Boundless fields of relation: Reconceptualizing pláticas beyond methods and methodology

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Abstract

This paper reconceptualizes pláticas not just as a research method or a form of conversation (Guajardo & Guajardo, 2013; Fierros & Delgado Bernal, 2016; Ayala Chávez, 2025), but as generative, intergenerational, atemporal fields of relation. Drawing from Chicana feminist epistemologies and informed by Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) principles (Cammarota & Fine, 2010), we explore what we call plática consciousness and introduce the term “platique” to describe the transmitters. The study centers on a group of high school-aged Mexican-American young women in the Southwestern United States. Over the course of a year, these youth engaged in pláticas with one another while co-developing a cultural-historical curriculum. Their presentation at a doctoral student symposium served as a continuation of an ongoing plática consciousness.

Authors

• Eric Alvarez, Arizona State University

• Reyna Paulina Cruz Valenzuela, Pomona College