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Joining A New Mezcla Of Scholar-Practitioners

Hispanic Community September 2020 PREMIUM
Written by John A. Vasquez, Ph.D. Higher, Adult and Lifelong Education Michigan State University

San Antonio is 150 miles north of the Mexico border, yet I was born and raised there to navigate Anzaldúa’s Borderland, the invisible “borders” that exist between Latinx and non-Latinx, men and women, heterosexuals and homosexuals, and various other groups. San Antonio was majority Mexican American, so my neighborhood felt like an extension of Reynosa, the border village where my grandparents grew up. As a first-generation Mexican American from the barrios, and growing up as a working-class, gay, Mexican kid with a single mom, I always wanted to go to college. However, I was told that was a “white kid’s dream,” and it was reserved for the rich kids from the “Northside,” not for dirty brown kids from the “Westside” like me. At best, I believed I would grow up and become the manager of a grocery store; at worst, I would die young, killed like my father at 25. Little did I know how different my life would turn out and the people I would get to meet.

It took 25 years and dropping out of college twice before I found myself coming back to school to pursue a doctoral degree in 2015. Attending two predominately white institutions, I never dreamed there were people like me in the academy, until I came to California and met the graduate fellows of AAHHE. Not only did I meet other scholars that looked and sounded like me, but also realized my “family” consists of many fellow Latinx members who are sometimes invisible in our community, such as Afro-Latinx, Asian-Latinx, and other indigenous Latinx whose roots extend beyond Mexico. With love, grace and support, we came together to create an inclusive and supportive community that both enhanced and celebrated our differences. Through this experience we built a network of scholars advocating and working toward a more diverse, equitable and inclusive culture in higher education. I believe with the help and support of colleagues like those at AAHHE, I am on the path to reach my goal of becoming a graduate dean and developing policies and practices that can encourage more students like us to pursue and attain doctoral degrees. As of December 2019, I successfully defended my dissertation and now officially join the ranks of Latinx doctorate holders with a Ph.D. in higher, adult and lifelong education.

Anzaldúa uses the term borderlands to refer to la mezcla, the geographic area along the border that is neither fully Mexico nor the U.S. She also uses the term to describe people, those of us who have become a part of both worlds and who abide by the cultural expectations of both. As an AAHHE Graduate Student Fellow, I am now part of a new mezcla, a group of scholar-practitioners, straddling the borders between scholar, practitioner and activist, creating change at institutions and breaking down barriers, in the hopes of creating massive change in the higher education system. 

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