Chinese Mexican Autoethnographies

• In Event: Borderless Narratives: Resisting Empire Through Memory, Movement, and Marginalized Spaces

Abstract

Feminist scholars have long advocated autoethnographic methodologies to disrupt traditional academic frameworks, centering lived experiences as a source of knowledge. This paper explores the role of diasporic Chinese Mexican women in shaping these methodologies, emphasizing how their autoethnographic practices are crucial to understanding the complex histories of Mexico, the United States, and the borderlands between them. Combining community-based ethnography and critical analysis, I explore the experiences of Chinese Mexicans and the intergenerational connections of immigrant daughters with self-archiving, intimate pláticas, and material culture. Through the generational histories and memories of Rebeca Lau and the Lau family—spanning the Pacific, the Mexican-Guatemalan border, and extending into the United States and Canada—I trace how these diasporic spaces and mobilities shape family, community, and self-identity.

Drawing on concepts like the “organic intellectual,” “theorizing from within,” and “collective testimonio,” I argue that the words, writings, and expressive forms of Chinese Mexican daughters offer valuable theoretical insights into their lived realities. These narratives not only reflect their experiences but also offer transformative visions for their futures and histories. As scholar Aurora Levins Morales puts it, this process constitutes “truth telling from personal knowledge” (2001, 29), which elevates the body and lived experiences as foundational to intellectual inquiry. Through this lens, I propose that the autoethnographic practices of these women transcend geographical, cultural, and disciplinary borders, offering alternative epistemologies that challenge dominant historical narratives.

Author

• Yareli Castro Sevilla, UCSD