The standards of mainstream media and culture have long been dominated by white heterosexual men. The same can be said about the fields of academia. Even amongst feminist studies, we have seen an overwhelming amount of white thought and methodologies. In doing so, information and methods that have come out of minority groups has been discredited and forgotten. In “Chicana/Latina Testimonios: Mapping the Methodological, Pedagogical, and Political,” Bernal et. al (2012) talk about the power of testimonios and its capacity to work as both a pedagogical and methodological tool.
Testimonios have been around in Latin American culture for many years, but somehow has been lost amongst the colonization of knowledge by white people. Testimonios resemble oral histories and autobiographies, yet they are still their own. They differ from these in “that they involve the participant in an a critical reflection of their personal experience within particular sociopolitical realities” (Bernal et. al, 2012, p. 364). It was often used as a form of political resistance, and it allowed the narrator to engage in a form of empowerment. Although history states that an event occurred a certain way, it may not be the exact way that everyone experienced it. Rather than invalidating those other experiences, testimonios allow the narrator to reclaim their identity and their experiences without the oppression of the dominant narrative. Bernal (2012) states that testimonios are both a product and a process. Although generally used by Chicanx/Latinx people, it does not mean that they are the only ones who are capable of using it. The point of testimonios is to give those who have been silenced a voice. This means that it is possible for others who have been silenced to engage in the project. |
Testimonios are also beneficial and can be seen as a product because it allows for genuine connections to be made between the researcher and the community.
For many, having a privileged status and then going to write about an underrepresented group does not always have the best results. It is harder for the person to remove themselves from their position of privilege to truly understand what the marginalized group is going through. Testimonios allows for there to be more of a genuine understanding to occur between the community and the researcher. I believe that testimonios serve as a strong method for Latinx scholars, especially queer Latinx scholars. As a method it has been forgotten and invalidated by many white/mainstream scholars and institutions. This resembles the experiences of queer Latinx people who have had their experiences invalidated or lumped together with white queer experiences that have not been fully realized due to the colonization of knowledge and power by dominant social groups. |