Pláticas as a methodological praxis of love

Abstract

In this paper, I explore how pláticas allowed for my former high school students and I to conceptualize love. This work is a response to overwhelming statistics regarding child trauma and literature that named loving relationships as a pivotal but under-conceptualized intervention. Specifically, we participated in three different iterations of pláticas: communal, peer, and individual. Through our plática structures and commitments to safety, accountability, and joy, we were able to conceptualize love and ultimately argue that based on the similarities between the five tenets of Chicana Feminist pláticas and our definition of love, that pláticas can not only serve as a methodological praxis that challenges centuries of epistemological and methodological harm but also serve to foster the type of love that is integral to the well-being of our communities.

Keywords:

• Chicana Feminisms
• pláticas
• trauma
• healing
• love

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sharim Hannegan-Martinez

Sharim Hannegan-Martinez is an assistant professor at the University of Kentucky, a former high school English teacher, and a founding member of the People's Education Movement, Bay Area. Drawing on Critical Race Theory and Chicana Feminist Epistemologies, her scholarship explores the intersections of trauma, healing, love, and literacy.