We Expected a Normal Latinx, Not a Chicano Like You

Abstract

While increasing the number of Latinx faculty in higher education remains a worthwhile goal, the term Latinx faculty carries its own dynamics of erasure, exclusion, and colonization. In this testimonio I explore the undertheorized tensions and contradictions embedded in the term Latinx faculty. By examining the reductionist and essentialist use of this term by faculty, administrators, and search committees in historically White institutions (HWIs), I show how this term reinforces colonial power structures through the erasure of complex and fragmented Chicana/x/o identities. Using testimonio as a method, I contextualize, analyze, and problematize the label Latinx faculty as an exclusionary term that defends racialized hierarchies by privileging specific types of acceptable or “normal” Latinx identities while upholding the hegemonic power structures of White supremacy. This testimonio adds to and challenges emerging literature on diversity, equity and inclusion in higher education by theorizing and problematizing the binary of Latinx/non-Latinx as deployed in HWIs by White faculty. Through this theorizing, I also generate space for exploring the complex performativity of my own identity within the constraints of the colonial logics imposed on me by White supremacy in the university.