Navigating Mestizaje and Language: Mexico/United States Transnational Youth and the Coloniality of Knowledge

• In Event: Language and Race in Schools: Transnational Mexico/US Youth Experiences

Abstract

This study engages with curricular standpoint theory to uncover the raciolinguistic ideologies that follow transnational students. Drawing on Au’s (2012a; 2012b) call for curricular standpoint and Avila-Mendoza's et al. (2024) invitation to bring raciolinguistic and translanguaging lenses into curriculum studies, this work traces Mexico’s nation building project of mestizaje and juxtaposes it with hegemonic and common-sense forms of knowledge around languages and linguistic practices of transnational students in Mexico. To arrive at a curricular standpoint, this paper engages with the researcher's testimonio, that as an exercise of reflexivity (Haraway, 1991; Harding, 2004; Pillow, 2003), traces the lineage of raciolinguistic ideologies in the literature on mestizaje (Hooker, 2017) and the relationship between racism, language, and coloniality in Mexico (Flores & Rosa, 2015; Mignolo, 2005).

Author

• Omar Serna, Texas Christian University