[Xmca-l] Re: Sociocritical Literacies and more context

[Aria Razfar]

Miguel is just another way to say Mike. It's ok to see yourself in the other. It shows you're trying real hard to hear. This is the difference between "testimonio" and research techniques.

Aria 



Aria Razfar, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Literacy, Language, and Culture
Director of Graduate Studies, Curriculum and Instruction
University of Illinois at Chicago
1040 W. Harrison St. M/C 147
Chicago, IL, 60607

Director of English Learning through Mathematics, Science and Action Research (ELMSA)
www.elmsa.org

Webpage: http://education.uic.edu/personnel/faculty/aria-razfar-phd
Tel: 312-413-8373
Fax: 312-996-8134


-----Original Message-----
From: xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu] On Behalf Of mike cole
Sent: Tuesday, December 30, 2014 11:59 AM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: [Xmca-l] Re: Sociocritical Literacies and more context

Manuel! My apologies for referring to you as Miguel. Got twisted in the thread. Hope the comments/question on testimonio made more sense.

mike

On Mon, Dec 29, 2014 at 4:53 PM, Espinoza, Manuel < Manuel.Espinoza@ucdenver.edu> wrote:

> Hello everyone,
>
> Hope this note finds you all well.  Just adding to the conversation on 
> literacies, social dreaming, the Migrant Program at UCLA (I was one of 
> many that served the students during the early 2000s) and testimonio.
>
> The idea of testimonio as an aspect of the "concrete" is cool.  To my 
> mind, within that realm of really rich Soviet/Russian thinking, 
> testimonio can be thought of as one way that human beings  remake 
> social life guided by intellect and heart.  (Think of what testimonio 
> accomplished in the context of 1980s Central America or mid-1990s 
> South Africa.)  But the idea of testimonio as an aspect of the "abstract" seems right on as well.
> Testimonio is also meaningful and comprehensive thought that explains 
> reality better than what we had before.  Testimonio in the Migrant 
> Program seemed to be both.  Thus, as the beloved Rusos teach us, you 
> can ascend to both abstract and concrete.
>
> I think about the time and effort that went into creating the 
> autobiographies (a form of testimonio) that Profe Gutiérrez references.
> They were a culmination for us as a scholarly community.  And they 
> left people altered.  (Another cool insight inspired by Hegel and Marx 
> - when humans learn, they become altered matter.  Living, breathing 
> matter, capable of experiencing.  And in the words of Piaget, I 
> believe, experiencing our experiences.)  The versatility, the many 
> facets of testimonio are beautiful to ruminate on.  Given my life 
> experience, I rejoice in thinking about the ways that testimonio - 
> bearing witness to life via narrative - can give historical depth to a 
> person's actions, to a community's actions.
> To illustrate, I remember putting together the reader for the program.  
> We would stay all night in Moore Hall with making copies and feeling 
> energized in thinking about migrant families sending their high 
> school-aged children to reside and study with us for a month.  The way 
> I pictured those families
> - and this is key for people like Marx Wartofsky who cared deeply 
> about the actual look of our imaginations - was through a long 
> corridor of experience.  It was just me at 2am extending the look down 
> the hallway, but instead of a wall at the far end, I pictured families 
> I knew, and imagined the ones I didn't know.  I could see them and 
> they could see me.  Our work was similar in that instant: preparing 
> the way for the youth.  At times, it was incredibly vivid, but that 
> grew over time and through the many testimonios we fostered and 
> experienced.  Even the testimonio requires witness for it to live on.  
> (See: Carolyn Forché  and her "poetry of
> witness.")  And that, too, had to be learned to an extent.  Who showed me?
> Hector Álvarez, Carlos Tejeda, Profe Gutiérrez, Miguel Zavala, Shirin 
> Vossoughi, the migrant parents, and others.  Now, that was a scholarly 
> community.
>
> Forgive the somewhat long message.  I been looking to post for years, 
> but in the words of the Ents from Middle Earth, I wanted to say 
> something that took time to say.  See you again in 2018 :)
>
> Respetuosamente,
>
> Manuel Luis Espinoza
>
>
> Manuel
>
>
>
>
>


--
It is the dilemma of psychology to deal with a natural science as an object that creates history. Ernst Boesch.