A Revolucionista Ethic of Care: Four Mexicana Educators’ Subterraneous Social Justice Revolution of Fighting and Feeding

Abstract

This qualitative Testimonio study reveals an ethic of care particular to Mexican/Mexican American youth through pedagogy and Testimonios of four Mexican/Mexican American female educators along the U.S./Mexico border. Using a Chicana feminist epistemology, findings reveal a reframed social justice revolution I term Revolucionista Ethic of Care, which bears an identity rooted in land, corn, and ancestral lines; urgency to resist oppression alongside knowledge that doing so is dangerous; fluid, protective Mexicana/Mestiza consciousness; and undetectable weapons of Body, Spirit, Tongue. Amid growing human rights abuses and a U.S. administration hostile to dissent, findings are increasingly relevant. Findings may inform dialogue regarding sociopolitical issues shaping schooling for marginalized youth and may advance theoretical and curricular understanding of social justice education and ethic(s) of care.