Disability, Intersectional Agency, and Latinx Identity

Alexis C. Padilla is a blind brown Latinx scholar/activist and a Ph.D. graduate from the Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies department at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, USA. Dr. Padilla is also a lawyer, sociologist, and conflict transformation engaged scholar. His work explores emancipatory learning and radical agency in the context of decolonial Latinx theorizing and critical disability studies. His published contributions emphasize the activist/disability advocacy vantage point combined with actionable dimensions of inclusive equity research and practice. Dr. Padilla’s postsecondary teaching experience encompasses almost three decades. He has more than 20 years of engagement in advocacy and conflict resolution work with Spanish-speaking families and English Language Learning students with disabilities in various USA settings. Since spring 2020, Dr. Padilla has been affiliated with Phillips Theological Seminary to expand his research agenda and his activism scope into intersectional disability theology.

"The field of disability studies, especially the critical and cultural variants, has always learned and borrowed from work in feminist, postcolonial, and queer studies. This volume demonstrates that those invaluable relationships continue to produce meaningful explorations of social justice; it also demonstrates the ongoing need to disrupt dominance and appreciate alterity." Professor David Bolt, Personal Chair, Disability Studies, Liverpool Hope University, UK."The range of Padilla’s knowledge is simply stunning. In this volume, he deftly weaves multiple theories and a rich history of intellectual thought with lived experiences of people, exploring agency from a dis/abled Latinx perspective, and bringing forth new ways of thinking about the Global North and South." David J. Connor. Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Hunter College, CUNY, USA. "Must read for activists, scholars, and artists! Learn from one of the best at deeply describing radical solidarity and emancipatory learning across space and time. Dr. Padilla masterfully engages the reader with the problematic and the possibilities of transformative change." Paulo Tan. Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University, UK. "Dr. Alexis Padilla's generative discourse is a groundbreaking praxical liberation meta-counter-text against global racist and ableist hegemony. The meta-counter-text provides us with a fusion between theory and practice through the critical analytical autoethnographic and non-fictional counterstories, that bring to life the transformative power of LatDisCrit to take the reader at their positionalities and relationalities, inward and outward about supremacies such as ableism, imperialism, colonialism, and anti-blackness that are experienced by subalternate Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BPIOC) within global south and north bodyminds." David I. Hernández-Saca, Assistant Professor, University of Northern Iowa, Department of Special Education, USA.

• 1. Introducing Latinx Identity: LatDisCrit’s Radical Alterity. 2. The Normalizing Fantasies of Habilitación and Mundane Rehabilitation Dynamics: A Global South Metanarrative Exploration. 3. LatDisCrit as Radical Exteriority and New Materialisms: Bridging the Decolonial Power of Global South and Global Epistemologies. 4. The Betraying Power of Postcolonial Rehabilitation: Beyond Fátima and Arturo. 5. LatDisCrit and Blackness Studies: Intersectional Solidarity Lessons from Edwina’s and Lidia’s Counterstories. 6. LatDisCrit as an Intersectional Creeping Decoloniality of Blackness and Indigeneity: Embodiment and Subaltern Transmodernities. 7. Jóvenes Progresistas? A Radical Solidarity Counterstory. 8. A Postcolonial LatDisCrit Leadership Development Counterstory: Diving into Global North Contours of Subalternities and Intersectional Disability Agency. 9. The Power and Perils of LatDisCrit’s Situated Emancipation: Bringing Home Lessons and Forging Possibilitarian Intersectional Disability Agency Paths. Epilogue: Musings on Global South Distinctiveness and Material Precarities.