Contesting Trauma and Violence through Indigeneity and a Decolonizing Pedagogy at Rio Hondo Community College

Abstract

Over a period of nine years (2011-2019), I have had the opportunity to engage withand to contextualize through a decolonial and mental health lensthe growing threats to and the policing of students at different Southern Californian community colleges. These interactions occurred with a non-White majority of students, mainly Xicanas/os, who were present in these community college classes in large numbers. In this paper, I write about a decolonizing teaching strategy that is both culturally sustaining and revitalizing, and conscious of race. Students of Mesoamerican ancestry, identified by the community colleges as Hispanic, benefit when teachers engage them through an Indigenous lens, affording to such students their rightful place as Native Americans to combat forms of trauma and violence. In addition, I outline the initial observations of the Mesoamerican Figurine Project of Rio Hondo College, where students materialized their own views of the human body and self through clay-work and reflective writing. Using the Borderlands lens and the Coatlicue State-I posit "a teaching archaeology of the human body" that nurtures self-determination and births an Indigeneity grounded in land and cosmology.

Decolonizing Inclusive Education through Trauma-Informed Theories

“…A trauma-informed theoretical perspective can advance a decolonial perspective on understanding and resisting the ways in which poverty, social exclusion, discrimination and other sources of traumatization create barriers to inclusion (Garcia 2021). Understandings of and responses to inclusion and disability should thus be trauma-sensitive, taking into consideration the intersectional histories and geographies of trauma, marginalization and exclusion that should dictate the priorities and possibilities of inclusive education reform agendas across differing socio-political contexts.…”

Cultivating Positive Health, Learning, and Community: The Return of Mesoamerica’s Quetzalcoatl and the Venus Star

“…(2) walks with his or her own mirror for constant self-reflection (Acosta 2007); (3) is a cultivator of Panche Be (profound knowledge) (Rodríguez 2017); and (4) serves the Hispanic-Latino community through an Indigenous lens (Cuauhtin 2016;Garcia 2019;Garcia et al 2018), all while being mindful of the Native peoples whose traditional lands they live in and work on. Most importantly, we engage with the reclaiming and sustainment of the good health stripped from Indigenous peoples through generations of violence.…”

“…For generations, mobile peoples of Mesoamerica, Xicana/o/xs among them, have endured high rates of stress, anxiety, depression, susto (fear), and severe mental health disorders. These include substance addiction, alcoholism, diabetes, and various forms of cancer (Avila and Parker 1999;Garcia 2019;Garcia et al 2018). As a community college instructor of ten years, the first author has seen how symptoms of trauma and violence impede student learning and, as a result, destroy critical understandings of who they are.…”

“…In the process of cultivating their relationship to both the land and cosmology, Indigenous Xicana/o/x educators (IXEs) have wrestled with how to effectively engage the fast-growing and heterogeneous Latina/o population (Flores 2017) while considering the group's high prevalence for mental health disparities (Diaz and Fenning 2017;Lisotto 2017;Lopez et al 2012), as well as their own health and well-being challenges while working in spaces of learning (see Caballero 2019;Toscano 2016;Urrieta 2017Urrieta , 2019Zepeda 2020). To offer novel solutions for both IXEs and their learners, we add to an ongoing body of work (Garcia , 2019Garcia et al 2018;Márquez and Garcia Forthcoming) on a more ancestral teaching tradition that will better serve the diverse Native American identities that cross paths in schools, homes, and communities. We draw inspiration from the work of IXEs (e.g., Arce 2016;Cuauhtin 2016;Luna and Galeana 2016;Rodríguez 2017;Toscano 2016;Zepeda 2020), from the insights of the late healthcare practitioner Elena Avila (see Avila and Parker 1999), and most recently, the authors in Medina and Gonzales (2019), who, through various practices, address the mind, body, and spiritual challenges of the day.…”

“…We draw inspiration from the work of IXEs (e.g., Arce 2016;Cuauhtin 2016;Luna and Galeana 2016;Rodríguez 2017;Toscano 2016;Zepeda 2020), from the insights of the late healthcare practitioner Elena Avila (see Avila and Parker 1999), and most recently, the authors in Medina and Gonzales (2019), who, through various practices, address the mind, body, and spiritual challenges of the day. As previously noted by Garcia (2019), teachers spend a great deal of time with students and, as a result, we stand in a position to model healthy ways of belonging alongside teaching and mentoring. This added teaching duty requires our attention, as students of Mesoamerican ancestry (commonly labeled Hispanic/Latino) have yet to achieve healthy milestones in the areas of health and well-being when compared to Caucasian descent, privileged learners.…”