Huītzilin the Traveler: Exploring the Edges of Identity

• In Event: Perpetual Seekers of Understanding: Stories of Immigrant Professors of Education in the United States

Abstract

Purpose. This paper elaborates on my leadership story and continues to make sense of my experiences as a daughter of immigrants. It is a first step in “developing theoretical resources” (Pitt, 2016, p. 358) that may lead to further understanding and action.
Method. I use an autohistoria-teoría approach (Anzaldúa, 2009) that “describe[s] the genre of writing about one’s personal and collective history using fictive elements, a sort of fictionalized autobiography or memoir; [it] is a personal essay that theorizes” (p. 578). The act of offering one’s experiences allows for writer and reader to engage in communal meaning-making. This paper is a chance to explore how the stories and experiences in my home, schools, and society were woven together over time.This journey also intersects with the development of my identity as a Chicana feminist – a political stance which embraces cultural connections to México. I explore the concept of nepantla (Anzaldúa, 1993) and of being a neplantera - one who lives in “uncertain terrain” (p. 39) – as a way to make sense of the multiple borders that must be crossed and redrawn as a Latinx scholar. While these borders are physical, they are also emotional, spiritual, ontological, and epistemological.
Insights. Nepantlera’s possess, develop, and offer three key insights: double vision, conocimiento, and spiritual activism. By occupying two spaces at once, nepantleras can see what is happening on both sides of that “border.” They can see twice as much and they can see double. This unique vision that makes them able to look at both sides and “see the world through various perspectives” (Abraham, 2014, p. 2). Anzaldúa (2009) describes the enactment of conocimiento as “embed[ing] your experiences in a larger frame of reference, connecting your personal struggles with those of other[s]” (p. 542). It is an awareness that comes from living and knowing both/and rather than either/or. Spiritual activism is the relationship between the “inner workings” of the individual and “public action.” Nepantleras’ previous experiences allow them to create safe third spaces that are inclusive of all people. Keating (2008) further describes spiritual activism as “spirituality for social change, spirituality that posits a relational worldview and uses this holistic worldview to transform one’s self and one’s world” (p. 54). In these ways, nepantleras are shaping and reshaping the world throughout their lives.
Implications. This paper represents issues that need to be explored and understood by faculty and emerging leaders, alike. How we prepare educational leaders - whether for the academy or schools or the state house - to protect, advocate for, and lift immigrant children and children of immigrants will be the defining task of our field. The need to integrate the managerial aspects of leadership with the conocimiento and spiritual activism, so natural to nepantleras and so important to recognizing our common humanity, should guide our curriculum development, learning experiences, research practices, and policy analysis. In a field committed to diversifying the leadership and professor pipeline, we must prepare to embrace alternate epistemologies, ontologies, and methodologies that allow us to see and be more.

Author

• Mónica Byrne-Jiménez, University Council for Educational Administration