The Transformative Power of Planting Fandango Culture as a Culturally Sustaining Approach to Teaching and Learning at a Public University

• In Event: The Power of Culturally Responsive Education in a Global Context

Abstract

Learning son jarocho--an African diasporic and Mexican musical genre born of the colonial experience in the Gulf of Mexico-- at a public university was leveraged as a tool for co-liberation. Drawing from Black feminist theories and Indigenous methodologies, this community-based participatory action research included members of the Son Xinachtli (seed) Collective, comprised of Ethnic Studies and Education faculty and students. We ask: How might the institutionalization of son jarocho impact student voice and community engagement for co-liberation? Using critical auto/ethnographic and storywork analysis to examine three years of son jarocho implementation, findings indicate that planting fandango culture embodies connections to the land and radical love as a source of healing and responsibility.

Authors

• Cueponcaxochitl D. Moreno Sandoval, California State University - Stanislaus

• Lirio Patton, Arizona State University

• Janneth Rodriguez

• Julissa Ruiz Ramirez, YOALI

• Gregorio G. Rocha-Tabera, California State University - Stanislaus

• Jasmine "Jazz" Dianna Diaz, California State University- Stanislaus

• Jennifer Campos Lopez, California State University - Stanislaus

• Carlos Ortiz, Stanislaus State