Revisiting testimonio as critical race feminista methodology in educational research

Abstract

This study is a review of educational scholarship that has utilized testimonio as a methodological approach. We begin with a brief overview of testimonio, highlighting its discursive subversions that align with longstanding traditions of storytelling within Communities of Color, and in critical race storytelling. We then describe how testimonio is an important tool within a broader Critical Race Feminista Methodology—a space of theorizing humanizing, anti-colonial methodological approaches that disrupt structural oppression and are guided by “a nostalgia for wholeness” (Delgado Bernal, Pérez Huber, & Malagon, 2019). Testimonio as a Critical Race Feminista Methodology allows for an interweaving of Chicana feminist and critical race epistemological and theoretical tools with qualitative research methods to cultivate methodological space for convivencia, critical reflection, collective knowledge production, and healing. Through this literature review, we see how this methodology brings mutual validation, shared humanity, and imperatives of social justice to the fore, shifting our research praxis from one that reproduces the colonial project, to one that seeks to transform and lead to collective well-being.

Keywords:

• Critical race theory
• chicana feminisms
• testimonio methodology
• critical race feminista methodologies

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 In this piece, I reflected on the process of coming to an “epistemological consciousness” in my dissertation work focused on how discourses of racist nativism emerged in the educational trajectories of undocumented and U.S. born Chicana college students. I described how that consciousness development was informed by my training in both CRT and Chicana Feminist perspectives.

2 We further explain Ruth Trinidad Galván (2011) concept of convivencia later in this paper, as a central theme that emerged from the literature review. Irene Lara (2002)’s concept of bodymindspirit signifies the inextricable connections between Chicana/Latina bodies, minds, and spiritualities that articulate a concept of wholeness. We further explain bodymindspirit as an important concept found in the literature later in this article.

3 Theory in the flesh (Moraga & Anzaldúa, 2002) is a framework that centers the Chicana/Latina body as a discursive site of knowledge production. This term, and its relationship to testimonio is described in further detail later in this paper. A related concept, conocimiento is an Anzaldúan (2002) term theorizing a process of critical reflection, where ancestral wisdom and cultural knowledge are utilized to engage an evolving critical consciousness that results in healing.

4 The term “senior” scholar is typically used to describe faculty who have reached full professor rank, however, I acknowledge that there is problematic signaling related to ageism in its deployment.

5 The use of the terms Femtor, femtorship, and femtee follows the example of Chicana/Latina feminist scholars who explain the political significance of language that challenges the male-centered etymology of the word “mentor.” The use of femtor as a both noun and verb creates liberatory images that give visibility and empowerment to women in academia (Gonzalez et al., 2015).

6 For example, the rising political tensions related to the presidential elections of 2020, the 2020 murder of George Floyd, the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, and the continuing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

7 In 2001, the Latina Feminist Group acknowledged the diverse communities that have informed the testimonio genre from 19^th century folkloristas mexicanos, to Judeo-Spanish ballads, to indigenous storytelling, and to African slave narratives from centuries past. Blackmer Reyes and Curry Rodríguez (2012) explain that contemporary U.S. based testimonios, written mostly by Women of Color, are seen into the 1990’s and early 2000’s taking written form, but also as “speeches, newsletters, corridos, spoken word, and other shorter written forms,” many of those that would go unacknowledged by current conventional categorization systems (p. 526).

8 It is important to note that Delgado Bernal et al. (2012) edited the first special issue on testimonio pedagogies and methodologies in education in Equity, Excellence & Education. The articles that utilized testimonio as methodology are cited in this article.

9 We would add gender margins.

10 Montoya (2002) uses the term “Outsider” to describe people that belong to “people of color, feminists, Queer and dis/abled” communities whose experiences are marked by histories of marginalization and exclusion, including “economic, educational and environmental crises of segregated communities” (p. 246).

11 For example, one of the most widely-known testimonios in this form is the book, Me Llamo Rigoberta Menchú y Así Me Nacío La Conciencia (Burgos, 1983). The book delivered the testimonio of Rigoberta Menchú, an Indigenous Guatemalan human rights activist. Her story recounted the violence and death she survived during the horrific Guatemalan civil war that targeted indigenous communities, and how Menchú became an active leader in the struggle for Indigenous and human rights in her country. Menchú’s testimonio was translated to multiple languages and brought international attention to the injustice and violence faced by Indigenous communities in her country.

12 We use the term spiritual activism from Anzaldúa (2002) who uses the concept to describe an ethical commitment to community advocacy that transforms inequitable structural conditions. This form of advocacy sustains the body, mind, and spirit.

13 Anzaldúa (1999) concept of liminality and in-betweenness.

14 The praxis of a Critical Race Feminista Methodology can look different according to the approach being employed, but is always guided by imperatives of social justice and community.

15 Some studies blurred the categorical lines between pedagogy, methodology, and first-person storytelling. We included those studies that collected stories as “data” and engaged an analysis of them.

