UC Irvine

The following text was co-created over a period of three years through conversations with Clare Fox, Sarah Ashkin, Paolo Speirn, Sebastian Sarti, Regino Rodriguez Vazquez, Michael Thurin, Juliane Lovich, Israel Francisco Haros Lopez, and my mother, Holli Teltoe. My role as a caretaker of this information was to document, preserve, and arrange the oral histories and testimony collected. The selected transcripts are stitched together to create an origin story of Mountain House, a collective that practices radical stewardship of land, relationships, and culture. As a formation of many voices and bodies, Mountain House comes into being and exists through the form of relationship. Those relationships are built and fortified through storytelling, deep listening, and responsive care. What results from the knowledge created in conversation takes the shape of cultural work, networks of mutual aid, and the conditions that are necessary for the creation of lasting social transformation.