My scholarship addresses educational issues related to the context of Indigenous peoples of Abya Yala, colonialisms, and migrations. In particular, my research focuses on the schooling and educational experiences, and self-understandings of Maya and Indigenous migrant youth from Guatemala and Southern Mexico. Address: Seattle, Washington, United States
Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 2022
Diasporic Indigenous students include the lived realities of diverse Indigenous students living i... more Diasporic Indigenous students include the lived realities of diverse Indigenous students living in the United States with familial, relational, and transnational ties to Indigenous communities and pueblos of origin in Abya Yala, also known as Latin America. In this article, we advocate for the creation of positive learning communities to best support diasporic Indigenous students in schools and beyond. Recommendations for educators include understanding the effects of anti-Indigenous discrimination within Latinx communities and reflecting on the ways schooling may unintentionally reproduce colonial or damage-centred perspectives about Indigenous Peoples. The successful cultivation of positive learning communities also requires schools to learn from and cultivate partnerships with diasporic Indigenous families and surrounding communities to uplift social-emotional learning that honours Indigenous comunalidad. We hope the information presented in this article contributes to promoting equitable learning outcomes for all students by disrupting colonial stereotypes and misinformation about Indigeneity and uplifting contemporary Indigenous saberes.
This study examines how three recently arrived Indigenous male migrant youth from Guatemala and M... more This study examines how three recently arrived Indigenous male migrant youth from Guatemala and Mexico in an urban high school in the Pacific Northwest understood and employed Spanish and English to navigate racialized and languaged interactions. Utilizing a Critical Latinx Indigeneities framework, findings from this study show that Spanish is a racialized and languaged system of power that traveled with youth. In the U.S., Spanish interacts with English as a new system of power resulting in the diminishing of Indigenous languages. This study provides urban educators with understandings of the complex systems of race, language, and power Indigenous migrants navigate.
In Latin America, mestizaje favors non-Black Indigenous people as movement out of racialized cate... more In Latin America, mestizaje favors non-Black Indigenous people as movement out of racialized categories is more attainable to them through complex dynamics of skin color, status change, and other indicators of social mobility. For instance, non-Black Indigenous people in Mexico are more likely to be classified as mestizo than Afro-Mexicans due to the country’s skin color schemes. As migration patterns continue to be shaped by global powers, neoliberalist empires, and colonial projects, many Indigenous migrants find themselves traversing multiple colonialisms. While earlier scholarship focused on Indigenous men who worked temporarily in the US then returned to their respective pueblos, current studies are tracing the experiences of women and children, especially in regard to their relations to schooling and education. For instance, Indigenous documented migrants might incorporate their transnational experiences in fostering new realities in their daily life and schooling that actively sustain cultural connection and resilience to their family’s places of origin.
Association of Mexican American Educators Journal, 2019
One highly significant yet under-investigated source of variation within the Latinx Education
sch... more One highly significant yet under-investigated source of variation within the Latinx Education scholarship are Indigenous immigrants from Latin America. This study investigates how Maya and other Indigenous recent immigrant youth from Guatemala and Mexico, respectively, understand indigeneity. Using a Critical Latinx Indigeneities analytic, along with literature on the coloniality of power and settler-colonialism, I base my findings on a year-long qualitative study of eight self-identifying indigenous youth from Guatemala and Mexico and highlight two emergent themes: youth’s understanding of (a) asymmetries of power based on division of labor, and (b) language hierarchies. I propose that race is a key component that contributes to the reproduction of divisions of labor and the subaltern positioning of Indigenous languages. Findings from this study provide linguistic, economic, and historical contexts of Maya and other Indigenous immigrants’ lived experiences to educators and other stakeholders in public schools working with immigrant Latinx populations.
