ABSTRACT
Much has been discussed about the coloniality of knowledge, epistemic inequality and the resulting epistemicides. Coloniality of knowledge is not explicitly stated, does not clearly delimit its contours, but acts incessantly. Latin American scholars occupy a subaltern space in international academic production and practice, which is well known. However, this subaltern space carries a paradoxical aspect of local contexts. Given the enormous inequalities of our time and amplified in colonial backgrounds, occupying a university chair allows us to access symbolic power as part of the institution that has long held a monopoly on the legitimate production of knowledge. As Latin American scholars, we are in this paradoxical space: the space of subordination in international academic production and arrogance in the production of local knowledge. We are often white and often from middle classes or elite backgrounds. We reproduce then the logic of race and class of colonial power. This is the paradox of our position: subordinate and arrogant. This paper intends to discuss this paradoxical space based on the epistemological debate around the coloniality of knowledge.
