“Estás Luchando…Por Toda La Comunidad”: The Communal Organizing Literacies of Latine/x Immigrant Families

Abstract

ABSTRACT This study examines the communal organizing literacies of Latine/x immigrant families who organize for immigrant rights in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Drawing from a subset of qualitative data (e.g., observant-participant fieldnotes, open-ended interviews, member checks, artifacts, and photographs) from a larger year-long practitioner inquiry study with an intergenerational group of 11 un/documented Latine/x immigrants, this research asks: “How do Latine/x immigrant families mobilize literacy in their immigrant rights organizing practice?” Through analysis grounded in the concept of a “communal pedagogy of resistance” (CPR), this study shows that Latine/x immigrants organize through communal organizing literacies that involve (a) reading and composing communal organizing literacy texts, and (b) enacting communal organizing literacy events on the streets, moving forward intersectional political mobilization that enacts a communal conceptualization of family. Implications include the need for education practitioners/scholars to expand their definition of family, reconceptualize intergenerational organizing as family engagement, and work with immigrant families as practice/policy/research partners.