Beautiful resistance: Testimonio art, youth organizing, and collective desahogo

Abstract

As a former youth worker and community organizer of over 20 years, I have inhabited multiple roles in movement building at various stages of my own development. This experience has given me a unique perspective from which to view the relationship between self, community, and movement building as it unfolds. One of the many lessons I’ve learned over time about this dynamic is the power of personal stories, or testimonios, as collective healing toward resistance and liberation. Merged with artistic expression, personal story-sharing, or Testimonio Art, is a pedagogical practice that develops resistance and healing through collective memory. Placing multiple stories in dialogue with each other can disrupt the isolation of silenced individual experiences, creating moments of shared desahogo. In this paper, I discuss the pedagogical use of Testimonio Art through my experience as a community organizer working alongside undocumented, first-generation immigrants, and other marginalized youth.

Keywords:

• Critical pedagogy
• arts education
• urban education
• youth organizing
• testimonio art

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Andrea Nikté Juárez Mendoza

Andrea Nikté Juarez Mendoza is a scholar/activist, artist, and organizer from San Francisco, California. She is a doctoral student of Urban Education at the CUNY, Graduate Center in New York City. Her work and research center on de/colonizing education, transnational migration, family separation, detention, community organizing, and Participatory Action Research.