Cultivating kinship and refusal in Indigenous diaspora

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study examines the educational experiences of diasporic Indigenous Ñuu Savi/Mixtec and Bene Xhon/Zapotec higher education students and their motivations for creating community-based educational spaces or diasporic hubs for younger generations. The overarching research question asks how younger generations understand and cultivate Indigenous belonging and comunalidad (community connectedness) in the United States. To address this question, I present the testimonios of three diasporic Indigenous college graduates and their participation in creating three diasporic hubs in California: (1) a Ñuu Savi intergenerational garden, (2) a Zapotec summer language program, (3) and an Indigenous Oaxacan youth conference. Expanding on the scholarship of Critical Latinx Indigeneities, I argue that the practice of comunalidad in diasporic hubs is grounded in kinship and refusal. Finally, I discuss implications and reflections that educators and institutions can use to better serve diasporic Indigenous students and teach about Indigenous Peoples in ways that refuse romanticized, terminal, and colonial versions of Indigeneity.