In the ‘Majority’—Representing at UA New Directions Conference
At the 9 a.m. Friday session, I presented my paper “Recursive Border Negotiation: Paideia, Conscientização and FYC” at the 2010 New Directions in Critical Theory Conference (http://english.arizona.edu/index_site.php?id=678) at the University of Arizona.
My presentation addressed the use of “teaching as play” (paideia/paidia) as a method of avoiding resistance to critical consciousness-raising activities like the ones found in Tara Yosso’s LatCrit media criticism; the issue of context is especially important because privileged students resist the most, and these student resemble the student populations of antiquity, for whom school (schole) meant ‘leisure.’
I felt extremely fortunate that my panel was attended by members of the Latino Caucus, University of Arizona graduate students, and local teachers who entered into a meaningful dialogue with the members of my panel. Later that day, I was able to attend Andy Besa (Texas State San Marcos) and Yasmin Lazcano’s (Arizona State) respective presentations, but was unable to attend Enrique Reynoso’s (Purdue) because it fell at the same time as Dr. Damián Baca’s (University of Arizona) talk. That evening, after Paul Espinosa’s (http://www.espinosaproductions.com/productions/border.html) showing of his PBS (http://www.pbs.org/kpbs/theborder/) special The Border, Andy, Enrique and I had the pleasure of celebrating the 28th birthday of University of Arizona’s Aja Martinez with her family and her mother’s homemade chile rellenos and carne asada.
Praxis at a Conference
The timing of this conference made attendance problematic because organizations have called for the boycott of Arizona due to SB 1070. But the bill provided us with a moment of kairos, in which to practice what we critically address in our literature and scholarship. So on Saturday morning, Andy Besa and I drove together to the march against SB 1070, the Arizona bill recently passed that makes it possible for police to racially profile anyone suspected of being an immigrant. When parking near the site where the rally would take place, across from the rally in support of SB 1070, Andy was asked by a white man in a cowboy hat and boots, “Are you in support or against SB1070?” To which Andy responded, “Against.” The man pointed to the other side of an impromptu plastic fence around the park and said, “Well then you belong on that side.”
We continued down the sidewalk and someone shouted at us from a passing car. We both felt the subjects of the racial profiling at the heart of SB 1070, even though Andy explained that he wore his UT Austin shirt to show his support as a Texan. We talked about a Texas campus where a sculpture was criticized by conservatives because of the Marxist quotes on it. And then there was the move by Texas school districts to remove Latino/a figures like César Chávez from schoolbooks. Catching a ride in the back of a man’s pickup to where the marchers were gathering, Andy joked, “It’s a sad time when Arizona is making Texas look good.” At AAaAA the Casino ballroom, a Latin American social club, musicians played trumpets, drums and sang over a PA unit as the thousands of protests filled the open area behind the building. We ran into co-workers from the Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness of Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) grant I work on, and fellow Rhetoric and Composition grad students from my department, carrying signs echoing the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The drum from a group of indigenous dancers pounded and led the march out into the streets.
A spirited procession of diverse groups coming together in the spirit of Human and Civil Rights, the march was a collection of positive energy against the institutionalization of hate. Chants of ‘sí se puede’ and ‘el pueblo unido jamás será vencido’ echoed through the procession of thousands, encouraged by the honking of horns and pumping of fists in support of the traffic-stopping march. Homemade signs questioned what ‘illegal’ looked like and others compared Arizona to Germany’s Third Reich. A group of student-age youth put on a performance towards the end of the march—a young person in a Jan Brewer wig pantomimed, while young women wearing police caps and plastic pig noses made exaggerated gestures as a little boy on a man’s shoulders sprayed them all with water from a bottle. The group then came together in a close circle before turning and racing towards the end of the march, where the rally was held in front of the Armory. Across from the armory was a handful of SB1070 supporters that many characterized as ‘pathetic.’ Dolores Huerta and Rep. Raúl Grijalva spoke to the crowd in Spanish and English, reinforcing the message of solidarity against rights violations.
Saturday Afternoon
Making it back to the UA campus by one o’clock, I moderated a lively panel on writing centers in local high school students. Afterwards, one of the most emotionally charged moments of the conference took place during the lead up to keynote speaker Walter D. Mignolo’s talk. The Dos Vatos, a local Tucson filmmaking production company, showed a ten minute trailer of their documentary Precious Knowledge (http://www.dosvatos.com/InProduction/). In the trailer, we see a short narrative dealing the dismantling of the Ethnic studies programs in the Tucson Unified School District. Specifically focusing on the Raza Studies program at Tucson High School, the film showed young Latinos and Latinas who realized their agency through this program that focused on cultivating critical consciousness through culturally-situated curriculum. By the end of the trailer, you couldn’t help but feel touched by the advocates of the program that has proven to raise graduation rates and college enrollment.
When Walter D. Mignolo (http://waltermignolo.com/) took the podium, he gave an engaging introductory talk about de-colonialism, including the theory, literature and examples of countries living decolonial practices. Mignolo used a Powerpoint, incorporating a YouTube clip from the former representative of Singapore, who wrote a piece entitled “Can Asians Thing?” Pointing out how epistemology is used to control other colonizing projects like capitalism and individual economies, Mignolo focused on how the authority to create knowledge and control knowledge presupposes the economies they validate, causing people to accept capitalism as a reality.
At the reception that followed, Mignolo was accessible for discussion and photos, exchanging greetings in Spanish with many of the Caucus members. He entertained questions from graduate students and members of the community. At the close of the evening, many of us felt we had had a chance to speak and spend time with him in an informal, congenial manner. More importantly, those of us in the Caucus were grateful for the opportunity to have that time to share, reflect and act with one another.
