I am an assistant professor at New Mexico State University; however, the path to getting to this position has been about crossing borders, about learning in and from the borderlands. The borderlands that my body has had to cross, physically and figuratively, have left many "heridas abiertas" (open wounds) but have also provided me with…

In this interview, Reynaldo F. Macias, chair of the recently established Department of Chicana/o Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), talks about the historical significance of El Plan de Santa Barbara, its impact on Chicana/o studies throughout the Southwest, and its relevance in establishing a department at UCLA, and the…

A professor giving a lecture/performance on Native American history to Mexican American second-graders wrestled with the limits of what he could tell the children about their own Native American identity and about Our Lady of Guadalupe's origin as Native goddess. The relationship between postcolonial scholarship and performance theory is explored…

Chicana/o Studies has fallen victim to the contradictions of challenging the academic apparatus from within. In this article, I argue that Chicana/o Studies and its scholars are still struggling with the most basic issues introduced in the early 1970s. This is of grave concern because a race war is now being fought in U.S. academia and Chicana/o…

Narratives by three undocumented immigrants relate the realities of surviving in hostile and often cruel school environments. These students have succeeded not because of the system, but despite the system. Such testimonials can be effective in teaching future teachers and raising the consciousness of people who do not have sympathy for…