16 While González (2001) did not use the term Critical Race Feminista methodology in her work, we believe this study was among the first in the literature to bridge (and braid) Chicana feminist approaches with critical race theory in educational research.

17 Martínez-Roldán and Quiñones (2016) cite Moll et al. (2005) in defining funds of knowledge as, “historically accumulated and culturally developing bodies of knowledge and skills essential for household or individual functioning and well-being” (p. 72).

18 Later in this article, we describe the work of Fierros and Delgado Bernal (2016) who theorized plática methodology, as well as a special issue of QSE focused on this methodology (Morales et al., 2023).

19 Similarly, Villenas (2019) describes “pedagogies of being with” in community activist spaces, where becoming witness to the testimonios of People of Color activists becomes a part of a “profound commitment to the relational, to finding common ground in difficult solidarities” (p. 151).

20 Cariño can have multiple meanings, used to describe affection, fondness and care. Several studies in the literature review (as those cited here) used this concept to describe the intimate relationships fostered by testimonio.

21 See Anzaldúa (2002).

22 A special issue of the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education (QSE) focused on pláticas as methodology has been released as we conclude the writing of this piece (issue and volume number not yet released). In the introduction of this issue, Morales et al. (2023) note the methodological alignments and distinctions of testimonio and pláticas. While they have many similarities, pláticas are “moments and spaces” that can generate testimonios, but also lead to “consejos (advice), everyday storytelling, joyful talk, gossip, mundane dialogue, or heart-to-heart conversations” (p. 9). Pláticas are an important methodological tool that can be used in alignment with testimonio. For example, in the three-phase data analysis process introduced in testimonio methodology, Pérez Huber (2009b) used the term “focus groups” to name the collaborative space of data analysis where co-construction of knowledge takes place with research collaborators (Pérez Huber, 2009b). However, considering this work, “group pláticas” is a more accurate term to describe this space. Similar to testimonio, plática methodology can also be an important tool in Critical Race Feminista Methodologies.

23 A feeling of relief, allowing to let go.

24 There are several concepts Anzaldúa has featured in her work that describe processes of healing. For example, she describes conocimiento as a journey of critical reflection that allows you to recognize the harm that has been done by white supremacy, heteropatriarchy, and institutional racism (2002). To engage in this recognition means that we have theorized from the body—through lived experience and subjectivities, we have engaged Theory in the Flesh (Moraga & Anzaldúa, 2002). Along this journey, conocimiento moves us past recognition and pain, and toward healing and transformation, where strength, resilience and joy can be realized. Further, she describes the “Coyolxauhqui imperative” as “a struggle to reconstruct oneself and heal the sustos resulting from woundings, traumas, racism, and other acts of violation que hechan pedazos nuestras almas, split us, scatter our energies, and haunt us. The Coyolxauhqui imperative is the act of calling back those pieces of the self/soul that have been dispersed or lost, the act of mourning the losses that haunt us” (Anzaldúa, 2015b, p. 1).

25 Perez and Cantú (2022) also describe the relationship between testimonio and Native American cultural theorist Gerald Vizenor (1998) concept of survivance. Perez and Cantú (2022) quote Gerald Vizenor (1998) in their description of “testimonio as an expression of survivance” (p. 152).

26 In retrospect, the prior work I (Lindsay) have done with my co-authors, to use first-person narratives to tell the stories of how we came to study and theorize racial microaffirmations were in fact of form of testimonio (Solórzano, et al., 2020). We have since built upon the definition we provided in that piece, to the revised and most recent version here.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lindsay Pérez Huber

Lindsay Pérez Huber is Professor in the College of Education at California State University, Long Beach, where she coordinates the master’s program in Equity, Education, & Social Justice (EESJ) program. Her research specializations include race, immigration and education, racial microaggressions, and critical race feminista methodologies and epistemologies. Her work offers theoretical, methodological and empirical contributions to the study of race and education. In 2020, Dr. Pérez Huber published the co-authored book, “Racial Microaggressions: Using Critical Race Theory to Respond to Everyday Racism.” She is also co-editor of the 2021 book, “Why They Hate Us: How Racist Rhetoric Impacts Education.” She is a Ford Foundation Fellow and Visiting Scholar at the UCLA Center for Critical Race Studies in Education. Dr. Pérez Huber received her Ph.D. in Social Science and Comparative Education (SSCE), with a specialization in Race and Ethnic Studies from the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies.

Germán Aguilar-Tinajero

Germán Aguilar-Tinajero is the Associate Director of Internships and Experiential Learning at Whittier college where he connects students to internship opportunities and fosters partnerships with local organizations. Additionally, German has conducted research on the impact of policy on the retention of undocumented students, with a particular focus on their postbaccalaureate opportunities. German holds an M.A. in Education with an emphasis in Social and Cultural Analysis of Education from CSULB and a B.A. in American Literature and Culture and Chicana/o Studies from UCLA.