TESTIMONIOS OF THE U.S. RURAL “HOMELESS”: A CRITICAL AND DECOLONIZING-DECOLONIZED ETHNOGRAPHY By NANCY EMILCE CARVAJAL MEDINA A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY Department of Teaching and Learning DECEMBER 2017 © Copyright by NANCY EMILCE CARVAJAL MEDINA, 2017 All Rights Reserved © Copyright by NANCY EMILCE CARVAJAL MEDINA, 2017 All Rights Reserved To the Faculty of Washington State University: The members of the Committee appointed to examine the dissertation of NANCY EMILCE CARVAJAL MEDINA find it satisfactory and recommend that it be accepted. Pamela Jean Bettis, Ph.D., Chair Linda Heidenreich, Ph.D. Paula Groves Price, Ph.D. John J. Lupinacci, Ph.D. Marcelo Diversi, Ph.D. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENT Anzaldúa (2000) states that “every few years [we] pull up the roots, get on the train, and move. Some of it changes pero las raíces como culture, race, class- some of that stays… [we] always pick up [our] roots and take them with [us]” (p. 242). 2013 was the year when I travelled with my roots and was embraced by the land of the Nimíipuu to whom I am grateful for having allowed me to walk on their territories to develop new understandings. I was honored to listen and learn from you Dr. Renee Holt, Dr. Zoe Higheagle Strong, Dr. David Warner, Angela Picard, Veneice Guillory-Lacy, and Phill Allen. Your presence in the classroom is a reminder of a history that is not to be ignored or neglected. Thank you for bringing your selves into colonized spaces and teaching with the ways you live your lives. I am grateful to every one of the women, men, and children with whom I could develop understandings about U.S. rural housing instability. My gratitude to Steve Bonnar for having opened the door to make this study feasible and for the wisdom shared in every encounter. I am grateful to the Indigenous scholars and Chican@/Latin@ Feminists who have traced a path for generations to come to continue exploring. Gloria Anzaldúa, a name that moves me deeply for the possibilities to find myself and others in her words and metaphors. I am indebted to you Gloria for the doors you have opened into my consciousness. My gratitude to Dr. Linda Heidenreich for introducing the field of Chicana/Latina feminism within which I have started to listen to a reinvigorated and whole voice. Dr. Elisa Facio and Dr. Irene Lara, the collection you beautifully edited Fleshing the Spirit represented the wind I needed to continue crafting this study with a sense of wholeness and hope. Thank you both for the dialogues and encounters where I could learn from your humility and wisdom. Dr. Cynthia Saavedra thank you for offering your mentorship in the distance and despite time constrains. Thank you, Dr. Mariana iii Ortega, for listening, caring, and promoting dialogue through your writing and efforts to build communities. Thank you for having offered me a space to share my insights and learn from the Latina Feminist collective. To Dr. Brian McNeill my endless gratitude for the unconditional support, for having given me the opportunity to create spaces of dialogue like “Under the Skin”, for having trusted me and having believed in my capacity to support your endeavors in our dear Northern Pacific Center for Indigenous and Research and Engagement. My gratitude to Dr. Desiree Hellegers for allowing me to learn from your care towards communities you work with. Thank you for having offered a space of dialogue where I could continue to develop understandings about the scope and possibilities of this study. I expect to explore those possibilities in future research. My gratitude to Alexandra López for having listened every time I needed to process new ideas and every time I doubted. Thank you for having read pieces of this work and having offered your insights. I am indebted to every one of the members of Under the Skin community. Thank you for having made of this space a home, a space free of judgment and expectations, a space where we could challenge our own biases and assumptions in a loving and caring way. Thank you to the workshop collaborators for believing in this space and having invited us to think about identity construction processes in a deeper way. My gratitude to Armando Medinaceli, Danica Wixom, Zoe Higheagle Strong, Anna Plemons, Rani Iyer, Verónica Sandoval-Laady Mariposa, Kakali B. Chakrabarti, Sequoia Dance, Irma Pomol Cahum, Miguel Oscar Chan Dzul, Phill Allen, Yvonne Berliner, Intissar Yahia, Faith Price, Linda Russo, Hilario Chi Canul, and John I. Pepion. My gratitude to my international friends without whom we would have not been able to offer a space to enlarge understandings of who we are as international scholars and human beings from varied spiritual understandings, ethnic backgrounds, and political