". . . Once You Are Involved, It's in Your Blood, It Never Leaves You": Conocimiento in Chicana Educational Activism

• In Event: Inclusion, Democracy, and the Latinx Educational Experience

Abstract

This paper examines the educational activism of two working-class Chicanas, one in Arizona and one in Texas, who organized their respective communities to effect specific educational change in their children’s schools. We use Anzaldúa’s concept of conocimiento to analyze how these women used their embodied knowledge, or lived experiences of oppression in educational activism. It analyzes the experiences described in oral interviews and the embodied knowledge that resulted from their understanding of their lived experiences and organizing experience. It argues these women used their embodied knowledge to effectively mobilize other community members to successfully challenge educational inequities in their neighborhood schools. We introduce the concept of Chicana educational activism to describe how these women used their conocimiento in educational organizing.

Authors

• Maritza De La Trinidad, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

• Christopher Milk Bonilla, Texas State University - San Marcos