Situating Privilege in Stories About Oppression: Reflecting on the Challenges of (Re)presentation

• In Event: Learning Through Stories: Life Story Methodologies in the Study of Higher Education

Abstract

Testimonio is a methodological tool for exposing racial-, gender-, and class-based encounters, while validating Latina lived experiences as truths (The Latina Feminist Group, 2001). Testimonios provide venues for stories of triumph and struggle from the perspectives of marginalized, silenced people who share their personal experiences in an effort to form a collective consciousness. Testimonios are not simply reflective narratives, but acts of resistance that build interdependence among Latina communities, as well as make explicit the lived experiences of, in this case, oppression and systemic violence within higher education. Although the intent is to “theorize oppression, resistance, and subjectivity” (The Latina Feminist Group, 2001, p. 19) and create a collective consciousness based on analysis of intragroup diversity, I have faced a difficult dilemma in determining aspects of lived experience that are not about oppression, but about privilege. To what extent do we, as researchers-interpreters, silence the narratives of Mexican Americans who are middle class, are monolingual in English, live in areas of the country that are not traditionally known as Mexican cultural centers, are not the first in their families to graduate from college, and/or can trace their family lineage in the United States for generations? To what extent do we cast aside the vast diversity and complexity of Mexican American communities and experiences in order to present a more palatable image of Mexican American educational attainment in our fight for equity in higher education? How do we effectively (re)present lived experience that includes aspects of privilege and oppression? For the symposium, I will draw from my experience crafting testimonios for 13 middle class Mexican American Ph.D.s, offer my perspective on accounting for complexity within a perceived monolithic group, and address the dilemma of (re)presentation.

Author

• Michelle M. Espino, University of Maryland - College Park