Testimonios of resilience, struggle, and hope

This project analyzes several examples of Latinx life writing, focusing on the authors/narrators' journeys as students and their paths toward higher education. This dissertation also addresses the uses of oral history and testimonio as praxis to narrate marginalized experiences within the United States education system. I bring into my analysis Latinx testimonio, memoirs, and an oral history project that exhibits the experiences of Chicanas and Latinx students, ranging from the 1950s to the late 1970s, and one example from the 1990s. In Chapter One, I analyze two Mexican American women testimonios, Forged Under the Sun / Forjada bajo el sol: The Life of María Elena Lucas (1993), edited by Fran Leeper Buss, and Migrant Daughter: Coming of Age as a Mexican American Woman (2000), edited by Mario T. García, which recounts the story of Frances Esquibel Tywoniak. In Chapter Two, I discuss the polyvocal testimonial/autobiographical works: Telling to Live: Latina Feminist Testimonios (2001) and Paths to Discovery: Autobiographies from Chicanas with Careers in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering (2008), in which the authors position testimonio not only as a praxis but as a way to theorize and create knowledge through their lived experiences. In Chapter Three, I discuss memoirs/autobiography as a subgenre of life writing, with a specific analysis of Barefoot Heart Stories of a Migrant Child (1999) by Elva Treviño Hart and Becoming Dr. Q: My Journey from Migrant Farm Worker to Brain Surgeon (2011) by Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa. Chapter Four includes an analysis of oral history as a type of testimonio to recover untold stories and history. The chapter revolves around the LNACC (Latino Native American Cultural Center) Oral History Project and archival research at the University of Iowa. Finally, my analysis considers the intersections between race, gender, and class by placing the author's and narrator's journeys within a historical context. This dissertation serves as a dialogue between the traditional testimonio from Latin America, Latinx testimonios, and the practice of oral history.