Interactive Digital Fotonovelas: Drawing on Visual Critical Race Frames for Social Justice

• In Event: Critical Race Visual Methodologies: Extending Antiracist Tools for Social Justice Educators

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this project is to demonstrate the benefits of utilizing a new visual methodology called Interactive Digital Fotonovelas (IDF) for critical race research. IDF incorporates film, interactive mapping and smart phone technology, and augmented reality to create a multi-model new media object that serves as a pedagogical and social justice tool. I demonstrate two IDF projects produced through community collaboration that explores and visualizes the social inequities present within two Latina/o immigrant communities in Arizona.

Theoretical Perspective
IDF is grounded in critical race theory (CRT) in education and counterstorytelling praxis. IDFs are critical race tools because they center the role of race along with other forms of subordination, focus on lived experiences, and engage communities as co-collaborators in the research process (Delgado Bernal & Solórzano, 2001). Moreoever, IDFs are counterstories that center the experiences of people of color and serve as a challenge negative stereotypes about the racialized “Other” (Solórzano & Yosso, 2002).

Data Sources
Data for IDFs is acquired from four sources: (1) archival and commissioned photographs on these two communities (2) a compilation of eight video-taped interviews with nine participants from these communities, (3) existing research from film documentaries, literature reviews and research reports and, (4) Federal demographic data from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) and U.S. Customs and Immigration Services.

Methods
The IDFs are curated and edited in collaboration with the community and determined by the following four factors: 1) what narrative we wish to tell, 2) what will that narrative look like, 3) who will be the audience for our narrative, 4) how do we wish the audiences to engage with our narrative. These methods have the goal of eliciting community collaboration in the creation of IDFs to begin engaging communities in the creation of alternative stories that are meaningful and relevant to community members.

Results & Significance
The IDFs in this study were disseminated to civil rights and advocacy organizations (i.e. Arizona Hispanic Community Forum and ASU’s Morrison Institute for Public Policy), health and community centers (Social and Public Art Resource Center, NCLR/CSULB Center for Latino Community Health, Evaluation, and Leadership Training), and utilized as pedagogical tools at two college campuses (Arizona State University and California State University, Long Beach). This study confirmed that IDFs serve as powerful and innovative tools for exposing social inequities within immigrant Latina/o communities, providing a “vehicle for liberatory social interventions” that answer Paolo Freire’s call for “liberatory interventions to be guided by the people rather than the pedagogues” (Emme, Kirova, & Cambre, 2006).
Research has found Latinas/os more likely to use smartphone technology than any other racial group (Lopez, Gonzalez-Barrera, & Patten, 2012). Thus, there is significant potential for IDFs to be used within research and communities themselves, as tools to counter dominant racist discourses about Latina/o immigrants. As such, IDF is in a unique position to facilitate ways in which Latina/os can counter dominant narratives and establish alternative narratives.

Author

• LeighAnna Hidalgo, University of California - Los Angeles