views. My iv gratitude to Sarah Ali Bin Hossan, Seyed Abdollah Shahrokni, Armando Medinaceli, Kakali, Intissar Yahia, Mohamed A. Elhess, and Nataliya Borysenko. One of the things I learned from people experiencing housing instability is that home is a feeling and that we, human beings, can become home for others. Pieces of me will remain in the hearts and memories of my friends and colleagues in Pullman. My dear FRIENDS and now Doctors, Maria Isabel Morales, Manee Moua, and Charise DeBerry, your company, words, and unconditional love will make me miss you while taking my roots with me and moving again. Thank you for having cared, for thinking of me, and always being special in your own unique ways. To my friends Carolina Silva and Danica Wixom for having been willing to explore ways of expression through theater and arts. Thank you both for having allowed me to concretize and enrich my creative ideas. Carolina Silva and Jeremiah Sataraka thank you for having been there when darkness came and for being the inspiration for many young generations. To the members of my committee, thank you for allowing me to count you among my friends due to your qualities as human beings and scholar-activists. Thank you, Pam, Linda, Paula, Johnny, and Marcelo for having believed in this work and having trusted in how it would evolve. My dear Pam, I would like to thank you for the patience, for having walked by my side while I developed understandings and organized my ideas. Thank you for having supported me every time I came with a new idea or thought although you may have not been sure of where I was heading. I know at times my process of thought may be complex and for that reason I would like to thank you for guiding me with your questions. When I first met you Pam, I told you at a dinner table in a restaurant downtown Pullman I thanked you for believing in each one of us, those who were then, new to the Cultural Studies and Social Thought in Education Program. Today, I thank you again for continuing believing in your students, for listening attentively, and being generous with v your time and energy. Dear friends, I carry memories of each one of you, your laughter, energy, and commitment to make possible things you believe in. Music has been my companion in writing, self-doubt, creation, and action. Groups like U2 continue reminding me that arts and action go hand in hand. U2’s passion and activism are something I honor and admire. Activism that I have witnessed in Colombian groups like Herencia de Timbiquí, who have moved me not only with their lyrics but with their commitment to youth and our African roots and history. To SIA, Pink, Keane, Cerati, and every sound that made my spirit stay inspired and hopeful. To Mercedes Sosa gracias por cada sonido que me acerca a los Andes y a mis raíces. My gratitude to the trees in Pullman for their wisdom, inspiration, and for having helped me to theorize through your visions. To love for being a warrior despite everyone and everything. To subversive knowledge systems that come from the land, the heart, collaboration, and the mindbodyspirit. To hope and above all to utopia who has kept me walking this far. To our inner selves, may we continue to put our 1,001 pieces of mindbodysoul together once and another, once and another. To the stories we may decide to tell and how we choose to tell them. To the imagined communities like Knowledge in Action and Under the Skin and its potential to grow in multiples places throughout time. To the believers, the utopians, and the doers, may our bodies become our homes and home for others. vi TESTIMONIOS OF THE U.S. RURAL “HOMELESS”: A CRITICAL AND DECOLONIZING-DECOLONIZED ETHNOGRAPHY Abstract by Nancy Emilce Carvajal Medina, Ph.D. Washington State University December 2017 Chair: Pamela Jean Bettis Homelessness is a structural and political problem that is commonly pathologized in research and media, and criminalized through policies in the U.S. Rural homelessness has been rendered invisible, societally and discursively, compared to urban homelessness. This critical ethnographic study centers the testimonios of thirteen people who have experienced housing instability in Springfield, a U.S. rural town. Houseless people use their testimonios as a political tool to unframe and challenge the discursive construction of their identities. They also deconstruct the meaning of the American Dream and re-envision it by redefining success, parenthood, and the meaning of home. I use a decolonizing research methodology grounded in Chicana/Latina feminism and Indigenous epistemologies, to analyze the processes of identity construction of unhoused people. Critical researchers like O’Flaherty (Lee et al., 2010) and politicians like Ellison (NLIHC, 2017) argue that the U.S.