About
Regeneración Tlacuilolli: UCLA Raza Studies Journal is an interdisciplinary Chicana/o and Raza Studies journal at the University of California, Los Angeles that is published electronically once a year. Regeneración Tlacuilolli: UCLA Raza Studies Journal is edited and managed by graduate students in various disciplines at UCLA and other campuses across the United States. Submissions to this journal will be reviewed by a committee of graduate students in affiliated academic disciplines that deal with Chicana/o and Raza Studies.
Volume 2, Issue 1, 2016
Editors' Introduction
Essays
Remembering Coyolxauhqui as a Birthing Text
This article examines several interpretations of the stone image of Coyolxauhqui: 1) the Early Academic interpretation established by anthropologists; 2) the Xicana Feminist interpretation; and 3) a Partera/Midwife perspective which re-envisions Coyolxauhqui as a birthing diagram or guide for women in labor. Historically, Coyolxauhqui has been referred to as the “dis-membered woman” and used as evidence of the victimization of women in Mesoameri- can society. This article challenges the conventional notions of Coyolxauhqui and argues that even the reformist understandings rendered by Xicana feminist thinkers were still founded from and built upon colonial interpretations of this image. By re-envisioning and re-membering Coyolxauhqui through a Partera/ midwifery lens, a new interpretation emerges. Rather than being regarded as the “dis-membered woman” Coyolxauhqui is revered through an Indigenous women’s perspective that honors her as a text about the life-giving force of women.
A Critical Educator’s Testimonio Against the Current Post-Racial Fallacy: A Call to Action
Using Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a guiding framework, this paper is an educator’s testimonio against the post-racial ideology that currently plagues our society, especially as witnessed in the U.S. educational system. A testimonio is a qualitative narrative form that puts forth powerful messages that carry a sense of urgency. Testimonios speak to an individual’s experiences that resound across groups of people.Testimonios especially speak to oppression and marginalization and thus have been historically used in the struggles of people of color. Here the author speaks to how testimonios can be used as a means to debunk the post- racial fallacy.The author also argues that a firm understanding of ideology and knowledge of how whiteness works further strengthens the challenging work of people of color in the academy and beyond. As all other testimonios, this account urges that there be action and thus it calls on other educators from all walks of life and positions to respond to a call to rise if transformation is what is desired.