Latinx Youths’ Testimonios of Racist Nativism: Poetry and Acompañamiento to Bridge past and Present Experiences

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on Latinx youth’s testimonios or “stories of marginalization” tied to immigration. I drew from Anzaldúa’s conceptualizations of nepantla [unfamiliar in-between spaces] and Sepúlveda’s pedagogy of acompañamiento [accompaniment] to understand the youth’s experiences. Methods involved reuniting with former elementary students through pláticas [informal gatherings] to discuss poetry they wrote in fourth grade. Individually, their writing revealed tensions traversing temporal boundaries. Collectively, their poems exposed a racist nativist shadow cast over their lives. Implications for practice include teachers centering Latinx youth in the classroom, accompanying them, and witnessing their testimonios. Our responsibility as educators lies in empathizing with students as they face heavy burdens in society.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The youth in my study come from mix-status families, with immigrant parents from México and Central America; for this reason, I use the terms “immigration generation” Latinx youth to describe my students collectively.

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Notes on contributors

Paty Abril-Gonzalez

Paty Abril-Gonzalez is an assistant professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Texas. Her research focuses on understanding spoken, written, and artistic testimonios of Latinx bilingual students and preservice teachers, and their families. She prioritizes building long-term relationships, using multimodal arts-based research approaches. Prior to becoming a professor, Abril-Gonzalez was a bilingual elementary school teacher in both dual immersion and traditional bilingual education settings.