{"id":267,"date":"2009-05-10T23:02:16","date_gmt":"2009-05-11T06:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=267"},"modified":"2009-05-10T23:06:19","modified_gmt":"2009-05-11T06:06:19","slug":"pedagogy-of-chisme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=267","title":{"rendered":"Pedagogy of Chisme"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This past weekend, I attended a retirement celebration for my godfather, Jorge Huerta<\/a>. Though I\u2019ve always known of Jorge\u2019s outstanding reputation as a scholar and teacher, I\u2019ve better known him and my godmother Ginger as close confidants and family.<\/p>\n

In a packed theater at UCSD, I better learned about my connection to the loved educator and appreciated what one speaker called Jorge\u2019s \u201cPedagogy of Chisme<\/em>.\u201d As the preeminent scholar in Chicano Theater, Jorge\u2019s passion helps fuel the work and vivacity of a movement. As Luis Valdez<\/a> said in the evening, the playwright found his reflection in Jorge and the two have been working closely since shortly after Luis Valdez\u2019s founding of El Teatro Campesino<\/em>. Valdez said that Jorge illustrates the function of the scholar in a living breathing movement. And I think this is why I felt so inspired on Saturday; of course I\u2019m immensely proud of the academic contributions that Jorge\u2019s work represents (I remember struggling as a first year undergraduate student reading one of Jorge\u2019s texts<\/a> and cobbling together the academic writing with the myriad dinner-table stories shared and the outlandish tales my father would share of traveling with a teatro). However, more importantly, Jorge\u2019s work helps frame the way that teaching, directing, and something as seemingly benign as theater (at least as it\u2019s viewed by public school districts today) can be revolutionary.<\/p>\n

Similarly, Cherr\u00ed<\/span>e Morag<\/a>a inspired me with her call for more of what\u2019s become a \u201cscarce commodity\u201d: di<\/em>\u00e1<\/span>logo.<\/em> She spoke of the acceptance she found through dialogue with Jorge when others were less accepting of a Chicana lesbian playwright. She spoke plainly of not always agreeing with Jorge and of needing to continue to challenge one another, a challenge I see within the education community to provoke ourselves. I was reminded of my own advisor\u2019s call for us – as scholars – to prove<\/em> that critical pedagogy, cultural modeling, and all of that \u201cstuff\u201d that we so firmly believe works in the classroom actually works. In Moraga\u2019s call for dialogue – and in her enunciation of the role of desire <\/em>in our work as scholars as teachers – I recognized the continued landscape of hard work ahead for educators at large.<\/p>\n

While many bemoaned the fact that Jorge and Ginger are leaving San Diego in the coming months, I\u2019m more than excited that my godparents will be in Los Angeles (and even more thrilled to mooch amazing meals on a regular basis). I\u2019m excited about the possibilities that loom in the future for Jorge, as he is loosened from a \u201ccorporate university.\u201d And I\u2019m excited about regularly trying to wrangle him into discussing Chicano Theater with my students. I’m excited about the infinite-spiral path of empty fullness we take as we move forward as teachers, students, scholars, and citizens of a global society.<\/p>\n

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Tell people this is awesome:<\/h3>