Digital Testimonio as a Signature Pedagogy for Latin@ Studies

Abstract

This article proposes the curricular integration of digital testimonio as a “signature” pedagogy in Latin@ Studies. The testimonio tradition of urgent narratives and the creative multimedia languages of digital storytelling—text, voice, image, and sound—invite historically marginalized subjects, especially younger generations, to author and inscribe their own social and cultural truths. Taking inspiration from Latina writings, undergraduate students script, record, produce, publish, and theorize their own testimonios, building new knowledge from personal and collective experience. In this process, they construct historical and theoretical understandings of identity and belonging, reproducing and reinforcing the testimonial nexus between individual and collective story. For cyberspace generations, the digital multimedia format facilitates coming to voice. The claim for “signature” pedagogy is based on my 10-year experience with the digital storytelling genre, facilitating the creation of approximately 300 digital testimonios and their accompanying reflections.