Professionalizing Folklore In Latin America: Four Paradigms Of The Musician And The Coloniality Of Music Education,
2026
independent scholar
Professionalizing Folklore In Latin America: Four Paradigms Of The Musician And The Coloniality Of Music Education, Matias Recharte
Visions of Research in Music Education
In this article, I discuss the professionalization of folklore and its entanglements with coloniality through an analysis of four paradigms of the musicians I encountered in conversations with students, administrators and instructors at the Escuela Nacional de Folklore Jose Maria Arguedas in Lima, Peru. I contrast two pairs of paradigms, the empírico with the académico and the chivero with the professional in order to show how the “professional folklore musician” is constructed through similarities and differences with these paradigms. For my analysis, I use a coloniality theory framework (Casto-Gomez, 2021; Quijan, 1980, 2000, 2007; Segato 2011, 2022) which considers social …
Corazón De Nopal, Alma De Monarca: The Invisible Workforce,
2026
University of San Diego
Corazón De Nopal, Alma De Monarca: The Invisible Workforce, Vanessa Estrada Garza
McNair Summer Research Program
In many parts of the United States, Day Laborers, people who work for a daily wage, congregate in front of home improvement stores in the hopes that the customers buying materials are also in need of labor. Day laborers, who are mostly Latino men, experience a plethora of adversities (e.g., wage theft, discrimination based on status or race, on-site injuries). However, it is also important to understand day laborers’ experiences within the current sociopolitical climate (Fernandez-Esquer et al., 2022; Ramirez, 2011; Ordoñez, 2015; Walter et al., 2004). At times the stories and humanity of these individuals outside of their labor …
Experiences With Microaggression Of African American Female Faculty Who Work In Predominantly White Institutions,
2026
Walden University
Experiences With Microaggression Of African American Female Faculty Who Work In Predominantly White Institutions, Teffany Jonte Malone
Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies
The problem addressed through this study is the gap in the literature on the experiences of African American female faculty in higher education institutions with racial microaggressions while working in predominantly White institutions (PWIs). Grounded in Delgado and Stefancic’s critical race theory, the purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore African American female faculty’s experiences with racial microaggressions and recommended support their institutions can put in place at PWIs in California. For this basic qualitative design, data were collected through semistructured interviews with 15 African American female faculty members employed at PWIs in California. Through qualitative content analysis, …
Front Matter,
2026
Kennesaw State University
Front Matter, Maya America Editors
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
Full issue of Maya America, volume 8, issue 1.
Full Issue - Maya America V8, I1,
2026
Kennesaw State University
Full Issue - Maya America V8, I1, Maya America Editors
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
Includes Cover Art and Table of Contents
Introduction: Maya Language Advocacy And Mayas’ Production Of Cultural Knowledge,
2026
University at Albany
Introduction: Maya Language Advocacy And Mayas’ Production Of Cultural Knowledge, Walter E. Little
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
This introductory essay is part of the special issue Maya America, Volume 8, Issue 1, guest-edited and coordinated by the Mayan Languages Preservation Project. The 10 authors of the various research articles and commentaries represent eight of Guatemala’s 22 Maya languages. What brings these essays into relationship with each other are the pragmatic concerns of strengthening Maya languages, such as providing academic, professional, and social services contexts for using and not merely maintaining these languages but helping them thrive. Each author in this special issue has actively worked in various ways to promote Mayan language and cultural knowledge preservation. As …
Geographic Origins Of Mam Interpretation Encounters At La Clínica De La Raza Fruitvale Village In Oakland, California: Informed By A Survey-Based Study,
2026
Mam Interpreter and Independent Ethnographer
Geographic Origins Of Mam Interpretation Encounters At La Clínica De La Raza Fruitvale Village In Oakland, California: Informed By A Survey-Based Study, Anibal Pablo
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
This study examined the geographic origins of Mam Maya who sought interpretation services at La Clínica de la Raza’s Fruitvale Village Pediatrics department in Oakland, California. Between February 22 and September 6, 2024. The results showed that 95% of interpretation encounters involved respondents from three municipalities – Todos Santos Cuchumátan, San Juan Atitán, and Santiago Chimaltenango – located within the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes region of western Guatemala. This concentrated pattern suggests that the Fruitvale Mam community is largely rooted in a specific set of municipalities whose linguistic variants and cultural practices have important implications for interpreter training and healthcare …
Who Owns Land, Who Owns Language? Challenging The Commercialization Of Indigenous Language Data,
2026
Heriot-Watt University
Who Owns Land, Who Owns Language? Challenging The Commercialization Of Indigenous Language Data, Matthew Riemland
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
As Indigenous scholars and activists have pointed out, the commercialization of Indigenous language data resembles the historical and ongoing dispossession of Indigenous land. Using Mayan languages as a case study, this article illustrates the process by which digital advertising platforms – Google and Meta – appropriate and benefit commercially from Indigenous language data, drawing parallels with the dispossession of Indigenous land. It identifies the significant costs of this commercialization to Indigenous communities, including the lack of compensation for the Indigenous language data’s commercial value, the distortion of Indigenous communities’ linguistic and cultural representation online, and the reinforcement of extractive relationships …
La Violencia: Family Stories Of Labor, War, And Migration,
2026
University at Albany
La Violencia: Family Stories Of Labor, War, And Migration, Gabriela Merida
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
Gabriela Merida, a doctoral student at the University of Albany and a child of Guatemalan Maya refugees, interviews her grandmother and father about their lives in Guatemala and their subsequent experiences as migrants in the United States. Through life history interviews with each of them, Merida examines how foreign intervention shaped the economic and political realities that compelled them to migrate. She employs Giovanni Batz’s (2024) concept of the four invasions as an analytic frame to demonstrate how the historical arc of colonization, the plantation economy, the Guatemalan Civil War, and capitalism produce compounding forms of structural and quotidian violence …
Mayan Languages And Technological Inclusion: The Mayan Languages Preservation Project As An Applied Model To Create Equity In Language Access,
2026
The Mayan Languages Preservation Project
Mayan Languages And Technological Inclusion: The Mayan Languages Preservation Project As An Applied Model To Create Equity In Language Access, Winston Scott
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
This article traces the project's founding, structure, and achievements over three years, documenting a community-led effort to create digital resources, including talking glossaries, keyboards, tools to help communities create textbooks for schools, and machine translation corpora for the 22 Mayan languages spoken in Guatemala. Drawing on principles of communitybased language documentation and recognized under UNESCO’s International Decade of Indigenous Languages (IDIL 2022–2032), the project confronts intersecting challenges of poverty, illiteracy, digital exclusion, and the ethical risks of data extraction by external actors. The author argues that meaningful language digitization should be guided by native speakers and community organizations, rather than …
Who I Am,
2026
Kennesaw State University
Who I Am, Andrea Per
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
I have many beautiful memories from my childhood visiting my grandma in the village of Patzicía, Guatemala. Usually, my cousins and I helped her feed her chickens and collect eggs. She also had turkeys, bunnies, and many other animals, including a parrot that my aunts and uncles bought for her so she wouldn’t feel alone during the day. After helping her, Grandma Rafaela usually invited us to enjoy a traditional Maya dinner: black beans, rice, homemade cheese, and handmade tortillas cooked on her comal over a traditional firewood stove, along with a warm drink she made from toasted corn powder. …
Sentimiento Maya Frente A La Injusticia: Qué Es Ser Maya,
2026
Kennesaw State University
Sentimiento Maya Frente A La Injusticia: Qué Es Ser Maya, Kawoq Baldomero Cuma
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
¿Qué es ser maya? El sentimiento de ser maya se refleja en todo nuestro y entorno, como lo es nuestra cosmovisión, donde emerge mucha sabiduría y arte, que muestran nuestra identidad. Los pueblos originarios tenemos un tronco común en nuestras vivencias, y eso nos hace identificarnos con el mismo sentir. Solo expresamos nuestros pensamientos sobre todas las vicisitudes de los distintos escenarios de nuestra historia. Así pues, este ensayo sirve como un llamado a alzar nuestra voz colectiva, para hacer saber al mundo que perduramos —que existimos— a pesar de las indignidades que hemos sufrido en un mundo desigual.
