Engendering Space in a New Latina/o Diaspora Through Testimonios in the New Latino South

• In Event: 68.027 - Spatial Justice, Educational Equity, and Critical Pedagogy in the New Latina/o Diaspora

Abstract

The recent “boy turn” (Weaver-Hightower, 2003) in educational research has led to a growing body of research on males of color. While this research is imperative, there remains a dearth of scholarship that may help us understand the educational trajectories of women of color. Mainstream research has failed to capture how Latina youth negotiate systemic oppression and the ways they exercise agency in the face of adversity. As such, educational research, in many ways, has failed to create empowering, liberating paradigms that examine the lived realities of Latina women (Delgado Bernal,1998). It is these paradigms that Chicana feminist works seek to shift by centering the lived experiences and knowledge of Latina women. This conceptual work draws from Chicana Feminist theories and traditions to move towards exploring how testimonio can create sites of emancipatory education and healing for Latina youth.
Research on the New Latin@ Diaspora (Hamann et al., 2002) notes that the increased Latin@ migration into new gateway states has created a profound shift in the socio-cultural, socio-spatial, and political structures of the region. The growing population of Latin@s living in this ‘New South’ is facing unique challenges as “creators and forgers of new Latino communities” (Villenas, 2001, p. 30). These changing (im)migration trends add another layer of complexity to the Latin@ educational research—especially as educators move toward addressing the pedagogical needs of Latin@ students. There are few institutionalized Latin@ centered spaces in North Carolina. When those spaces do exist, often in the form of ESL classrooms, they are notably marginalized/marginalizing spaces. Soja (2010) argues that because space is dialectic the spatial shapes the social as much as the social shapes the spatial. Thus, issues of equitable access to education for marginalized groups like Latin@s in new diaspora spaces are inextricably linked to issues of spatial justice both in the schools and broader communities.
The conceptualization of the role of testimonios in creating spaces of agency and transformation for Latina youth stems from work conducted with an 17 year old Honduran immigrant living in North Carolina as well as my own experiences as a Latina woman living in the NLD. I borrow from Diaz Soto et al.’s, (2009) Xicana Sacred Space to move towards theorizing how the communal experience of recognizing, sharing, and witnessing a testimonio forges a Mujerista Sacred Space that promotes and nurtures healing. At the heart of this space are raced-gendered ways of knowing and learning. The shared experience of testimonio allowed for the emergence of a space for healing and agency for both the interlocutor and myself. Though this interaction happened outside of the classroom, the implications lie in the moving towards theorizing how raced-gendered pedagogies that emerge from testimonio (Diaz Soto et al.’s, 2009). Space is made through interactions (McGregor, 2003) and the type of interactions that construct it, matter. Intentionally harnessing mujerista spaces has the potential to support a form of spatial justice that pursues a collective consciousness (Diaz Soto el al., 2009) that spurs change, resistance, and liberation for Latina students.

Author

• Esmeralda Rodriguez, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill