Storying Son Jarocho Fandango: A Culturally Decolonizing Pedagogy in Ethnic Studies

What happens when Chicanx students’ educational experiences are shaped by the activation of ancestral worlds? Born of songs like La Bamba, oral traditions, call-and-response practices, body as an instrument, and embodying ecologies, the authors posit son jarocho fandango (SJF) methodologies as a tool of convivencia/conviviality, communal healing, positive identity formation, and agency. Against the backdrop of white settler colonialism, members of the intergenerational Son Caracol Collective formed across two U.S.-Mexican border states and two ethnic studies university courses. The Collective follows the tradition of the SJF decolonial movement, positioning SJF as an ancestral elder of the African diasporic, Mexican Indigenous, Spanish, and Arabic traditions--whose threat of extinction sparked a cultural revitalization. The survival of SJF and its ancestral worlds supersedes the ruptures of colonialism. From ethnic studies classroom practices to organizing SJF in the community, this work highlights the possibilities of nurturing co-liberation.

Book Features:

• Offers a historical and contemporary example of culturally sustaining practices embraced by Chicanx and Indigenous communities.
• Focuses on son jarocho fandango as a pedagogy and methodology in schools, not just an art form.
• Shows how culturally sustaining pedagogy works in a postsecondary setting to center ethnic and cultural practices within the curriculum.
• Interweaves student learning, ethnic studies pedagogies, teacher education, curriculum development, and civic engagement.
• Includes visuals, some in color, that provide the aesthetic of experiencing the son jarocho fandango movement.

Cueponcaxochitl D. Moreno Sandoval is an associate professor of Native American and Mexican Indigenous Studies at California State University, Stanislaus . Lirio Patton is a clinical assistant professor of teacher preparation at Arizona State University. Julissa Ruiz Ramirez, Gregorio G. Rocha-Tabera, and Jennifer Campos Lopez are scholars and members of the Son Xinachtli Collective, a group of intergenerational learners of the son jarocho fandango tradition.