Rasquache Civic Movidas: The role of humor, play, and resistance in civic practices

• In Event: Theorizing Social Studies Education from Below: Civic Knowledge, Praxis, and Possibility from Los de Abajo

Abstract

Objectives
This draws upon rasquache methodologies (Author & Author, 2025), specifically plática (Fierros & Bernal, 2016), to examine how feminist theorizing “from the bottom” offers insights into emergent civic frameworks for communities of color (see Duncan, 2024).

Perspectives and Methods of Inquiry
Inspired by Dahlia de la Cerda’s Perras de Reserva, a raunchy, bold, and playful collection of feminist stories that centers the irreverent brilliance of “los de abajo,” this paper explores rasquache civic movidas within the current sociopolitical climate. Through an intergenerational plática dialogue between two Chicanx scholars – a faculty member and a graduate student – from sanctuary cities, we examine the role of humor, joy, and linguistics play in resisting epistemic violence, state-sanctioned repression, respectability politics, and narrow notions of civic agency.
Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view
Using a rasquache lens rooted in Chicanx/Latinx Studies, we reflect on how these improvisational, playful, and insurgent practices offer alternative frameworks for civic engagement and praxis.

Authors

• José I. Valdez, Texas A&M University

• Jasmin Patron-Vargas, Texas A&M University