Special issue: “Chicana/Latina Testimonios: Mapping the Methodological, Pedagogical, and Political

Equity & Excellence in Education 45:3, 363-72 (2012)
Dolores Delgado Bernal, Rebeca Burciaga & Judith Flores Carmona,

While the genre of testimonio has deep roots in oral cultures and in Latin American human rights struggles, the publication and subsequent adoption of This Bridge called My Back (Moraga & Anzaldua, 1983) and more recently Telling to Live: Latina Feminist Testimonios (Latina Feminist group, 2001) by Chicanas and Latinas, have demonstrated the power of testimonio as a genre that exposes brutality, disrupts silencing, and builds solidarity among women of color (Anzaldua, 1990). Within the field of education, scholars are increasingly taking up testimonio as a pedagogical, methodological, and activist approach to social justice that transgresses traditional paradigms in academia. Unlike the more common training of researchers to produce unbiased knowledge, testimonio challenges objectivity by situating the individual in communion with a collective experience marked by marginalization, oppression, or resistance. These approaches have resulted in new understandings about how marginalized communities build solidarity and respond to and resist dominant culture, laws, and policies that perpetuate inequity. This special issue contributes to our understanding of testimonio as it relates to methdology, pedagogy, research, and reflection within a social justice education framework. A common thread among these articles is a sense of political urgency to address educational inequities within Chicana/o and Latina/o communities.

–from the introductory essay by Dolores Delgado Bernal, Rebeca Burciaga & Judith Flores Carmona

Table of Contents:

  • Testimonios of Life and Learning in the Borderlands: Subaltern Juárez Girls Speak - Claudia G. Cervantes-Soon
  • Chicana/Latina Testimonios on Effects and Responses to Microaggressions - Lindsay Pérez Huber & Bert María Cueva pages
  • Pedagogies from Nepantla: Testimonio, Chicana/Latina Feminisms and Teacher Education Classrooms - Linda Prieto & Sofia A. Villenas
  • Chicana and Black Feminisms: Testimonios of Theory, Identity, and Multiculturalism- Cinthya M. Saavedra & Michelle Salazar Pérez
  • The Process of Reflexión in Bridging Testimonios Across Lived Experience – Michelle M. Espino, Irene I. Vega, Laura I. Rendón, Jessica J. Ranero & Marcela M. Muñiz
  • Making Curriculum from Scratch: Testimonio in an Urban Classroom - Cindy Cruz
  • Getting There Cuando No Hay Camino (When There Is No Path): Paths to Discovery Testimonios by Chicanas in STEM - Norma Cantú
  • Testimonio as Praxis for a Reimagined Journalism Model and Pedagogy – Sonya M. Alemán
  • Digital Testimonio as a Signature Pedagogy for Latin@ Studies - Rina Benmayor
  • Testimonio: Origins, Terms, and Resources - Kathryn Blackmer Reyes & Julia E. Curry Rodríguez

What do you think?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.