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Julián Esteban Torres López (he/him/his/el) is a storyteller and social justice advocate and activist who helps others tell their stories and assists organizations to realign their spines so they are more diverse, equitable, and inclusive. He thrives in mission-driven environments that humanize the Other.
For two decades, he has studied systems of oppression and has worked toward humanizing those who have been socially, politically, and geographically excluded from the hierarchies of power by centering, elevating, and amplifying their voices, experiences, and histories. Julián has created platforms and has built relationships and partnerships with similar social justice-focused individuals and communities to advocate for survivors of systems of oppression via print and digital publishing, podcasting, the stage, visual storytelling, research, education, and community building. He has also demonstrated success in holding leadership positions in production, people, and program management; program development; marketing; publishing; and business, research, and cultural institutions.
Julián is the creator, publisher, executive director, podcast producer, and co-editor-in-chief of The Nasiona (magazine, podcast, press) — a volunteer-led, memoir-centered, journalism organization that humanizes the Other by amplifying the voices and experiences of the systemically oppressed. He is also working on a collection of short stories, a memoir, a collection of interviews, editing an anthology on womanhood and trauma, and helping bring to the world the first Spanish-to-English edition of the 1916 book Pensamientos de un Viejo (Reflections of an Old Man) by Colombian writer and existentialist philosopher Fernando González — “el filósofo de Otraparte” (The Philosopher from Somewhere-Else).
Julián is a storyteller who expresses his written thoughts by way of poetry, journalism, memoir, essays, and short fiction. He’s a Pushcart Prize and Best Small Fictions nominee, a finalist for the Trilogy Award in Short Fiction, a recipient of the McNair Fellowship, a winner of the Rudy Dusek Essay Prize in Philosophy of Art, a former columnist for Colombia Reports, and the author of three books: Reporting on Colombia: Essays on Colombia’s History, Culture, Peoples, and Armed Conflict; Marx’s Humanism and Its Limits: Why Marx Believed We Should Achieve Socialism and Communism Nonviolently; and Ninety-Two Surgically Enhanced Mannequins: A Micro-Poetry Collection.
Julián has conducted long-form interviews and conversations with dozens of experts, creatives, social justice activists, and culture leaders to critically analyze numerous topics, such as incarceration and prison abolition; institutionalized racism, sexism, xenophobia, and homophobia; immigration and diaspora; adoption; the autism spectrum; womanhood and trauma; systemic barriers of entry in storytelling industries; memoir writing; minimalism; being mixed-race; intersectionality; colorism; colonialism; conflict resolution; Third Culture Kids; Latinidad; multiculturalism; and diversity, equity, and inclusion.
For over two decades, Julián has spoken with and to audiences as an educator, storyteller, tour guide, event host, topic expert, moderator, workshop leader, activist, journalist, and podcaster. He’s also been invited to speak at war protests; Martin Luther King Jr. celebrations; international media; university courses to discuss indigenous civilizations before European colonialism; and festivals celebrating multiculturalism and renewable energy. He has presented original research at conferences, such as the International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association, and has moderated numerous public discussions and debates, such the Abortion Debate event at the University of New Hampshire.
Julián has worked as a researcher on numerous funded projects since 2002. He has been awarded fellowships and grants to conduct research in the humanities and social sciences and has presented his findings at international conferences and universities, as well as provided live analysis on international media. He has also worked as a researcher in the private sector and on a range of social-political projects, which have taken him to Canada, the United States, Ecuador, and Colombia.
Julián‘s services range from developmental editing, to book cover design; from social and public history research, to historical photograph acquisition; from manuscript evaluation, to helping you navigate the publishing industry; from archival/database research, to personalized urban hiking tours in San Francisco; from developing emerging journalists, writers, editors, and podcasters, to teaching; from Learning Management Systems, to publication management; from cultural sensitivity reading, to diversity, equity, and inclusion consulting.
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Subscribe for updates regarding Julián's current project, The Nasiona. Keep up with each magazine issue, which authors he's publishing through his publishing house, and who he's interviewing for the podcast.
To listen to all The Nasiona Podcast episodes, click on MENU below, then click EPISODES to see the list and play all episodes. Julián writes, interviews, hosts, edits, sound engineers, produces, and markets each episode.
