Toward a Cuerpo-Territorio Sex Education: Intergenerational Stories of Indigenous and Indigenous Latinx Girls and Women (Poster 34)

• In Event: Promising Scholarship in Education Research: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research

Abstract

What do we know about girls’ coming-of-age experiences in public schools concerning the body, sexuality, reproductive health, and menstruation? Research about Indigenous and Indigenous Latinx girls, their sexuality, and reproductive health have been constructed around teen pregnancy prevention, shame, hyper-sexualization, good/bad girl dichotomy, and disciplining of the body through clothing, food, and hygiene. Through the Women’s Health Community project, I focus on the intergenerational experiences of menstruating bodies in-school and out-of-school contexts, specifically Indigenous Latinx and Indigenous girls grounded through an Indigenous and decolonizing education lens. Reshaping the historical narratives about Indigenous women’s bodies, sexuality, and menstrual practices are deeply interconnected with interrogating racial projects of Latinidad, Mestizaje, the Casta System, land dispossession and displacement, and the material and discursive implications it plays in Indigenous livelihoods in diaspora and in the everyday experiences of Indigenous girls. I draw from Critical Latinx Indigeneities and Red Medicine frameworks and engage in intergenerational community-based research in Central Texas with Indigenous and Indigenous Latinx girls, women, and elders and ask: What are the intergenerational (children, youth, elder) coming of age (menstruation) stories of Indigenous and Indigenous Latinx girls in Central Texas? To contribute to the resurgence, reclaiming, and healing of menstruating bodies, I address three key areas in my dissertation: (1) Indigenous and Indigenous Latinx Girlhood & Traditional Indigenous Medicine and Healing; (2) Curriculum of the Cuerpo-Territorio analysis with a focus on sexuality, reproductive health, and menstruation education; and (3) Archival and Oral History/Narrative Analysis from a Curandera historian approach.

Author

• Judith Landeros, University of Texas at Austin
  Presenting Author