Embodied Resistance: Testimonio, Archival Research, and Chicana Feminist Futuring

• In Event: Reclaiming Memory, Rendering Futures: VR Chicana and Latina Testimonios and Archival Justice in Stockton, CA

Abstract

This presentation examines how testimonio functions as an anticolonial and feminist methodology for archiving Chicana histories and imagining liberatory futures through immersive virtual reality (VR). The central aim is to explore how embodied and relational storytelling practices resist historical erasure and contribute to community-based knowledge production and healing.

Grounded in Chicana feminist thought (Anzaldúa, 2007; Calderón et al., 2012; Delgado Bernal et al., 2006), this presentation draws on testimonio as a anticolonial method (Delgado Bernal et al., 2012; Latina Feminist Group, 2001) and engages theories of archival justice and feminist futurisms. It also builds on the concept of movidas (Blackwell, Cotera & Espinoza, 2018) to illuminate everyday acts of resistance within historically marginalized communities.

This project utilizes a participatory action research approach, emphasizing collaborative inquiry with community partners, student researchers, and Chicana/Latina cultural workers. Key methods include testimonio interviews, archival research, and the development of immersive VR environments that represent those narratives.

Primary sources include oral testimonios collected from Chicana educators and activists in Stockton, CA; archival documents such as flyers, newsletters, and photographs from local grassroots movements; and immersive VR installations co-created with participants. These materials serve both as data and as modes of community engagement and historical recovery.

Preliminary findings highlight the power of testimonio to foster relational accountability and historical visibility for Chicanas whose stories have been excluded from dominant narratives. The project demonstrates how immersive storytelling not only preserves memory but also activates political consciousness and collective healing. Community participants and viewers have described the VR experience as emotionally resonant, politically affirming, and pedagogically transformative.

This work contributes to the fields of Chicanx/Latinx Studies, Ethnic Studies, and Digital Humanities by demonstrating how feminist, community-based research can leverage new media technologies to amplify silenced histories. It offers a model for youth-engaged, participatory research that merges digital innovation with decolonial memory work, positioning storytelling as both a tool for justice and a visioning practice for collective liberation.

Author

• Nancy Huante-Tzintzun, California State University - Sacramento