Coastal Reflections: A Plática on Embodied Knowledge and Schooling Wounds

• In Event: Difficult Dialogues in Uncertain Times: Creating Duoethnographic Spaces and Taking Responsibility as Scholar-Educators

Abstract

In this presentation, we approach the duoethnographic method from a decolonial lens, recognizing that othered epistemologies complimentary to the duoethnographic method have existed in our lives long before we became academics. Pláticas, charlas, and other informal conversational/interview methods stem from a long history of “othered” epistemologies that situate knowledge production as a fluid process of everyday life (Calderón et al., 2012; Flores Carmona, 2014; Johnson, 2008; Olivia, 2018; Villenas et al., 2006). We utilize concepts of testimonio - the personal testimony as collective testimony, and the Anzladúan theory of autohistoria-teoría, drawing from personal and collective history, poetry, mythology, theoretical discourse, and social realities (Anzaldúa, 1987; 2000; 2002; 2015).

We developed a set of themes to guide our pláticas:

1. On the Periphery of the Borderlands: Remembrance is resistance. We unpack our testimonios through an exploration of our individual and collective experiences as Latinas growing up on different coasts, navigating the whiteness of institutional spaces (Gusa, 2010), and learning and unlearning whiteness. (Re)membering our abuelitas and mothers through shared stories and conocimientos inherited from their kitchen-table epistemologies.

2. Conocimiento del Cuerpo: Embodied Knowledge/ Always Becoming: We reflect on how our individual and shared experiences navigating white spaces (Anderson, 2015), reclaiming embodied knowledge, and finding and creating unconventional collective support spaces have impacted our consciousness development and shaped our research on immigration, deportation, and raciolinguistic ideologies (Flores & Rosa, 2015). Resisting by recognizing and reclaiming theories from the flesh throughout our doctoral journeys.

Despite growing up in different contexts geographically and culturally, our shared experiences as daughters of immigrant women and our connection to our grandmothers ground us in a rich soil of feminist knowledge-making that allows us to navigate institutional oppression from the periphery of the borderlands.

As we dove deeper into each other’s histories, we realized that much of our memories are situated in deeply embodied experiences. This is what we call El Conocimiento del Cuerpo. Our conocimiento del cuerpo is like a language, or a knowledge system rooted in our bodies letting us know that our spirit has been impacted. This has become more evident throughout pláticas and through this duoethnography, as we continue to discover that we experienced similar feelings and an unspoken understanding of the internal contradictions brought on by experiencing racism. Perhaps this is the voice of our spirit, or one of the languages our spirit can speak.

The duoethnographic approach feels familiar and comfortable because we grew up listening to and participating in pláticas. This method of checking-in with each other is what has helped us remain grounded and safe in academia. It is a gift from our grandmothers and from our communities to be able to utilize the tools of the academy to re/member.

Author

• Andrea Nikté Juarez Mendoza, The Graduate Center - CUNY