Conceptualizing Convivencia Across Time and Space: A Critical Race Feminista Approach

• In Event: Critical Race Feminista Methodologies in Educational Research

Abstract

Objectives
This paper highlights the importance of pushing the methodological boundaries of educational historical research to unearth easily forgotten perspectives of activism on behalf of Communities of Color within archival research. Drawing from oral histories and platicas with six Chicana/o librarians, and archival sources from various collections across the nation, the author conceptualizes convivencia across time and space through a Critical Race Feminista approach. Convivencia, as a collaboration praxis stems from a larger research project which undertakes a historical analysis of the activism of critical Chicana/o librarians to advocate for anti-racism and social justice in children’s literature and library services.

Theoretical Framework
This paper draws from Critical Race Theory (CRT) in education (Ladson-Billings & Tate 1995; Solórzano, 1997) and Chicana/Latina Feminist theories (CLFT) (Delgado Bernal, 1998, 2020; Moraga & Anzaldua, 2002) to uncover ideologies of white supremacy embedded within educational research, practices, and schooling. Coupled the frameworks CRT and CLFT support a research praxis that centers convivencia in the collection and analysis of data.

Methods, and Methodology
This paper draws from oral histories, platicas, primary sources and personal documents to construct a critical historical narrative of convivencia with Chicana/o librarians (Garcia & Yosso, 2020). Trinidad Galvan (2011) cautions, convivencia is not “research conviviality, but rather a struggle to develop and build coexistence” (p.555). The convivencias, between the researcher and the Chicana/o librarians were a portal across time and space of recalling, retelling, remembering, and learning a counter-history of activism within librarianship.

Findings
To illustrate the convivencias across time and space, this paper highlights the oral histories, and platicas I had with two Chicana/o librarians. Time is represented by the act of remembering events from the timeframe under study 1960-2000, in a contemporary setting taking place in 2021 and 2022. Both time periods are marked by movements to make library services and materials available to Communities of Color. Space is represented by the various methods of communication such as video conferencing, phone calls, email correspondence and in-person visits that allowed us to convivir despite the pandemic and existing in different geographical locations. While I had not lived through the time period the collaborators were reflecting on, our shared connection and interest in having multiple conversations suggests there was a mutual interest in exchanging information, knowledge and convivencia across time and space. This convivencia allowed me to piece a critical narrative of activism on the behalf of Chicana/o librarians and there contributions to contemporary culturally relevant materials in children’s literature and library services.

Scholarly Significance
The conceptualization of convivencia in educational history research, disrupts traditional educational research that positions the researcher/historian as the sole expert. I contend that leaning into the tenets of CRT in Education and drawing on Chicana/Latina tools like cultural intuition and engaging a convivencia allows researchers to invite collaborators to co-create a narrative of resistance. By engaging convivencia through oral histories, platicas and personal documents with collaborators, we can piece a critical race historical narrative that nuances the perspectives in archival documents and unearths the stories seldom heard.

Author

• Lorena Camargo Gonzalez, California State University - Sacramento