Afro-Puerto Rican Primas: Identity, Pedagogy, and Solidarity

Abstract

Authors highlight their shared lived experiences, examining how their identities as scholars who identify as Afro-Puerto Rican primas (cousins) intersect and mingle within institutional spaces. Authors begin by reflecting on their upbringing, highlighting the contradictions inherent in their familial dynamics, and how they choose to deliberately focus on the power of matriarchy. Furthermore, the authors explore their conscious and deliberate decision to honor and embrace their connections to Blackness given their positionality within the African diaspora. The chapter also provides narratives that demonstrate their pedagogical work given their philosophical beliefs in critical, justice-centered education. The authors aim for students and faculty to better understand collective histories and how those histories impact current realities, pedagogical practices and collaborative, justice-based praxis.