Latin American Immigrants as Epistemic Defiant Presence

• In Event: Rebel Epistemologies: From Theory to Assignments

Abstract

I was sitting in the cocina de adobe, the mall adobe hut that served as our kitchen. My grandma was preparing the tortillas of the blue maíz that I loved so much. Mi abuelo, Samuel, narrated stories about growing up in “La Hormiga,” a village that was “founded” by he and other men as a place to raise their families. He tells me that village was taken down years later for reasons unclear, and a new place was founded. “Moreno de Valencia” was the name given to the new town and where he and my grandmother, Esperanza, raised their 11 children. I listened intently as I enjoyed the most delicious bowl of pinto beans and salsa. “Aquí nací,” he says to me “De aquí soy. Mi ombligo está aquí enterrado.” (I was born here. I am from here. My umbilical cord is buried here.” Personal notes.

In the name of “modernity,” or the ideology that frames “Eurocentered capitalism as a new global power” (Quijano, 2000), Western sociopolitical projects have resulted in the destruction of land as well as the loss of knowledge that Latin American and Latinx Studies seek to reclaim and revive. Stories, like the one above, reflects a mestiza/o and indigenous epistemology that has survived years of modernization projects in Mexico that have intended to “de-indianize” (Bonfil Batalla, 1991) and be more like the USA.

The stories told in immigrant families resist Eurocentric values of individualism and material wealth; they represent a text that can be critically read to gain critical understanding of education, culture, and power. There is knowledge in the stories immigrant families bring across the geopolitical borders they cross. These stories of autonomy, connection to land, and migration challenge dominant narratives and contribute in serious and important ways to the construction of knowledge in academia. They are “an epistemic reservoir that can provide new notions to the decolonial turn” (Fregoso Bailón, 2020).

In this paper, I will examine the method of storytelling from a decolonial framework and echo the work of Chicanx and Latinx feminist scholars and their postulation that drawing from stories and la experiencia is an act of resistance to Eurocentrism. It will discuss the ways stories represent Latin American immigrants as a “presencia desafiante” (defiant presence) as Maldonado-Torres, N. (2006) argues. In other words, the stories of border crossing and resilience challenge the greater project of imperialism which is sustained, in great part, through the “implantation of hierarchies of being and value that divide the world.”

The paper will discuss the critical epistemological and theoretical implications of stories and storytelling in the construction of knowledge about culture, power, history, racial politics, and identity, especially as it relates to Latin American people. It will particularly shed light on “testimonio” and its political purpose to counter stereotypes, humanize others, shed light on oppression, and build solidarity across differences. It will examine that Latin American knowledge systems, rooted in pre-Hispanic and anti-colonial frameworks, have a critical role in the building more humanizing and engaged pedagogies.

Author

• Maria Isabel Morales, The Evergreen State College