From las Semillas to el Árbol: Cultivating a Borderlands Biliteracies Framework

The concept of biliteracy has been theorized with an emphasis on its instrumentality in literacy instruction for racialized bilinguals. Although this framing offered ways to implement biliteracy instruction with bi/multilingual speakers, it continues to privilege a traditional view of bi/literacy devoid of the racialized lived experiences and critical literacies of communities of color. Advancing biliteracy scholarship, we argue that biliteracy for racialized bilinguals must be reconceptualized to reflect their critical perspectives on reading and writing in the world, entrenched in their experiences and historical marginalization based on the intersections of race and language. In this chapter, we present a framework for borderlands biliteracies that centers on the biliteracies of the flesh. We also offer connections to practice concerning how this framework can be implemented with and for racialized bi/multilingual students, offering biliteracies that are sustaining, relevant, and responsive to students, families, and communities.