Lenguas Vivas: La Importancia De Preservar El Idioma Mam Y Las Lenguas Indígenas De Guatemala,
2026
Kennesaw State University
Lenguas Vivas: La Importancia De Preservar El Idioma Mam Y Las Lenguas Indígenas De Guatemala, Sindy Villagrez
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
Cada vez que una lengua indígena deja de hablarse, el mundo pierde una manera única de entender la vida, la naturaleza y la experiencia humana. Con ella desaparecen historias transmitidas durante generaciones, conocimientos construidos a través de siglos de observación y experiencia, formas particulares de relacionarse con la comunidad y visiones del mundo que no pueden reproducirse completamente en ningún otro idioma. Estas lenguas forman parte del patrimonio cultural de la humanidad porque conservan conocimientos sobre la agricultura, la medicina tradicional, la convivencia comunitaria y la relación respetuosa con la naturaleza. También guardan valores, memorias y formas de pensamiento que …
My Experience As A Mayan Language Interpreter,
2026
Kennesaw State University
My Experience As A Mayan Language Interpreter, Misael Itzep
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
Misael discusses his experiences as a court interpreter for K’iche’ migrants in the United States. He has witnessed that “many of my compatriots don't consider that driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, fleeing after an accident, leaving a minor alone at home ‘for a moment’, hitting their partner, etc., has serious repercussions under the law in the United States, something that rarely has legal consequences in Guatemala. For example, in Guatemala, many driving laws aren’t enforced, such as the requirement to wear a seatbelt or to stop at a red traffic light. In contrast, laws are enforced in …
Importance Of Maya Culinary Traditions In Cultural Identity,
2026
Kennesaw State University
Importance Of Maya Culinary Traditions In Cultural Identity, Claudia Pacay
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
Elder women play a crucial role in preserving Mayan identity through food, serving as the primary keepers and transmitters of traditional culinary knowledge. Through everyday cooking and special ceremonial meals, they pass down ancestral recipes, techniques, and the symbolic meanings of ingredients to younger generations. These foods are deeply connected to Mayan history, agriculture, spirituality, and community life — such as the use of native maize, traditional grinding methods, and dishes prepared for rituals and celebrations. By teaching children and grandchildren how to prepare these foods and explaining when and why they are eaten, elder women help maintain cultural continuity …
Woven In Silence: Maya Q’Anjob’Al Cosmology,
2026
Kennesaw State University
Woven In Silence: Maya Q’Anjob’Al Cosmology, Gaspar Tomas
Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis
The Q’anjob’al, Akateko, and Chuj communities of the Guatemalan highlands are among many Maya communities that are flourishing with knowledge that draws on the classical-period Maya civilization and infuses it with contemporary practices. This knowledge guided the Maya people in building a stronger relationship with the natural and spiritual worlds: the very foundation of our social structure and the key to understanding our place in this universe. The survival of our culture, our languages, and our oral traditions all played a critical role in preserving our worldview, but the one that stands resilient above all is the one recorded on …
Flows That Teach: Multimodal Hip-Hop Pedagogy For Equity In Special Education,
2026
Governors State University
Flows That Teach: Multimodal Hip-Hop Pedagogy For Equity In Special Education, Camille O'Quin, Sara Jozwik
Journal of the Arts and Special Education
Hip-Hop can be more than a soundtrack played at home, it can be a bridge between culture, language, and learning at school. This article shows how Hip-Hop pedagogy, translanguaging, and code-meshing can support students with disabilities, especially those who speak African American Vernacular English (AAVE), in the classroom setting. Grounded in culturally relevant pedagogy and translanguaging theory, the approach uses rhythm, storytelling, and performance to build narrative fluency, language awareness, and confidence. Examples include students drafting rap verses about personal experiences, holding structured cypher circles to practice turn-taking and self-expression, and blending AAVE with Mainstream American English in writing for …
A Poetic Call For And A Reflection And Commentary On Clarity, Understanding, Hope, Courage, And Compassion,
2026
UMass Boston
A Poetic Call For And A Reflection And Commentary On Clarity, Understanding, Hope, Courage, And Compassion, Carroy U. Ferguson
Psychology Faculty Publication Series
Finding a published poem I had written as a teenager, titled “The Heavens Weep.” this article uses that poem as the basis for a commentary that reflects on the state of the world today (2026), As a commentary, the article uses the poetic and metaphoric words in the poem as a relevant "reality check" for what is still going on today. In essence, the commentary is about a call for Clarity, Understanding, Hope, Courage, and Compassion, or what I call Archetypal Energies, Higher Vibrational Energies that operate deep within our individual and collective psyches to creatively urge us to "see" …
The History Of Poro College From 1902-1965,
2026
Lindenwood University
The History Of Poro College From 1902-1965, Chajuana V. Trawick Ferguson
Dissertations
This study investigates the development, operation, decline, and historical erasure of Poro College, the first multimillion‑dollar, minority‑owned higher education institution and vertical beauty‑culture enterprise, founded by Annie Turnbo Malone in St. Louis, Missouri. Drawing on Poro College documents, Black newspaper archives, National Trust for Historic Preservation records, and interviews with individuals knowledgeable about the institution, the research addresses four central questions: how Poro College was developed; its impact on students, employees, and the surrounding community; its relevance for current and future minority women educators and entrepreneurs; and the factors that contributed to its closure and eventual demolition. Evidence from the …
Las Otras Rosas: Mexican American Women Workers And World War Ii,
2026
Chapman University
Las Otras Rosas: Mexican American Women Workers And World War Ii, Talisa Flores
War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses
The image of Rosie the Riveter has become one of the most enduring symbols of patriotism, women's empowerment, and gender equality in the United States. Yet this iconic representation has obscured the experiences of many women whose wartime labor remains marginalized in both public memory and historical scholarship, particularly Mexican American defense workers. This thesis reexamines the history of Rosie the Riveter by centering the voices of Mexican American women employed in wartime industries during the Second World War. While the war undoubtedly shaped their lives, this study argues that the conventional Rosie narrative, one that portrays wartime employment as …
