This Chicana Critical Feminist Testimonio reveals a Mexican/MexicanAmerican Ethic of Care and Testimonios of struggle and survival informing curriculum and pedagogy of one Mexican/Mexican-American female educator of predominantly Mexican/Mexican-American students. This work is part of a larger ethnographic study conducted through multiple methods. Findings here reveal Diana's Ethic of Care, a (re)framing of social justice revolution/Revolución at the intersection of race, class, gender, language, and immigration status. As Diana (re)constructs and (re)claims her Mexican/ Mexican-American identity, she likewise endeavors toward her students' dignity and academic access. Findings have curricular, pedagogical implications for all educators serving marginalized youth and youth of color.
KEY WORDSEthic of care; testimonio; social justice curriculum and pedagogyChicana/o, Mexican/Mexican-American; HispanicIndigenous like corn, like corn, the mestiza 1 is a product of crossbreeding, designed for preservation under a variety of conditions … the mestiza is tenacious, tightly wrapped in the husks of her culture … she clings to the cob … she holds tight to the earth-she will survive the crossroads.-Anzaldúa (1987, p. 81) Traditionally black folks have had to do a lot of creative thinking and dreaming to raise black children free of internalized racism.… in our own little black neighborhoods, with schools and churches, in the midst of racism, we had places where we could undo much of the psychological madness and havoc wreaked by white supremacy …-hooks (1993, pp. 80-81) Across the United States, from the Jim Crow South to rural and Spanish-speaking communities in the Southwest, there lives a legacy of Black and Spanish-speaking Mexican American, Mexicana/o classroom educators who carried the academic preparation of young people of color as an ethical calling for social uplift. Through a rigorous, nourishing curriculum and pedagogy rooted in healing and resistance, Black and Brown young people were given the tools to reclaim the dignity and selflove necessary to buffer the White supremacy that elsewhere threatened their bodies, minds, and spirits. Educational scholars have documented these histories of educators of color who wrapped their young people tightly in the husks of their culture within nurturing and protective communities of resistance within which young people living and learning at the perilous intersection of class and race could develop the means to heal from and resist the racialized cruelty of the outside world Within these school spaces, local educators of color fortified young people whom they deemed hermanas/os, and vecinos-kin, or community-through a critical feminist ethic of care framework that cultivated a strong sense of self and community and the academic tools necessary to overcome
