned up there, took supplies and stayed for five days to protest.
What was the initial spark that moved you to start Fifth Sun Project?
I wanted to give back to our community. I wanted to give to the East Side. I told Estefania [Rangel] that we needed to start our own thing, so from there, we started just throwing house shows, and all of them benefitted a cause.
How has Fifth Sun evolved? How did you get the community to listen?
I think by putting culture first. In communities of color, we’ve lived through this colonial system, we’ve been assimilated, fed propaganda, and stripped of our roots—it kind of desensitizes you to empathy. I think community building is where you can see that we all care about each other and come from the same place.
What are some of your favorite parts of the arts and music scene today?
It’s not the scene that I grew up with. With Scrambled Eggs [art collective], it’s admirable to see how involved and how connected they are to issues and how they’re using their art to express that. And they don’t let themselves get institutionalized.
How many people are a part of Fifth Sun, or have their hands in helping you manage events and projects?
It was always my idea to turn it into a collective. I wanted to set up this platform for anyone to use, whether they’re artists, activists, writers, journalists or documentarians.
What’s one outstanding protest or event that has really struck you and become memorable?
Super recently, it was the Hands Off Rafah National Day of Action and was almost a week after Aaron Bushnell took his own life. I definitely feel more connected to all of the Palestinian martyrs that I’ve been witnessing, but [there’s] something about him. It’s almost a familiar feeling, like something that I contemplated doing. I was mourning all week and thought that we needed a space to normalize this because if you’re not normalizing mourning and you’re just going about your day, something’s not right. So we did the protest rally and dedicated a good portion of it to the vigil and had over 300 people show up, which is one of the biggest protests we’ve had.
How does it feel, knowing you can bridge gaps between groups of people and create connectivity?
It feels necessary but it’s not something for me personally to celebrate. I have a lot of self-criticism, and it’s hard for me to ever feel accomplished or feel some kind of victory. The work is never done and I know it’s going to end up draining me and making burnout happen faster, but organizing is how I cope.
What other challenges are facing the group?
More recently, because we’re so vocal about being pro-Palestinian, we’ve had funding retracted from some folks. We’ve had spaces that agreed to host us cancel because of threatening anonymous phone calls. But again, the focus is resistance and resilience, so we’re not going to let that stop us.
Click HERE to subscribe for free to the Weekly Fix, the digital edition of Las Vegas Weekly! Stay up to date with the latest on Las Vegas concerts, shows, restaurants, bars and more, sent directly to your inbox!
