Colonial narratives often characterize Latin@ culture and students as deficient with regard to education. These narratives persist through legislation like Arizona’s House Bill 2281, which outlawed the culturally relevant curriculum of Tucson High School’s Mexican American Studies program. This article argues that culturally relevant student writing that responds to a prompt about dichos or proverbial sayings in Spanish, illustrate rhetorical strategies of subversive complicity when analyzed through a decolonial framework. Written by students at multiple Tucson High schools during the controversy surrounding HB 2281, the student publication, Nuestros Refranes, serves as the site of analysis that demonstrates how students navigate institutions governed by subjugating policy.
A Journal of Community-Engaged Writing and Rhetoric