Somos pero no somos iguales/We Are But We Are Not the Same: Unpacking Latinx Indigeneity and the Implications for Urban Schools

Abstract

Applying several critical race theories as analytical frameworks, the authors present and analyze counterstories of Indigenous Latinx students attending an urban high school in a “new Latinx diaspora” community, underscoring points of convergence as well as the ways their experiences were distinct from those of their Latinx peers. The findings suggest that urban school improvement efforts often ignore Latinx Indigeneity and further alienate students. As such, more complex and nuanced understandings of Latinx communities are required to improve the quality of education offered to them. The article concludes by exploring the implications of this work for educators and researchers.

Examining Race in LatCrit: A Systematic Review of Latinx Critical Race Theory in Education

“…Very few authors used the term Latinidad; fewer theorized about it. In one that did both, López and Irizarry (2019) complicated the question of which students are read as Latinx, and they argued that we ought not to see Latinidad and Indigeneity as mutually exclusive. Their implications for research included a call for more study of Indigeneity.…”

K’iche’, Mam, and Nahua Migrant Youth Navigating Colonial Codes of Power

“…The United States since 2011 has experienced a sustained increase of Guatemalan and Mexican unaccompanied minors arriving in the country. Following established migration networks, these youth most often arrive to urban centers and urban schools (Alvarado et al, 2017; Canizales, 2015; Donato & Pérez, 2017; Estrada, 2013; López & Irizarry, 2019). In most cases, unaccompanied Guatemalan minors are predominantly Indigenous or migrate from primarily Maya and rural regions within the country (Heidbrink, 2020; Nolan, 2019; UN High Commissioner for Refugees, 2014).…”

“…UEX has also published a plethora of studies on migrant Latinxs. However, a cursory keyword search of “Indigenous” and “Latinxs” in UEX yielded only one study (López & Irizarry, 2019). I modify López and Irizarry’s (2019) call for urban education researchers to broaden their understandings of race and racialization to examinations that “include Indigenous peoples who coinhabit … [Black, Brown, Native, and migrant] identity categories and these spaces” (p. 19).…”

“…However, a cursory keyword search of “Indigenous” and “Latinxs” in UEX yielded only one study (López & Irizarry, 2019). I modify López and Irizarry’s (2019) call for urban education researchers to broaden their understandings of race and racialization to examinations that “include Indigenous peoples who coinhabit … [Black, Brown, Native, and migrant] identity categories and these spaces” (p. 19). Otherwise, one unintended outcome of the compartmentalizing of “Indigenous” from “migrant Latinx” is the invisibilization of Indigenous migrants’ particular racialized and languaged 4 experiences (López & Irizarry, 2019).…”

Indigenous Immigrant Youth’s Understandings of Power: Race, Labor, and Language

“…Destinations for the majority of the new Maya immigrant populations are urban centers that have historically consisted of Mexican immigrant and/or Mexican-descent communities (Peñalosa, 1984). This new Maya immigrant population is changing the Latinx student demographic in urban public schools (López & Irizarry, 2019). Such new change requires of educators, including teachers, practitioners, school staff, and researchers, working with recent immigrants from Latin America to understand the markedly different experiences of Maya and other Indigenous 2 youth in their countries of origin and their new contexts of reception (Dabach, 2014;Peñalosa, 1984).…”