"Aquí es donde agrarramos valor": Community-Based Learning Spaces by and for Indigenous Mexican Youth

• In Event: Creating Equitable Learning Contexts for Indigenous Mexican Communities: Cultural Knowledge, Networks, Practices, and Empowerment

Abstract

Abstract
Over the last two decades, a growing number of Indigenous Mexican students have enrolled in U.S. schools; yet their languages, cultural practices, and knowledges are commonly dismissed or assumed to be a part of the dominant Spanish-speaking mestizo Latinx population (Author, 2010, 2018; Barillas-Chón, 2010; Equipo de Cronistas Oaxaqueños, 2013; Perez, Vasquez, & Buriel, 2016). Moreover, the harmful legacies and contemporary manifestations of coloniality remain present within Indigenous Mexican communities in the U.S. (Author, 2018; Fox & Rivera-Salgado, 2004; Stephen, 2007).
Nevertheless, these communities actively work to preserve their histories, languages, knowledges, and traditions. As younger generations gain access to higher education, Indigenous Mexican college graduates carry on this labor of resistance. This paper focuses on the testimonios of 12 Indigenous Mexican (Ñuu Savi/Mixtec, Zapotec/Bene Xhon, and Nahua) college students and graduates and their motivations for creating grassroots and community based learning spaces for Indigenous Mexican youth. This study is conceptually framed by Critical Latinx Indigeneities (CLI) (Author, 2019a; Blackwell, Lopez, & Urrieta, 2017; Calderon & Urrieta, 2019). Given the historical and contemporary impact of colonialism, Indigenous Mexican migrants and subsequent generations are faced with negotiating their identity against the backdrop of US settler colonial identity and dominant Mexican ethno-national mestizo identity (Fox & Rivera-Salgado, 2004; Stephen, 2007). A CLI perspective destabilizes “essentialist notions of both Latinx and Indigenous categories of identification and critique global forms of colonial legacies” by drawing from personal stories, ways of knowing, and ways of being of Indigenous Latinxs in the United States (Blackwell et al., 2017, pp. 134–135).
The participants’ testimonios reveal their motivations for creating community-based learning spaces were fueled by 1) their strong ties to their communities of origin in Mexico; 2) personal encounters with discrimination from Mexican mestizos and other Latinxs; and 3) empowering college experiences like ethnic studies courses and student organizations. Ultimately, the participants indicate a level of urgency in making their respective Indigenous community’s history, traditions, and experiences more visible to Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. Through the creation of spaces like the Jardín Mixteco Comunitario and the Oaxaqueño Youth Encuentro, participants challenge inaccurate representations of Indigeneity by fostering Indigenous pride and intergenerational learning for younger generations.
Despite the growing presence of Indigenous Mexican and Latinx students in the K-20 pipeline, Indigenous racial, cultural, and linguistic variability remains limited in the field of Latinx educational equity. The findings from this study shed light on the specific and unique experiences of Indigenous Mexican students and offer examples of how college graduates address issues of representation and validation in their own communities. Educators, researchers, and institutions can learn from these community-based practices in order to broaden one-dimensional understandings of Latinx students and better support diverse Latinx student populations.

Author

• Gabriela Kovats Sanchez, San Diego State University