¡Radio Muerto!

An Animated Act III of the Xicanx Opera Imperial Silence: Una Ópera Muerta
Animation | 10 min | English, Spanish, Spanglish

Synopsis
¡Radio Muerto! is the third act of the new media Xican@ opera Imperial Silence—a Days of the Dead meditation on the journey of life and death — and the stories that live between. This animated and live-performance act follows a lone skeleton vato cruising in his lowrider down the desolate highway to Mictlán, the Aztec land of the dead.

But he’s not riding solo.

You find yourself in the backseat of a 1968 Chevy Impala, caught in an ever-shifting road trip through the underworld. Whether we like it or not, we’re all headed down this road eventually—some sooner, some later. The worst part? You’ve got no control over the radio dial. So sit back, take a deep breath, and listen in. Chale.

¡Radio Muerto! becomes a time machine and portal to cultural memory. Segments range from the satirical to the sacred: a Chicanx oldies love letter, a political roundtable of spirits, a mournful Indigenous anthem, and dedications from the barrio eternal. Among the static and signal drift, we hear “Muerte Lowrider”, a poetic cancion by Cristóbal Martinez; “Noble Savage Nation” by Sean Levon Nash with the Black Lodge Singers; and a heartfelt dedica from Tiny Grey-Garcia and the late Mama Dee of Poor News Network.

Each broadcast reveals a layer of resistance, grief, satire, or beauty—transmissions that transcend death and speak truth to the living. With sharp animation, soulful sound design, and a rolling beat that won’t quit, ¡Radio Muerto! is a radio requiem for the forgotten, a joyride into the afterlife, and an elegy to lowriders past.

Credits

Written and Directed by
John Jota Leaños

Animation by
Crystal González
John Jota Leaños

Sound Engineering by
Michael Rodríguez
John Jota Leaños

Additional Sound Engineering by
Cristóbal Martinez

Additional Graphics by
Artemio Rodríguez

Radio Programming

• “Muerte Lowrider” – Written and performed by Cristóbal Martinez

• “Noble Savage Nation” – Written by Sean Levon Nash, featuring music by The Black Lodge Singers

• “Dedica to Mama Dee” – Performed by Tiny Grey-Garcia and Mama Dee (Poor News Network)

“Mrs. Jones” – Performed by Mama Dee (Poor News Network)
Rest in Power, Mama Dee

Director’s Statement:

In ¡Radio Muerto!, we take a slow cruise through the shadows of memory, grief, resistance, and joy—Chicanx style. This act was born from the lowrider culture that raised many of us: the sacred soundtrack of Sunday drives, the art of storytelling through basslines and bumper chrome, and the way oldies and underground radio have always been a form of education, meditation, and protest.

Here, our protagonist is a calaca, but more alive than most. As he glides through Mictlán in his lowrider, his dial is tuned to the spirit frequency—a signal for the dispossessed, the mourned, the resisting. ¡Radio Muerto! is not just a concept; it’s a lived practice. We channel the voices that dominant media forgets, that academia footnotes, and that the afterlife welcomes with open arms.

This act honors the political poetics of everyday people—from the fierce transmissions of Mama Dee and Tiny of Poor News Network, to the hypnotic beats of Black Lodge Singers, to the digital-spiritual frequencies of Cristóbal Martinez. It’s a dedica, a satire, and a celebration. Animation becomes the vehicle; sound, the spirit. We don’t just remember the dead—we ride with them.

This is a muerto mixtape for the living, a drive through ancestral airwaves, and a reminder that no signal is ever truly lost if we’re still listening.

— John Jota Leaños