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Author Bio

Miguel Martínez is an educator and researcher focused on equity, identity, and belonging in education. His work explores the experiences of students of color, particularly within Catholic and other traditionally white educational spaces. Drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives, his research examines how culture, community, and institutional structures shape student outcomes and sense of belonging. He has experience working directly with diverse student populations and is committed to advancing more just and inclusive educational environments. His current work centers on student voice, institutional practices, and the intersection of race, identity, and schooling.

Abstract

White settler colonialism is a systematic process by which Europeans and their descendants migrate to and settle in a new land with the explicit expectation of taking over the land, regardless of any Indigenous peoples that may live on the land (Speed, 2017; Wolfe, 2006). The Indigenous people who reside there can be exploited for labor, removed, exterminated or some combination of the three. In the process of settling the land, the settlers rename places, transform land use, create a new sense of cultural identity, and work to eliminate any remnants of what had existed prior to their arrival. Indigenous ways of living, epistemologies and religious practices and beliefs are replaced by White  political, religious, social, cultural and economic systems and structures. While the impact of White settler colonialism is felt across essentially all Indigenous people in the United States, there has been a significant amount of resistance against it. In this paper, I aim to describe the impact of White settler colonialism on Indigenous peoples of the United States, with an emphasis on the ways that Indigenous people lost access to their cultural practices, and how traditional Danza Azteca, as practiced in California, is a way of resisting against White settler colonialism. As someone who has practiced Danza since 1987, I will discuss some of the history of Danza in the U.S. and how it is a search for Indigeneity and a form of resistance against White settler colonialism.

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