8: Unraveling the Tangled Threads of Memory as Praxis: Empowering Hispanic Teacher Candidates to Teach in the Twenty-first Century and (re) discovering My Self

There is so much that can be learned from someone’s story, from a testimonio of life experiences. This is simply because each person who reads or listens to a story will internalize its message in a different way based on the individual’s own funds of knowledge or “cultural intuition” (Delgado Bernal, 2001). At the same time, by sharing a testimonio, the writer is given voice, space to think, to question, to learn and to engage in a form of praxis by resisting the dominant hegemonic discourse in academia. With this said, the purpose of this reflective essay is to explore my lived experience as a Mexican-American woman, teacher educator and emerging scholar, and to consider how my pedagogical and curricular practice has been shaped by the intersectionality of gender, race, class, and place. The goal is to inform and enhance pedagogical and curricular discourse in academia related to preparing Hispanic teacher candidates to teach in the twenty-first century.