Regeneración Tlacuilolli: UCLA Raza Studies Journal

This paper analyzes the decolonial potential of an oral history project based out of a predominantly Latina/o and low-income elementary school in Salt Lake City, Utah. Considering the history of colonizing school curriculums, practices, and institutions that marginalize students of color, this paper applies a lens of decoloniality (Anzaldúa, 1999; Fanon, 2008; Dei, Mazzuca, Melsaac, & Zine, 1997;Villenas, 2010) to understand how alternative educational projects can disrupt colonizing school curriculums to improve and enhance the educational experience of Latina/o elementary students.

The purpose of this essay is to draw from the pedagogical legacy of the CCM, and its now four-decade project in ethnic revitalization of Indigeneity, a means to better understand how cultural identity and cultural diversity are connected to human struggles to attain democracy, social equality, and build community. I focus on Chicana/o activist organizations that established educational components aimed at helping youth and adults develop a critical consciousness of Chicana/o Indigenous cultural heritage and history. I highlight two phases of Chicana/o Indigenous consciousness in education, the first one during and shortly after the influence of CCM cultural ideas, and the second one within the context of transnational Indigenous Peoples human rights movements after 1980. Although adoption of Chicana/o Indigenismo varied among these youth organizations, they all sought respect for cultural diversity understanding that different ethnic groups in a true democracy should not be forced to assimilate into the cultural values and worldviews of western civilization.

This article examines the positive educational and social outcomes of a community based learning class in a Chicana and Chicano Studies program at the University of New Mexico. The study examines the experiences of a small cohort of students and utilizes qualitative data, including a survey, interviews, and a focus group. The authors argue that the experience students shared working in the community, studying Chicana and Chicano materials and approaches, and dialoguing within collective community-oriented spaces empowered them to identify themselves as agents of social change. Students communicated that members of community organizations can serve as important teachers and mentors because they possess cultural capital that allows them to address complex community issues. In addition, students also described a new sense of appreciation for culturally relevant materials in the Chicana and Chicano Studies course. At the completion of the course, students reported a higher degree of self-confidence that they could and should work to promote positive social change in their own identified communities. Overall, students’ sense of self efficacy multiplied within a community based learning environment and, as a result, students reported a feeling more confident about their academic achievement and potential than before taking the Community Based Learning (CBL) course.