¡Malcreada! A Xicanista Rhetoric: Politics of Recognition and a Case for Incivility

Abstract

This project is a reconciliation with my testimonio y mi pasado y presente, however, my story is never out of the context of Eurocentric, settler colonialism. The story that I’m sharing demonstrates the effects that neoliberalism has had on me and my family, based on what I have seen and have learned from the stories of my mother, grandmothers, and father. This story in no way accounts for the stories of other Xican@s, Chican@s, Mexican@s, American@s, or any hyphenated or blending of these identities. Instead, the goal for this project is to share my story and identity, which is situated in a Xicana-Mexicana-Indigena context and understood through a lens of decoloniality and resistance. I was born in Eagle Pass, Texas, a border city with Piedras Negras, Coahuila. Out of necessity, my family moved from Mexico into the United States to work in the fields. Later, they moved to the Midwest to find better work. This story of migration is like many but is my family’s and my own. My hope for this essay is that it contributes to shared experiences, as well as to the understanding of decolonial and postcolonial rhetoric.