The Internal Power of Chicanas/os-Latinas/os

• In Event: 44.051 - Paths to Gender Justice in Education: Theories and Practices

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to understand the “Nepantla process” that high school and community college students underwent as they participated in Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR).

In this work, we draw on Gloria Anzaldua’s “nepantla pedagogy” (1987, 2002). Nepantla pedagogy understands that for one to grow rooted in the world, education must nurture the mind, body and the soul. In Nahuatl (the Aztec language) nepantla means being in between, or in the middle space. This third space is where meaning-making takes place. This is the space where we reclaim our inherent power to decide. This is space where one begins to decolonize oneself. The concept of Nepantla has within it a core of spirituality, where one recovers ancestral ways which have been historically rendered silent. In this work, we explore nepantla in connection with conocimiento – or, “critical consciousness” (Anzaldua, 1987; Freire, 1970) – which she theorizes as a seven stages process to be a Nepantlera. Nepantlera is the never ending process of developing the mind, body and soul. In this study, we add to Anzaldua’s work. After working with youth in high school and community college, we have a deeper understanding and re-understanding of this process which we call the internal power of Chican@/Latin@s which we believe is part of nepantla.

Youth participatory action research (YPAR) is the methodological approach that drove our study. Youth identified problems in their communities then chose issues that most affected them. Together with us as the researchers, they investigated these issues, analyze the results and generated possible solutions. As students implemented their action plans, they reflected on their actions and problem solved issues that arose; then this cycle repeated. The middle and high school students (eight Chican@s/Latin@s from New Mexico) tackled issues of homophobia. The middle school and community college (eight Chican@s/Latin@s from California) learners focused on the issue of immigration and undocumented students. Students were interviewed and field notes documenting the progression of their project were collected.

Our analyses of these data indicated that as youth engaged in YPAR, they went through a simultaneous interconnected complex process. Nepantla appeared to lead youth to their own internal cycle of wisdom seeking. Once the individual underwent the simultaneous, complex process, they created their new sense of consciousness, and indeed appeared to move towards the third space that Anzaldua called nepantla. To do this, though, the youthful participants had to undergo a paradigm shift, by beginning to liberate themselves from colonial self-understandings. This helped them to being to heal holistically and start the process of confronting their passions with courage and determination.

We believe this research adds to Anzaldua’s work by analyzing the process through which participants began identifying and deploying their internal power through YPAR.

[Note: References available upon request.]

Author

• Marisol Oriana Ruiz, Humboldt State University