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by Terri Booker Balderrama (Editor), Edith Treviño (Author)
La Frontera is my border, and it is who I am. La Frontera is a living creature that takes many life forms. I imagine a great, huge beast that demands respect, but at the same time consoles us with a deep sense of belonging. La Frontera represents my culture. My Mexican culture brings out my Mexicanness, the hard work, of our people, our determination, a way of life that is always inviting, and nurturing. However, the Frontera can be a complicated place. . Just like nature has its beauty of perfect weather, it also has the power to provoke a hurricane within seconds. La Frontera is an ambivalent place of happiness and sorrow.In this book, I propose that it is also a valuable pedagogical tool through which teachers can make genuine connections with students and between the lives of students and the knowledge that is supposed to make these student's lives better, but often omits "real" conversations about the injustices that are a "real" part of so many student's lives. Testimonio is not just a life story; it is a vehicle for voice which confronts social injustice (Nance, 2006). It is just as important to write or speak our own testimonio in order to learn about our own lived histories. When teachers open themselves up to the real stories of lived curriculum, which is when the learning begins. Narrative is a way of dislodging the centrality of official versions of the history by focusing on the complexities of phenomenological experience and its representation and in doing so helps us struggle to rename that history and identify as well as problematize our place in it. As a curricular practice, narrative offers and embodied history- our history as well as the history we don't want to practice. We are all history makers, and not seeing ourselves as such does not empower us to consider our role in naming and shaping the world we live in- the world we desire our children (literally and figuratively) to live and learn in. I am able to utilize my testimonio as a tool, not only for healing and understanding my own life, but one of making connections with others, through empowerment and vindication of regaining of my own rights as an immigrant woman. Further, through testimonio I feel liberated, libre, as I have carried many of these stories for a lifetime.
