(Re)framing the Immigrant Narrative: Exploring Testimonios That Counter the
Essentialized Image of (Un)documented People in the Discourses of Contemporary U.S.
Rhetoric
Author: Gutierrez, Leslie Nicole
ID: 11270
Status: Accepted – December 2015
Publishing Settings & Copyright
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Degree/Department Information
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Degree Date: 2015
Degree Awarded: Doctor of Philosophy
Year Manuscript Completed: 2015
Department: English
Advisor/Supervisor/Committee Chair: Sharon K. Deckert
Committee Members: Gloria Park, Marjorie Zambrano-Paff
Subject Categories
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Rhetoric [0681] - primary
Cultural anthropology [0326]
Sociology [0626]
Keywords
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counterstories
critical race theory
participatory action research
social justice research
testimonio
undocumented migration
Abstract
This qualitative participatory action research (PAR) dissertation positioned within a critical race
theoretical (CRT) framework examines testimonios of five adults living in North Carolina from
various countries,cultures, linguistic, and religious backgrounds who live or have lived
undocumented in the United States. It chronicles a social justice study where a researcheradvocate in collaboration with various North Carolina community stakeholders create and
implement strategies that work towards social change around issues facing
(un)documented members of their state. This study explores how dominant immigrant discourses
positioned within a United States-Mexico border framework shape the lives of five non-Mexican
(un)documented adults. It examines how a partial narrative unfairly targets some, while hiding
the complexity of the undocumented migration phenomenon in general as well as the true
diversity of these communities more specifically.
Data were collected collaboratively through individual interviews, which are compiled and
presented as testimonios. Emergent themes from these first-person call-to-action-narratives were
co-constructed and analyzed by the researcher and participants. The (un)documented adults’
expert livedknowledge along with a CRT analytic lens was employed to reveal how
larger power structures affect their experiences, struggles, and aspirations.
The findings of this study indicate that the participants’ lives have been
shaped by biased dominant border discourses that tend to construct racialized and criminalized
depictions of them which in turn guides how they are talked about, treated, and (mis)perceived.
Their diverse testimonios oppose the commonly Mexicanized (un)documented migrant border
story and call for multiple counter-narratives that nuance the complexities of undocumented
migration by historicizing and contextualizing global push-pull factors as well as indexing the
multiple identities, cultures, ways of becoming undocumented, and experiences within these
communities. Findings add to critical race theory scholarship, which actively fights against
racism and other forms of oppression. It informs future research by revealing alternate ways to
re-present dominant
(un)documented immigrant discourses.