An Intercultural Partnership for Social Justice in the Rio Grande Valley TX Colonias

Abstract

This article details how an intercultural partnership between a grassroots nonprofit organization and a critical cultural communication scholar was forged and maintained via complementary epistemic stances of engagement. The NPO members’ stance was grounded in la consciencia broadly defined and border logics linked to the use of emotive narratives and strategic Spanish, while for myself an ethic of speaking with was comprised of self-reflexivity, self-examination of positionalities, dialogic relationship building, and an enactment of care in representing community members. Ultimately, tuning into the importance of decoloniality via an ethic of speaking with and the necessary strategy of delinking allowed for two intercultural partners to work together toward social justice in the borderlands.