A Westside Escuelita Story: The Coalitional Politics of Space, Healing and Community Building

• In Event: Imagining Next Social Justice Activism for a Just Future

Abstract

This paper examines the challenges of building an intergenerational, multi-racial, multi-gendered, and anti-racist co-constructed community school—the Escuelita—which is aimed to empower its participants to be change agents who pursue intersectional solidarity and healing; advocate for cultural preservation; and invest in the civic and political health of their communities. The result of a community-campus partnership between an HSI and a Chicana-led non-profit, this learning site has tested the limits of coalitionary feminist politics, as asymmetries of power, unhealed wounds, and continued matrices of oppression have been tensions in this work.

Presenter

• Sonya M. Aleman, University of Texas at San Antonio