Platicando y Mapeando: a Chicana/Latina feminist GIS methodology in educational research

Abstract

The field of geographic information systems (GIS) has been exclusively associated with positivist epistemological perspectives and quantitative research methods. In a deliberate effort to move away from false notions of objectivity and neutrality, this article proposes the Chicana/Latina feminist GIS methodology of Platicando y Mapeando. By drawing on critical raced-gendered epistemologies and the Chicana/Latina feminist methodology of pláticas, the use of GIS is transformed into a collectivist endeavor that depicts embodied and situated knowledges for social justice. Additionally, the methodology of pláticas is itself transformed in that dimensions of space and spatiality are forefronted. This article outlines five principles of a Platicando y Mapeando methodology and provides a case study of the college (in)opportunities available to rural Latinx youth from California’s San Joaquin Valley to illuminate the significance of this methodology for researchers interested in interrogating the intersections of race, gender, space, and educational (in)opportunity.

Keywords:

• Chicana/Latina feminist methodologies
• pláticas
• critical raced-gendered epistemologies
• geographic information systems (GIS)
• maps

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 Pseudonyms chosen by the students are used throughout this article.

2 Pelaez López (2018) argued that “Latinx” is a linguistic intervention into the Spanish language put forth by transgender and gender-nonconforming Latin Americans out of survival. To identify with this term and to use this term is to acknowledge the violence faced by LGBTQIA + Latin Americans within Latinx communities and the broader society. We use this term purposefully to disrupt the gender binary and to pursue Latinx liberation in our writing and theorizing.

3 We intentionally place a “/” between “im” and “migrant” to disrupt the normalized asymmetrical relationship im/migrants are assumed to have with the United States. Transnational migration is not always one-directional. Im/migrants may migrate back and forth from the U.S. and their home countries, send remittances to family members outside of the U.S., and/or disidentify with citizenship structures and efforts to assimilate. To represent these varied and complex realities more accurately, we chose to use “im/migrant” in lieu of “immigrant” as a grammatical move toward social and racial justice.

4 Mapeando” refers to the process of mapping from a Chicana/Latina feminist bicultural and bilingual epistemological location. Mapeando is more than GIS mapping as it is anchored in our cultural intuition (Delgado Bernal, 1998) as Chicana/Latina scholars and is a co-constructed process.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mayra Puente

Mayra Puente, Ph.D. (ella/she) is an assistant professor of higher education at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research focuses on higher education access and equity for institutionally marginalized student groups and communities, namely rural Latinxs from California. Mayra’s commitment to improving college opportunity for rural Latinx students is informed by her personal experiences as a first-generation rural Latina college student from an im/migrant farm working background and by her professional experiences as a former director of a college access program in California’s Central Valley. She is currently expanding her research agenda and higher education advocacy efforts along California’s Central Coast, where she hopes to collaborate with Latinx students from farm working backgrounds to address the racial and spatial injustices that impede higher education equity for them, their families, and their communities.

Verónica N. Vélez

Verónica (Veró) N. Vélez, Ph.D. (ella/she) is an associate professor of secondary education at Western Washington University. Veró’s most recent work aims to advance conceptual and methodological approaches that deepen a spatial consciousness and expand the use of geographic information systems (GIS) in critical race research in education. In addition to her scholarly work, Veró worked as a grassroots organizer with Latinx migrant families for over 15 years on local school reform efforts and adult literacy campaigns rooted in popular education. She is currently organizing with teachers, administrators, and community members to collectively lead the development of ethnic studies in Bellingham Public Schools. Veró is the proud daughter of a Mexican im/migrant mother and a Panamanian im/migrant father. Her journey to provide her with a quality education fundamentally inspires Veró’s work for social and racial justice.