Testimonios of community: empowering Latinx and Portuguese youth in a Toronto-based academic program

ABSTRACT

In this article, I highlight some of the narratives that I collected from tutor-mentors and students about their experience as Spanish or Portuguese-speaking youth in the Toronto public education system and within a community-led academic success program (Our Youth Success program). I use testimonio, a method from Latina feminism, to present their narratives of marginalization from the mainstream educational spaces and community building within the Our Youth Success space. I pose that the youth in OYS engage in a pedagogy of cariño that is predicated upon authentic caring and sharing of consejos within a transnational context that promote youth wellbeing beyond academics.

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KEYWORDS:

• Latinx
• lusophone
• immigration
• testimonio
• Canada
• community-based education

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1. All names in this manuscript, including participants, organizations and programs, are pseudonyms.

2. The terms “Portuguese-speaking descent” and “Spanish-speaking descent” are taken directly from the program’s literature. Conversations with the program’s staff revealed this terminology was used to be able to serve the largest number of community members as possible. However, it also reveals some of the complicated ways in which both communities struggle with the intersections of race, ethnicity, language, and identity as well as the lack of understanding from institutions who fund the program around terminology.

3. These were the terms first used in the school board data. These terms have since changed to Portuguese and Latin American. Throughout this article I will be using the term Latinx to refer to the Latin American community in Toronto as this term is most widely used by community members. I will use the term Portuguese to refer to those from the Portuguese community as this is the term the participants used.