Storying healing connections to lands: Latine/x children co-constructing spaces for them

• In Event: Bilingual Education as Home-Land: Healing Roots, Reclaiming Community Power

Abstract

The Midwest region of the United States, while predominantly white, has become the permanent home for many Latine/x immigrant communities. With their growing presence, bilingual education programs (e.g., dual language, ESL, etc.) have become a central language learning implementation that seemingly support Latine/x students who enter schools with diverse language practices (i.e. speaking Indigenous languages, varieties of Spanish, etc.) develop or sustain bi/multilingualism. However, what has been noted in these programs is the gradual process of deslenguamiento (Anzaldúa, 1987)—cutting tongues--that emphasizes the acquisition and learning of English. This deslenguamiento impacts not only the language practices but also the cultural and linguistic identities and sense of belonging for Latine/x children. This work argues for the need to create spaces that are healing and sustaining to Latine/x children by affirming their voices, identities, and stories. As such, the present study seeks to explore how Latine/x children co-construct a space for them through the storying of self with connections to lands within an afterschool program.

Conceptually, this study draws on literacies rooted in ancestral Latine/x oral traditions (i.e., storytelling, testimonios, pláticas, etc.; Latina Feminist Group, 2001) and methodologically in Indigenous research methods (Kovach, 2018) to examine how eight Latine/x children of Indigenous and non-Indigenous immigrant backgrounds co-construct a space for them through storying connections to lands. Data sources for this study include the artistic creations (paintings, songs, drawings, writings, etc.) and oral stories that children shared during moments of reading together, pláticas among children and among children and researchers, contando historias/storytelling, and collaborative writing, drawing, among other artistic expressions. Thematic analysis was conducted on the storying expressed by the children.

Findings to the study demonstrate that the Latine/x children co-construct a space for themselves through the stories that express their connections to lands within an afterschool program. The first finding is how children storied the landscapes of their homelands. For the second finding, the children storied their love for their homelands and the relationships that still existed for them across borders. The third finding was the children storying their longing for returning to their homelands. The varied experiences with mobility and longing for land were shared and were received by the group in solidarity and compassion for the dream to one day return or visit home.
This study demonstrates that Latine/x children want to tell their stories, be understood, and belong. Attending to the stories of Latine/x children of diverse backgrounds, can help them co-construct spaces that are healing and sustaining for them and relationships and communities rooted in understanding what it means to belong to local and lands across national borders. Creating these opportunities through ancestral Latine/x oral traditions and alongside visual and written artistic creations can cultivate more socially just and humanizing education spaces for Latine/x children.

Author

• Idalia Nunez, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign