ABSTRACT
Over 500 years of colonization has resulted in Xican@ students not knowing their Indigenous languages. To establish the context for the imperative of an Indigenous epistemologically rooted pedagogy for Xican@ students, it is imperative to have an understanding of colonization and its horrendous impact on minoritized people. This chapter develops the author’s expertise in applying both a Chicano paradigm and Nahui Ollin frameworks that are epistemologically Indigenous centered and have been documented as effective in influencing Xican@ youth's academic achievement. The human measures encompass the "magic" that is typically ignored when assessing the effectiveness of asset-based pedagogical approaches in education. A point of clarification is that most of us who worked as Mexican American Studies Department (MAS) teachers in the inception of the MAS program did not set out to "reform education." One of the critical tools to assist students in re-humanizing is providing opportunities to begin the process of self-love to interrogate internalized oppression.
