Los Pulmones Tienen Una Capacidad Inherente Para Sanarse y Regenerar: Reflections from Almost Drowning in the Whitestream

Abstract

Storytelling is a healing act. It is how we teach others to resist and see the invisible to envision new possible worlds. My goal is to reflect through my testimonio on navigating the US education system, how my experiences have been about being submerged, floating along, and eventually, learning to swim both against and with the currents of the whitestream curricula of our educational institutions. I use the stages of drowning to help organize my testimonio as an anthology of counterstories where each story is complete and distinguishable from each other but works together towards exploring larger themes. It is important to look back at how whiteness and the whitestream maintain dominant systems. Knowing better how the currents of the whitestream ebb and flow provides opportunities to understand the morphology of the whitestream. This adds to our understanding of how to swim freely.