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Article

Abstract

This introduction examines the four articles in this cluster on LatCrit praxis. The four articles can be seen as case studies that explore different aspects of LatCrit praxis. Pedro Malavet examines the role literature and the arts can play as a form of antisubordinationist practice. Nicholas Gunia focuses on Jamaican music as a particular site of antisubordinationist practice, showing us that resistance comes in many forms and that LatCrit practitioners must have a broad theory for social change that is not limited to legislatures, courtrooms, classrooms, and law reviews. Alfredo Mirande Gonzalez employs personal narrative to tell us how he used narratives in his classroom to better prepare students to work with subordinated groups. In doing so, he presents, obliquely, a pedagogical model for training law students. Sumi Cho and Robert Westley present a case study of U.C. Berkeley's Boalt Coalition for a Diversified Faculty to make the important point that LatCrit praxis must go beyond theory and progressive lawyering to include a third dimension, political organizing. They argue that if we pay sufficient attention to this third dimension and its submerged histories it will reveal that student movements were central to the development of CRT and will expose the limitations of anti-essentialist theorizing. Together, these four articles present a vibrant picture of LatCrit praxis, a project that, as Francisco Valdes notes, is by its very nature "perpetually under construction." They also present important questions about narrative responsibility that can help guide future work that employs narrative methodology.

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