The Nasiona Magazine is currently on its 22nd issue, Fall 2020. In it, you’ll find stories about being LGBTQIAA+, being mixed-race, being Latina/o/x, womanhood and trauma, and diaspora and immigration. Julián was the Editor-in-Chief for issues 1-18 and co-Editor-in-Chief for issues 19-22.
The Nasiona‘s publishing house publishes several book-length nonfiction manuscripts (paperback and Kindle) each calendar year that align with our mission. We are primarily interested in publishing emerging authors who have yet to publish their first book. We’re interested in centering, elevating, and amplifying personal stories. Julián has been the head editor, publisher, and designer of all the books.
Mixed, by Nicole Zelniker; foreword by Julián Esteban Torres López
Vestiges of Courage: Collected Essays, by Mireya S. Vela, foreword by Terry Wolverton
Eat The Eight: Preventing Food Allergy with Food and the Imperfect Art of Medicine, by Ron Sunog, MD
PLACES & NAMES: Poems, by Carl Boon
Marx’s Humanism and Its Limits: Why Marx Believed We Should Achieve Socialism and Communism Nonviolently, by Julián Esteban Torres López
HUSBAND FATHER FAILURE: Poems, by KG Newman
Reporting on Colombia: Essays on Colombia’s History, Culture, Peoples, and Armed Conflict, by Julián Esteban Torres López
Forthcoming titles
“Give Us a Smile”: Collected Essays and Interviews on Womanhood and Trauma, edited by Aïcha Martine Thiam and Julián Esteban Torres López
Blueblood: Essays & Poems, by Robin Gow
Scraps: A Life in Piecework (Collected Essays), by Rachel Laverdiere
So You Want to Get Published: An Inside Look at What It Takes, with Industry Experts, by Natalie Gasper and Julián Esteban Torres López
Reflections of an Old Man, by Fernando González, translation by Olga Gonzalez Latapi
Julián left his full-time career to create the platform The Nasiona, where he centers, elevates, and amplifies the histories, voices, and experiences of the exploited, marginalized, undervalued, overlooked, silenced, and forgotten. Guided by a social justice compass, he actively works toward dismantling systems of oppression and creating a progressive cultural shift through a podcast, magazine, publishing house, and internship program. Through his work, he intends to humanize the Other and to contribute to building a more equal, equitable, respectful, accountable, dignified, diverse, fair, and just world.
The Nasiona currently focuses on the following story topics: being Latina/o/x, being mixed-race, being BIPOC, LGBTQIAA+, diaspora and immigration, colorism and institutional racism, and womanhood and trauma, as well as stories that glimpse into Othered worlds.
Since 2018, Julián has led and taken The Nasiona to the screens of listeners and readers in more than 140 countries and has reached a consistent audience of 2,500+ unique monthly users. Along with seven books, he’s published 20 magazine issues, which tell the personal stories of hundreds of individuals from around the world. He has also produced 27 podcast episodes, and has 20 more in post-production and 10 in development. He is also in the process of publishing four more books for different authors under The Nasiona‘s publishing house.
When people learn The Nasiona isn’t funded and has been able to achieve so much and produce such powerful and valuable content, they are shocked and surprised. If Julián can do all he’s been able to achieve with no funding, imagine what he can do with your financial support.
Creating content, running his internship program, and managing a team of volunteers is costly in terms of time, energy, money, and lost opportunities. For example, it takes Julián over 30 hours to produce one episode of The Nasiona Podcast by himself, since he writes, interviews, hosts, edits, sound engineers, produces, and markets each episode.
To continue to develop new weekly content; to train emerging journalists, writers, editors, podcast producers, and magazine and book publishers; and to innovate ways to center, elevate, and amplify these stories, Julián asks you to consider donating whatever you can either monthly or as a one-time donation. The future of The Nasiona depends on your support. To secure Julián‘s and The Nasiona‘s independence and provide you with free content, please become a patron and donate. As of right now, The Nasiona is predominantly being funded by Julián himself, which is not sustainable.
The Nasiona depends on voluntary contributions from listeners and readers like you. He hopes the value of his work to the community is worth your patronage. If you like what he does, please show this by financially supporting his work through his Ko-Fi donation platform.
Thank you for your support.