Abstract

Employing the method of pláticas (Fierros & Delgado Bernal, 2016),
we, feminista Scholars of Color, share our experiences of exacerbatedinequities during a historic moment of multiple, intersecting pandemics—COVID-19 and systemic oppression—at a land-grant, Hispanic Serving Institution located in the southwest borderlands. The first two authors are Mexicanas and first-generation students and scholars. The third author is Arabyya Palestinian feminist. We had pláticas to engage with the anti-racist calls on the streets. The prompts for our pláticas evolved around the “current condition” of our lives in these pandemics and our responses to them on the personal, the professional and the political. We reflected on our responses. Our testimonios surfaced in our pláticas. They revealed the heightened horrors of academia. They also revealed our understanding of our collective selves and politics, and curriculum studies. We co-created a collective testimonio text (Delgado Bernal, Burciaga, & Flores Carmona, 2012) to weave and theorize ourselves within the multiple intersecting pandemics of this moment. We situated ourselves in our specific workplace and drew on testimonio scholarship and Critical Race Theories to contextualize the micro/macro systemic oppression that continues to heighten in academia and society. As feminists of Color, we experienced firsthand how to strengthen our solidarity and compassionate activism. We enacted the Mexican proverb, “del dicho al hecho, hay mucho trecho” as a praxis that opened the possibilities for pedagogical and curricular change—a change that keeps us less fractured and re/membered.

Keywords: Testimonio, pláticas, assaultive speech, spirit murder- ing, pandemic, solidarity

How to Cite:

Rubio, B., Flores Carmona, J. & Hamzeh, M., (2023) “Del Dicho Al Hecho, Hay Mucho Trecho/Don't Talk the Talk If You Can't Walk the Walk: Feminista Scholars Navigating the Heightened Horrors of Academia in a Multiple Pandemic Reality”, International Journal of Critical Pedagogy 12(2).