The Intergenerational Development of Diasporic Indigenous Mexicans' Linguistic Repertoires of Practice

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session One
  In Roundtable Session: Across Diasporas: Indigenous Latinx Youth and Allies Learning, Languaging, and Place-Making (Table 11)

Abstract

Objective
This study examines how a diasporic Indigenous community develops flexible linguistic repertoires of practice through cultural traditions.

Introduction
Mainstream approaches in education have not paid enough attention to the sociocultural context of development and often overlook Indigenous Latinxs. However, recent scholarship centers cultural practices at the core of the scientific study of learning (Bang, 2015; Nasir et al, 2020). This study uses the framework of translanguaging (García & Wei, 2014; Vogel & García, 2017), and diasporic community knowledge (Urrieta & Martínez, 2011) to explore the practical implications of diasporic Indigenous Latinx experiences in development and learning. Limited research exists on the cultural socialization, including diasporic community knowledge, that takes place in the diaspora of Indigenous Latinxs. This study examines how first-generation Zapotec migrants and subsequent generations recreate their Indigeneity through their contributions to a philharmonic band. The study considers: How do intergenerationally linked Indigenous Mexicans sustain and remake their indigeneity through participation in a philharmonic band? This band is a significant learning community that centers multilingual, transnational, and intergenerational interactions.

Data and Methods
The qualitative study highlights a collaboration with a Los Angeles-based Oaxacan philharmonic band led by diasporic Zapotecs. Data sources include participant observations, field notes, and semi-structured interviews. The band consists of 27 youth members (ages 8-17), 11 adults (ages 18-65), and two middle-aged directors. Twenty-four rehearsal sessions, nine performances, and two parent meetings were observed, and 36 semi-structured interviews were conducted with youth, adults, parents, and directors. Interviews underwent two cycles of coding. Inductive and deductive codes were produced (Saldaña, 2016), including in vivo (codes developed from the speaker’s words), description, and values codes.

Results
Preliminary data analysis discovered the band is a multilingual community that encourages directors and youth to use flexible linguistic repertoires of practice, including translanguaging pedagogy (García et al, 2012; Palmer & Martínez, 2013), to communicate during rehearsals and performances. By using everyone’s linguistic repertoires, the band and its leaders created an important entryway for youth to access music and culture, including their Indigenous ways of living and being. Spanish, English, and Zapotec are the three languages primarily used among band members and their flexible use was established as a pedagogical approach since its inception in 2001. For over two decades, the band has readily used these languages as critical mediators to inculcate traditions, values, music, and celebrations via their banda saberes (Author, 2021). Hence, the adults’ multilingual approach to teaching youth in all of the languages available to all band members results in opportunities for sustaining and reinforcing their communal belonging and identity as Zapotecs among their growing generations.

Significance
The band’s organic multilingual approach creates an inclusive learning community for all members and sustains their diasporic community knowledge by recreating their Indigenous collective beliefs and practices outside of their native pueblos. Researchers and educators can adopt these flexible linguistic repertoires of practices to their current efforts that aim to develop the linguistic and cultural needs of student learning within and outside of their classroom settings.

Author

• Melissa Mesinas, Whittier College
  Presenting Author