Graduation Term

2022

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Department of Educational Administration and Foundations: Educational Administration

Committee Chair

Pamela Hoff

Committee Member

Eileene Tejada

Abstract

Eurocentric educational philosophy has functioned as an anticipatory regime creating racial, economic, historical, sociopolitical, and intellectual separation and imposing dominant knowledge systems. In 2021, American and Hispanic empires rejected organic movements from scholars and academic activists for embracing a vision of the world outside the boundaries of Eurocentrism. A trend that has shaken the foundations of Eurocentric Academia. More than ever, the Bomba Ceremony has emerged as a tradition that substantiates Puerto Rico's identity, awakening the consciousness of TransIndigenous and Transcolonialism intersubjectivities. Using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), I conceptualize the logic of white supremacy through the lenses of white settler colonialism, which I theorize how, as a way of survival, the cultural interpretation of Puerto Rican identity navigated the epistemic, ontological, and axiological boundaries of Transcolonialism. Secondly, I contextualize how Puerto Ricans resisted Eurocentrism, revealing the traditions of the Bomba ceremony connecting the Islanders with the Diaspora that was forced to migrate. The collective memory of Bombazo, which was clandestine and considered rebellious for centuries, constructed strong alliances between Taínos and Indigenous peoples of Africa within the boundaries of an imagined free Puerto Rico and the one colonized. But nowadays, Bombazo's epistemology is leading Puerto Ricans to a decolonizing path connecting Puerto Ricans from the Caribbean to all Diaspora worldwide.

Access Type

Dissertation-Open Access

DOI

https://doi.org/10.30707/ETD2023.20230711063200574735.999999

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