InterActions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information Studies, 2018
This essay is an autohistoria, an autohistory (Anzaldúa, 1999), in which I share my experiences a... more This essay is an autohistoria, an autohistory (Anzaldúa, 1999), in which I share my experiences and understandings of being Maya and an immigrant in the United States and the discrimination that other indigenous people like me experience from Latin Americans and Latinxs. One purpose of autohistorias is to speak from lived experience and create theories that help us understand our selves and those like us. I write this essay to my son and the many other children in the United States who are born to Indigenous immigrant parents. One purpose for sharing my historias is to heal from intergenerational trauma caused by colonialism (Brave Heart, 2000). It is my responsibility to share such stories in order to provide lessons and roadmaps for my son, other children of Indigenous immigrants, and future generations (Brayboy, 2005; Vizenor, 2008). I structure this paper to reflect the spiral (Grande, San Pedro, & Windchief, 2015) ways of sharing, learning, and storytelling that are often absent in linear accounts of history and storytelling (Deloria, 2004; Smith, 1999). There are many stories that I share and interweave with one another in this paper. I hope that my son and other children of Indigenous immigrants learn from them, as I too am learning by sharing them.
To date, research on immigrant Latino students has neglected to fully explore the school experien... more To date, research on immigrant Latino students has neglected to fully explore the school experiences of immigrants from Oaxaca, a community that has historically experienced economic, political, social, and cultural oppression in Mexico and now in the United States. Drawing from formal and informal interviews and observations, I examine the high school experiences of 4 Oaxaqueño/a students in a northern California agricultural city. Analysis of the Oaxaqueño/a students' experiences illuminates the contradictory messages of “unwelcomeness” received from the school's welcoming practices. The students' accounts also shed light on how their ethnic/linguistic identities are sources for discrimination at school.
Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 2022
Diasporic Indigenous students include the lived realities of diverse Indigenous students living i... more Diasporic Indigenous students include the lived realities of diverse Indigenous students living in the United States with familial, relational, and transnational ties to Indigenous communities and pueblos of origin in Abya Yala, also known as Latin America. In this article, we advocate for the creation of positive learning communities to best support diasporic Indigenous students in schools and beyond. Recommendations for educators include understanding the effects of anti-Indigenous discrimination within Latinx communities and reflecting on the ways schooling may unintentionally reproduce colonial or damage-centred perspectives about Indigenous Peoples. The successful cultivation of positive learning communities also requires schools to learn from and cultivate partnerships with diasporic Indigenous families and surrounding communities to uplift social-emotional learning that honours Indigenous comunalidad. We hope the information presented in this article contributes to promoting equitable learning outcomes for all students by disrupting colonial stereotypes and misinformation about Indigeneity and uplifting contemporary Indigenous saberes.
This study examines how three recently arrived Indigenous male migrant youth from Guatemala and M... more This study examines how three recently arrived Indigenous male migrant youth from Guatemala and Mexico in an urban high school in the Pacific Northwest understood and employed Spanish and English to navigate racialized and languaged interactions. Utilizing a Critical Latinx Indigeneities framework, findings from this study show that Spanish is a racialized and languaged system of power that traveled with youth. In the U.S., Spanish interacts with English as a new system of power resulting in the diminishing of Indigenous languages. This study provides urban educators with understandings of the complex systems of race, language, and power Indigenous migrants navigate.
In Latin America, mestizaje favors non-Black Indigenous people as movement out of racialized cate... more In Latin America, mestizaje favors non-Black Indigenous people as movement out of racialized categories is more attainable to them through complex dynamics of skin color, status change, and other indicators of social mobility. For instance, non-Black Indigenous people in Mexico are more likely to be classified as mestizo than Afro-Mexicans due to the country’s skin color schemes. As migration patterns continue to be shaped by global powers, neoliberalist empires, and colonial projects, many Indigenous migrants find themselves traversing multiple colonialisms. While earlier scholarship focused on Indigenous men who worked temporarily in the US then returned to their respective pueblos, current studies are tracing the experiences of women and children, especially in regard to their relations to schooling and education. For instance, Indigenous documented migrants might incorporate their transnational experiences in fostering new realities in their daily life and schooling that actively sustain cultural connection and resilience to their family’s places of origin.
