Out of the Shadows: Testimonio as Civic Participation

Abstract

This article draws from a 23-month ethnographic study of mixed-status families living in an emerging Latino/a community to examine 3 undocumented mothers’ participation in the act of giving testimonio, or testimony. In this context, testimonio serves as a grassroots tactic for political advocacy and community formation that compensates for and reacts against the limited opportunities for civic participation afforded noncitizens. The findings indicate that giving testimonio in both public and domestic settings constitutes a form of civic participation in which undocumented mothers actually attempt to move out of the shadows and into a more public domain.

Key words:

• activism
• Diaspora
• ethnography
• migration/transnationalism
• languages
• parent and community

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am thankful to those members of the Millvalley community who welcomed me into their everyday lives and granted me permission to learn from and work alongside them. I admire them greatly, and I hope this article can serve as an inspiration to others. I would also like to thank the reviewers and editors of this journal for their insightful comments and supportive feedback.

Notes

¹ All names used throughout this article to refer to the city and local institutions where the study took place, along with the names of the individuals who participated in the study, are pseudonyms. I have also changed the names printed in Figure 1 in order to protect the anonymity of the participants.

² I use the term migrant to refer to the families who participated in this study because they meet the following criteria: They entered the United States by land and without legal permission, they sustained relationships with relatives in both Mexico and the United States, and they had family members or friends who returned to Mexico during the course of the study (Arzubiaga, Noguerón, & Sullivan, 2009; Lukose, 2007; Portes & Rumbaut, 1996).

³ For an extended analysis and critique of this grassroots strategy, see Author (2013) .

⁴ I use the conversation analysis system of numbering lines in a transcript in order to track the development of shared understandings over the course of unfolding conversation (Schegloff, 2007). I have omitted the transcription symbols used to identify those paralinguistic resources used by speakers during interaction because this article focuses on the narrative content of participants’ talk in the context of testimonio.