Jangueo: Survivance of US Latine Scholars in Higher Education Disrupting Hegemonic Scholarly Use of Latinidad

• In Event: Building Kinship and Becoming Relatives: Ancestral Alignment Guiding Our Methodologies

Abstract

The institutionalization and homogenization of knowledge within the U.S. academy have led to "simple codification and the elementary forms of recognition," which operate as law (Bourdieu, 1984/1988, p. 35). These codifications and forms of recognition are always in operation, whether researchers are aware of it or not (Bourdieu, 1984/1988), requiring epistemological vigilance towards the scholarship being produced and towards the source (Mazzarella & Pouscoulous, 2018; Sperber et al., 2010). Epistemic vigilance consists of practices that target accidental or intentional misinformation (Sperber et al., 2010; Mazzarella & Pouscoulous, 2018) by checking the validity, strength, coherence, and consistency of knowledge being produced (Mazzarella & Pouscoulous, 2018).
I engage in epistemic vigilance of U.S. higher scholarship on the experiences of U.S. Latines in higher education to strengthen the epistemic network committed to advancing Latinidades. I respond to Busey and Silva’s (2020) imperative that U.S. education researchers move to “conceptualize Latinidades as multiple” by being more attentive to colonial logics “threaded in South-North linkages that have shaped U.S. Latinx and Latin American racial formations” to disrupt “uniform theorizations of Latinidad” (p. 182). Specifically, the conceptualization of Latinidad through racially homogenous or color-evasive paradigms that operate a raceless Latinidad (Adames et al., 2021).
I have found that engaging in practices that aim at epistemic decolonization can feel isolating, emotionally and psychologically challenging and overwhelming. It is in these moments that a supportive community becomes even more evident which emphasizes the importance of community and kinship when engaging in epistemic decolonization. I have found affirmation and support from other Latine U.S. scholars engaging in work that aims to disrupts the homogeneity of scholarship produced on U.S. Latines within higher education. Therefore, I engaged in the humanizing affirming methodological process that also serves as an offering for my community, liming methodology (Fernández Santana et al., 2019; Santana, 2023). Liming methodology, jangueo in Puerto Rico, is a culturally affirming approach for collective knowledge construction that addresses issues that matter to the community while engaging in sensemaking and networking (Santana, 2023).
En el jangueo the researcher is not neutral and intersubjective knowledge construction is foundational. Jangueo occurs in the sharing of memories through music, dance, and food. The unstructured and no-prescriptive environment of jangueo allows for limers (collaborators) to engage through the practice of sharing ideas, stories, and most importantly humor (Santana, 2023). Specifically, because humor “can be a way to address difficult topics… an important coping mechanism and a means of collective negotiation of meaning” (Santana, 2023, p. 48). I invite U.S. Latine scholars who conduct research on the Latine community in higher education to multiple jangueos to engage in Ole Talk (Hall, 1985; Santana, 2023). During our jangueos, I share the research topic, and allow limers to freely engage in discussing our scholarly use of Latinidad in our field and survivance in the academy as it relates to our research aims to address the under theorization of Latinidad, a form of epistemic injustice.

Author

• Luz Nereida Burgos-Lopez, University of Connecticut