Authentic Cariño: Transformative Schooling for Latinx Youth

• In Event: Centering Latinx and Chicano Perspectives: Bate-Papo~Testimonio, Authentic Cariño, and Radical Healing

Abstract

This qualitative case study of a high school advances transformative schooling for Latinx youth by theorizing a model of authentic cariño, which incorporates interpersonal and institutional care and emphasizes the dynamic interplay of familial, intellectual, and critical care. Drawing from scholarship on subtractive and additive schooling, as well as notions of critical educative care, this paper examines three annual school events (opening day assembly, senior investigative project, and pre-graduation rite of passage) to demonstrate how the schoolwide enactment of authentic cariño nourished students’ bodymindspirits and promoted their academic and civic engagement. Ultimately the case illustrates how authentic cariño can generate a culture of engaged learning and nurture the transformative resistance of Latinx youth, as well as community well-being.

Author

• Marnie Curry, University of California - Santa Cruz