Creando Mundos Y Futuros de Jotería: Ofrendas of Queertorship for and by Queer and Trans Latinx/A/O People

ABSTRACT

In this manuscript, we engage mentorship as a form of care, reciprocity, survival, and thriving for queer and trans people within academic spaces. In particular, we conceptualize the term queertorship, which involves a practice of one-to-one and collective guidance and support offered by queer and trans Latinx/a/o (QTL) people to and for other QTL people. We draw on Revilla’s (2021, 2022) theoretical concept of spirit restoration and healing as the framework for how we define queertorship and how we enact this concept in practice. We use our own testimonios of queertorship, with attention to the experiences we have had in the Queer and Trans Latinx/a/o Higher Education Collective, to show examples of our own queertorship journeys. In alignment with giving back to one another, we offer ofrendas to assert the importance and practice of queertorship for QTL people in higher education. These ofrendas include: 1) queertorship as a healing practice and space, 2) queertorship as systems-conscious, and 3) queertorship as enabling resilience and agency. Our hope is that the ofrendas we offer help to illuminate the necessity for queertorship in different spaces of academia for queer and trans Latinx/a/o people.

KEYWORDS:

• Queer/trans Latinx/a/o
• higher education
• mentorship
• healing
• queertorship

Acknowledgments

We honor and give thanks to all the individuals who are part of the Queer and Trans Latinx/a/o Collective in Higher Education and whose presence and labor in creating this community allowed us to share the work we have done with each other and for others.

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

¹ For continuity purposes, we use queer and trans people denoting the broad gender and sexual deviations from heteronormativity. We only use LGBTQ+ when we are referencing scholarship that uses this particular acronym.