Twenty-eighth International Conference on Learning

Abstract

Spanish language educators in the U.S. fit a specific mold as it refers to race and ethnicity. On the one hand, we have the expected Latin American or Spanish looking and speaking instructor, on the other, the American who has embraced the language and culture and is the language instructor; but when that Spanish instructor happens to be a Black woman, from the Spanish Speaking World, it becomes problematic. The U.S.’ academic world understanding or lack of knowledge of race and ethnicity in the Spanish Speaking World is challenging. The experience of being a Black, immigrant woman whose legitimacy as a Spanish Language instructor is routinely contested merits examining. Drawing from research and personal experiences, the triple condemnation of being Black, an immigrant, and a woman within the U.S. academic world will be the focus of this paper. This study is centered around the realities of race and ethnicity in the U.S. through an Afro-Latina Spanish Language Instructor’s journey. It is written as an autoethnography through the lens of feminist, postcolonial, and critical race theories. It serves as an uncovering of experiences that demonstrate the role that U.S. academic institutions, society, and culture have had in furthering and perpetuating the othering of Afro-Latinos. With these combined factors in mind, this topic is approached with a renewed sense of urgency in the hopes that the larger African Diaspora’s lived experiences are acknowledged and stories revived at a time when race relations in the U.S. are at a critical point.