Graduate Student Research Symposium 2026

This presentation explores how personal history, trauma, and resilience shape relationships with madre tierra and approaches to place-based education. Through autoethnography, I reflect on my upbringing as the daughter of a drug dealer and the complex realities that shaped my early life. Amid these challenges, early teachings from my grandparents on connecting with land through plants, food, and everyday interactions became the foundation for understanding cariño, reciprocity, and responsibility to madre tierra.
By connecting personal narrative with Indigenous-centered perspectives on relationality and responsibility, this work examines how land-based experiences can foster resilience and identity. Furthermore, it highlights how relationships with land can support healing, learning, and deeper connections to madre tierra. The presentation considers how storytelling and autoethnography can serve as pedagogical tools in place-based education, helping students connect lived experiences with local lands, indigenous knowledge, and responsibility to future generations.