Unsettling Colonialism: Contested Cultural and Linguistic Epistemologies From the Spanish Missions to Contemporary Pedagogical Practices in California

• In Event: Roots of the Colonial: Reframing and Reimagining Change in Educational Research

Abstract

The experiences of colonization documented in writings by Catholic friars and other witnesses of the expansionist movement of Spain up the coast of California during the 18th century have provided community leaders, linguists, anthropologists, and other social scientists material to document, and in many cases support, the revitalization of cultural and linguistic experiences of indigenous communities prior to and during this colonial period (Kroeber, 1953; Golla, 2011; Perisinotto et al, 1998; Hinton, 1993, 2013; among others). These early documents also provide a window into the philosophical and pedagogical practices working in tandem with the colonial project of expansion and militarization, the “civilizing function” of which Césaire (1956) compellingly wrote. They also provide a view into alternative, insurgent, and autonomous epistemological positionings of indigenous communities being subjugated through the military and religious institutions of colonial outposts of the time. Arguably, these cases of contention could be considered the exception rather than the rule, but a focus on these efforts offers a counter-narrative that unsettles the privileged view of a trajectory of the colonial system during Spanish expansion from Mexico into California. Taking as a starting point the expansion of Spanish territories in the 18th century, I provide a brief overview of the mission system in California and its goal of instructing both religion (primarily Catholic) and language (Spanish) to Native American children of communities under colonial rule. Analyzing various points of a timeline of territorial expansion, I examine conflicting pedagogical perspectives within its colonial settlements. Drawing from records of quotidian pedagogical activities in the mission schools and ethnographic data collected from catechism lessons for immigrant children in California Catholic parishes and in public schools, I examine the ways linguistic and cultural practices of indigenous communities become reimagined, recreated, and reintroduced in pedagogical practices across these educational sites. In all, the aims of this paper are to provide a historical understanding of present-day educational practices and examine conflicting pedagogical practice and epistemology as expressions of insurgent creation against domination while responding to Grande’s (2004) call towards the active recovery of knowledges, not as artifacts of the past, but as viable epistemes for the present.

Author

• Patricia Baquedano-Lopez, University of California - Berkeley