Bringing indigenous autonomy to the big screen is what inspired UC Santa Barbara professor of Chicano/a Studies Gerardo Aldana during his time doing consulting work for the film Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. The film was recently nominated for four Academy Awards.

The film’s production team contacted Aldana to help create the Talokanil, an underwater people ruled by the mutant Namor in the kingdom of Talokan. Aldana’s expertise in Mayan hieroglyphics and Mesoamerican cultures informed the design of the culture.

In a recent interview, Aldana talked about the underlying goals that fueled the making of the film.

Aldana at the premiere of "Wakanda Forever"; photo courtesy of Aldana

Q: How do you feel knowing that you’ve contributed such a big part in bringing Mayan aesthetics into the spotlight?

A: The Talokanil are a community, a culture that has its roots in the Mayan community, but once they leave, they are not Mayan. We don’t want to have Disney or Marvel defining what it means to be Mayan today.

There’s a headdress that he [Namor] wears. In the first version that they brought to me, somebody found representations of the feathered serpent from Teotihuacan. We want to be accurate to Yucatán, so that’s like a 1000-year difference [and] geographically very different areas. We never want to copy what already exists, because that’s getting in the realm of appropriation.

I showed them images from murals in Chichen Itza. From that collaboration came the next headdress. I think that’s symbolic because it has the components of the feathered serpent, iconographically, but it’s also something new and different.

The experience itself of collaborating was so rich. There was so much respect and interest going into it that I couldn’t be more happy with the results.

Q: Set designer Hannah Beachler spoke on the official Wakanda podcast about the incredible detail with which the kingdom was created. Why do you think it is so important to imagine Talokan with such intricacy and depth?

A: [Director] Ryan Coogler and Hannah were committed from the beginning to giving it the seriousness they gave to Wakanda. For us [Mayan people] this is really powerful because what you have is the opportunity to think about what an autonomous indigenous community does once they aren’t constrained by colonialism and external authoritarian powers. That’s an ideal, because in indigenous communities you’re consistently confronted with this issue of autonomy.

Their [Talokanil] technology can be totally utilitarian because they already have lives and a culture that is so rich they don’t need to compensate. When you see Talokan, they’re just people doing everyday things. The technology helps them — but that’s not the focus of their life. Wakanda [however] is on the surface. They’re in a context of having to protect themselves, so technology becomes that vehicle.

Q: The film deals with pretty heavy topics many immigrants can relate to: displacement, the legacies of colonialism, the destruction of culture. Why do you think it is important to make these narratives accessible to younger generations?

A: Ryan [Coogler] is courageous and he is bombastic, because he was willing to take this chance to represent indigeneity to the world. That’s the beautiful thing, that [kids] can see brown-skinned indigenous communities, living rich and amazing lives. This is where I think Afro-futurism, indigenous futurites, all come together. How do you decolonize your imagination so that you can start to think of alternatives? That’s the underlying goal.

Black Panther, the first movie, gave folks a new way to look at Black culture. Why can’t you start doing that for others as well? That’s the ally-ship that I think is central to everything in the movie. Yes, there is a lot of fighting but it’s because ally-ship is never perfect to begin with, and especially when it’s instigated by aggressive external forces. It wasn’t like Namor just came out against Wakanda. They were put against each other because of extractivist capitalism, because the rest of the world was saying “you have what we want.” That is the same situation that indigenous communities are in. [Wakanda Forever] is a study in ally-ship. It’s not saying Kumbaya — it takes work.

Alexia Duran is a fourth-year Sociology major at UC Santa Barbara. She wrote this piece for her Writing Program class, Digital Journalism.