Conchas, Coloring Books, and Oxnard: Using Critical Race Counterstorytelling as a Framework to Create a Social Justice Coloring Book

Abstract

I am from Oxnard, California, a predominantly Latinx city that is stereotyped as “too hood”, “too ghetto”, or “crime-infested” because of its low-income Brown people. Such negative narratives are so commonplace that they become believable, but we can challenge these oppressive narratives using critical race counterstorytelling. There are multiple ways to tell a story, and I pride myself in producing counterstories that are accessible and enjoyable to mi gente. So, to encourage stay-at-home practices and empower my own community during the COVID-19 pandemic, I created a social justice coloring book with the help of artistic friends and local Oxnard Latinx artists. In collaboration with Chingon Bakery, a local panaderia in Oxnard, we delivered over 500 FREE conchas and coloring books to the Oxnard community during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this creative piece, I explain why counterstorytelling, as a framework, served as the foundation for this coloring book and I include several examples of the coloring pages. Additionally, I discuss how and why this coloring book has proven to be a tool for cultural empowerment in my community. Ultimately, I argue that artistic representations of counterstories are necessary in the struggle to challenge and dismantle systems of oppression.