Digital Testimonio as a Signature Pedagogy for Latin@ Studies

This article proposes the curricular integration of digital  testimonio  as a “signature” pedagogy in Latin@ Studies. The  testimonio  tradition of urgent narratives and the creative multimedia languages of digital storytelling—text, voice, image, and sound—invite historically marginalized subjects, especially younger generations, to author and inscribe their own social and cultural truths. Taking inspiration from Latina writings, undergraduate students script, record, produce, publish, and theorize their own  testimonios , building new knowledge from personal and collective experience. In this process, they construct historical and theoretical understandings of identity and belonging, reproducing and reinforcing the testimonial nexus between individual and collective story. For cyberspace generations, the digital multimedia format facilitates coming to voice. The claim for “signature” pedagogy is based on my 10-year experience with the digital storytelling genre, facilitating the creation of approximately 300 digital  testimonios  and their accompanying reflections.