A Curriculum of the Borderlands: High School Chicana/o-Latina/o Studies as Sitios y Lengua
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A Curriculum of the Borderlands: High School Chicana/o-Latina/o Studies as Sitios y Lengua Cati V. de los Rı´os
Published online: 15 January 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013
Abstract Drawing from a nine-month critical teacher inquiry investigation, this article examines the experiences of eleventh and twelfth grade students who participated in a year-long Chicana/o-Latina/o Studies course in California shortly after the passing of Arizona House Bill 2281 (HB 2281). Through a borderlands analysis, I explore how these students describe their experiences participating in such a course, and in doing so, debunk some of the myths upon which HB 2281 was constructed. I find that these classroom experiences served as sitios y lenguas (decolonizing spaces and discourses; Pe´rez in The decolonial imaginary: Writing Chicanas into history, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1998) in which high school students were able to reflect on the ongoing transformation of their social, political, and ethnic identities, and developed a relational ontological base. This article explores the physical and metaphorical borders (Anzaldu´a in Borderlands/La frontera: The new mestiza, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco 1987) that Chicana/o and Latina/o youth navigate and challenge while simultaneously working for social change in their communities. Lastly, it conveys what we stand to lose if the decolonizing spaces and discourse constructed in Ethnic Studies courses become casualties of xenophobic policy. Keywords High school Chicana/o-Latina/o studies Curriculum Borderlands Sitios y lengua ‘‘The attack on Raza Studies in Tucson is real to all of us. What’s happening in Arizona isn’t just there…Folks could show up to Pomona and take away our classes, too…It’s our responsibility to fight with them and talk about what’s
C. V. de los Rı´os (&) Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA e-mail: [email protected]
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Urban Rev (2013) 45:58–73
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happening out there…cuz these classes are more than just powerful…These classes save lives.’’ - Roberto,1 twelfth grader Roberto, my former student in Chicana/o-Latina/o Studies, astutely points out the dire need to not only combat the institutional eradication of Mexican–American Studies (MAS) in the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD), but also to encourage a new world in which curricula are (re)invigorated, (re)conceptualized, and cultivated in communion with humanizing efforts. Roberto believes that these ‘‘classes save lives,’’ addressing the miseducation of historically dispossessed barrio (urban) youth and providing them with an axiology of ethical responsibility to navigate their worlds. Roberto’s participation within Chicana/o-Latina/o Studies equipped him with a critical epistemic lens from which to make sense of contemporary attacks on the MAS program in Tucson, Arizona. To explain why it is salient to maintain and proliferate K-12 Ethnic Studies, scholars must demonstrate what these classes can afford students. This article begins to articulate the po
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