Association of Mexican American Educators Journal, 2019
One highly significant yet under-investigated source of variation within the Latinx Education
sch... more One highly significant yet under-investigated source of variation within the Latinx Education scholarship are Indigenous immigrants from Latin America. This study investigates how Maya and other Indigenous recent immigrant youth from Guatemala and Mexico, respectively, understand indigeneity. Using a Critical Latinx Indigeneities analytic, along with literature on the coloniality of power and settler-colonialism, I base my findings on a year-long qualitative study of eight self-identifying indigenous youth from Guatemala and Mexico and highlight two emergent themes: youth’s understanding of (a) asymmetries of power based on division of labor, and (b) language hierarchies. I propose that race is a key component that contributes to the reproduction of divisions of labor and the subaltern positioning of Indigenous languages. Findings from this study provide linguistic, economic, and historical contexts of Maya and other Indigenous immigrants’ lived experiences to educators and other stakeholders in public schools working with immigrant Latinx populations.
InterActions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information Studies, 2018
This essay is an autohistoria, an autohistory (Anzaldúa, 1999), in which I share my experiences a... more This essay is an autohistoria, an autohistory (Anzaldúa, 1999), in which I share my experiences and understandings of being Maya and an immigrant in the United States and the discrimination that other indigenous people like me experience from Latin Americans and Latinxs. One purpose of autohistorias is to speak from lived experience and create theories that help us understand our selves and those like us. I write this essay to my son and the many other children in the United States who are born to Indigenous immigrant parents. One purpose for sharing my historias is to heal from intergenerational trauma caused by colonialism (Brave Heart, 2000). It is my responsibility to share such stories in order to provide lessons and roadmaps for my son, other children of Indigenous immigrants, and future generations (Brayboy, 2005; Vizenor, 2008). I structure this paper to reflect the spiral (Grande, San Pedro, & Windchief, 2015) ways of sharing, learning, and storytelling that are often absent in linear accounts of history and storytelling (Deloria, 2004; Smith, 1999). There are many stories that I share and interweave with one another in this paper. I hope that my son and other children of Indigenous immigrants learn from them, as I too am learning by sharing them.
To date, research on immigrant Latino students has neglected to fully explore the school experien... more To date, research on immigrant Latino students has neglected to fully explore the school experiences of immigrants from Oaxaca, a community that has historically experienced economic, political, social, and cultural oppression in Mexico and now in the United States. Drawing from formal and informal interviews and observations, I examine the high school experiences of 4 Oaxaqueño/a students in a northern California agricultural city. Analysis of the Oaxaqueño/a students' experiences illuminates the contradictory messages of “unwelcomeness” received from the school's welcoming practices. The students' accounts also shed light on how their ethnic/linguistic identities are sources for discrimination at school.
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scholarship are Indigenous immigrants from Latin America. This study investigates how Maya
and other Indigenous recent immigrant youth from Guatemala and Mexico, respectively,
understand indigeneity. Using a Critical Latinx Indigeneities analytic, along with literature on the
coloniality of power and settler-colonialism, I base my findings on a year-long qualitative study
of eight self-identifying indigenous youth from Guatemala and Mexico and highlight two
emergent themes: youth’s understanding of (a) asymmetries of power based on division of
labor, and (b) language hierarchies. I propose that race is a key component that contributes to
the reproduction of divisions of labor and the subaltern positioning of Indigenous languages.
Findings from this study provide linguistic, economic, and historical contexts of Maya and other
Indigenous immigrants’ lived experiences to educators and other stakeholders in public schools
working with immigrant Latinx populations.
scholarship are Indigenous immigrants from Latin America. This study investigates how Maya
and other Indigenous recent immigrant youth from Guatemala and Mexico, respectively,
understand indigeneity. Using a Critical Latinx Indigeneities analytic, along with literature on the
coloniality of power and settler-colonialism, I base my findings on a year-long qualitative study
of eight self-identifying indigenous youth from Guatemala and Mexico and highlight two
emergent themes: youth’s understanding of (a) asymmetries of power based on division of
labor, and (b) language hierarchies. I propose that race is a key component that contributes to
the reproduction of divisions of labor and the subaltern positioning of Indigenous languages.
Findings from this study provide linguistic, economic, and historical contexts of Maya and other
Indigenous immigrants’ lived experiences to educators and other stakeholders in public schools
working with immigrant Latinx populations.