CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY SAN MARCOS THESIS SIGNATURE PAGE THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE MASTER OF ARTS IN SOCIOLOGlCAL PRACTICE THESJS TITLE: Dancing from the Margins: Body Narratives ofResistance AUTHOR: Angelica Ruiz DATE OF SUCCESSFUL DEFENSE: November 20, 20 18 THE THESIS HAS BEEN ACCEPTED BY THE THESIS COMMITTEE IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN SOCIOLOGICAL PRACTICE. ·• Dr. Theresa Suarez II (?D /IZ THESIS COMMITTEE CHAIR Cty DATE Dr. Mary Robertson Ji~ ~ THESIS COMMITTEE MEMBER SIGNURE ~DATE Dr. Sharon Elise ~~ It [8 o/__ .:iv1 t3 THESIS COMMITTEE MEMBER SIGNATURE DATE DANCING FROM THE MARGINS: BODY NARRATIVES OF RESISTANCE ANGÉLICA RUÍZ MASTER OF ARTS IN SOCIOLOGICAL PRACTICE CALIFRONIA STATE UNIVERSITY SAN MARCOS DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY THESIS COMMITEE DR. THERESA SUAREZ DR. MARY ROBERTSON DR. SHARON ELISE DECEMBER 2018 Dancing from the Margins: Body Narratives of Resistance 2 Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................ 3 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................ 5 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 6 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM .......................................................................................... 9 LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................................................................... 11 Dance as Resistance: Global Perspectives ............................................................................ 11 Grassroots Theater: Global Perspectives .............................................................................. 14 Theater Performance in The United States: From the Margins to the Center ...................... 15 Decolonizing Through Dance in the United States ............................................................... 18 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 21 THEORY .................................................................................................................................. 21 Native Feminist Theory ........................................................................................................ 23 Black Feminist Theory .......................................................................................................... 25 Chicana Feminist Theory ...................................................................................................... 28 METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................................... 32 Qualitative Methods .............................................................................................................. 32 Recruitment and Participants ................................................................................................ 34 Interview Process .................................................................................................................. 35 Confidentiality and Safeguards ............................................................................................. 36 Reflexivity............................................................................................................................. 37 ANALYSIS ............................................................................................................................... 39 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 39 Praying with our Feet ............................................................................................................ 41 Reclaiming Home and Embodying Ancestral Knowledge ................................................... 43 Napantleras Atravesando Fronteras ...................................................................................... 52 Abajo con el Patriarcado!!! Resistimos con Nuestros Cuerpos ............................................ 64 Bailar para Sanar y Liberar Nuestros Cuerpos ..................................................................... 82 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 88 Future Research .................................................................................................................... 90 Appendix A ............................................................................................................................... 92 Appendix B ............................................................................................................................... 93 Appendix C ............................................................................................................................... 94 REFERENCES ......................................................................................................................... 95 Dancing from the Margins: Body Narratives of Resistance 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My immense gratitude to all who have been a part of this journey. Sociology Professors, Thank you for your critical perspectives, love, and passion for teaching sociology through a social justice lens. I am especially grateful for my thesis committee whom have inspired, supported, and guided me through these past 2 ½ years with my academic passions, goals, and challenges. Dr. Suarez, Dr. Robertson, and Dr. Elise, I greatly appreciate and admire the role you take as strong women and revolutionary thinkers in the academy. Thank you for your fierceness and commitment to challenge a colonial and patriarchal episteme. I especially want to thank Dr. Suarez for being my chair and offering your critical lens throughout my work. I also appreciated your patience and flexibility throughout this process. Cohort, Fabiola, José, Michael, Martin, Alyssa, Kristen, April, Jakayla, Ana, and Felipe, I am very grateful for meeting you all. You are all beautiful and amazing people who hold a special place in my heart. I learned a great deal from each one of you, thank you for sharing your wisdom, knowledge, stories, humor, vulnerability, and love. I especially thank you all for helping me with stats, I could not have passed without your help. Eva, Maria, Grecia, Jade, Lazaren, Norell, Gaby, Veronica, y Fernanda, Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and experiences of dance, community struggles, and healing. I felt honored and humbled to listen to your stories and learn more about your dances and your lives. I could not have been able to pursue this research without you all, your voices are powerful on stage and off stage, all of you are very articulate with your thoughts, interpretations, and meanings of dance. Thank you for your candidness and willingness to share. Lastly, thank you for your resistance and love that you offer your communities through your dance. Dancing from the Margins: Body Narratives of Resistance 4 Mi familia, Mamá, muchas gracias por todo su apoyo que me ha dado durante este tiempo, no lo pudiera haber hecho sin su ayuda y apoyo, la quiero mucho. Gloria y Carlos, mis suegros, muchas gracias por siempre ser tan lindos suegros, y por el apoyo y el amor que siempre me han dado, los quiero mucho. Pedro, mi compañero y amor, thank you for all of your love and support, I could not have completed this program without your on-going positive energy and encouragement. You are a beautiful, compassionate and creative soul and I’m fortunate to have a compañero like you. Te acuerdas en los tiempos de los sueños? Gracias por soñar conmigo. We’ve taken many journeys together, and I thank you for joining me on this one. I love you. Teotzin y Joaquín, son y siempre serán una gran inspiración para mí. Su amor y apoyo han sido clave durante este proceso. Me han dado las ganas y la motivación de seguir adelante en momentos difíciles y cuando tenía muy poca energía. Gracias por el ánimo. Los quiero muchísimo. ¡Lo logramos!!! ¡Sí se pudo! Dancing from the Margins: Body Narratives of Resistance 5 ABSTRACT This paper explores how Chicana, Mexicana-Peruana, and Puerto Rican grassroots dance performers in the U.S.-Mexico border communities of San Diego use dance as a form of resistance against [post]colonialism, imperial borders and U.S. hegemony. This project is from a qualitative methods approach that includes interview research, visual ethnography, and ethnographic experiences with the dancers and performances. My analysis includes five thematic parts: First, I examine how dancing is a “decolonial praxis” to reclaim ancestral roots and knowledges. Second, I analyze the impact and influences that the U.S.-Mexico border and other imperial borders have on women of color grassroot dancers and how their dances are resisting and traversing these borders. Third, I show how women of color grassroots dancers are challenging heteropatriarchal discourses on our bodies and in our communities. Fourth, I examine how women of color use dance as a source of healing, and how that healing extends beyond the dancers’ bodies and to our communities. Lastly, I conclude with how women of color use their bodies and dance to produce and pass on feminist epistemologies of resistance and liberation.