Critical Car-Culture Narrative: Cruising as a Methodology to Explore Community History in Schools

• In Event: Archiving Art as a Legacy to Preserve Pasts/Futures

Abstract

Drawing on the concept of Political Landscape painting (Baca, N.D.), this paper continues to develop the discourse on critical car-culture narrative (Garcia, 2021a) as an art-based methodology that enables students and educators to examine the impact of racism in communities. The work discusses the concept of creative resistance (Darts, 2004; Garcia, 2015, 2018, 2020, 2021A, 2021B; Hayes, 2020), its theoretical framework which draws on Critical Race Theory in Education (Solorzano & Delgado-Bernal, 2001; Solorzano & Yosso, 2002; Yosso, 2005) Critical Pedagogy (Freire, 1970; Garcia, 2020), and the Funds of Knowledge (Gonzales, et.al, 2005; Kiyama & Aguilar, 2018; Garcia, 2018) . The paper introduces how educators can revisit local and community history by drawing on cruising as a methodology in k-16 settings. Cruising, which uses a narrative medium, invites students to analyze historic forms of racism, articulate its effects, and create a collage that shows how racism has impacted their communities, and families today (Garcia, 2021). The art-based methodology of Critical Car Culture Narrative uses car culture, the medium of collage, and communal history to shed light on the forgotten histories and political experiences of marginalized communities in order for them to imagine a future of transformational possibilities.

Author

• Luis Genaro Garcia, California State University - Sacramento