Language and Literacy in the Borderlands: Acting upon the World through Testimonios

Saavedra discusses how children in the borderlands can inform our language and literacy practices through the Latin American literary genre known as testimonio. Drawing from the work of Chicana/Latina feminist pedagogy, I frame my experiencias with language and literacy in three different moments in my life. Through these testimonios, I make connections to the lived realities of many border crossers in the US, arguing that immigrants, border crossers, and transnational children have important lessons to teach us about language and literacy. Furthermore, testimonio continues the project of critical pedagogy through the political act of remembering, as that is also a way to reconnect language with body and consciousness in order to act upon the world. Suggestions for using testimonio in the classroom are presented