Paper short abstract:

This paper will address how art becomes a methodology that enables reciprocal knowledge production. Cafecito/Coffee art workshops enable Latinx women to share their experiences with motherhood through employing art, literature, and storytelling.

Paper long abstract:

Among Latinx women in the United States, Gender-based violence (GBV) is often present in their interactions with the state, legal and medical systems, migration authorities, and intimate partners. This paper will address how art becomes a methodology that enables reciprocal knowledge production, thus challenging the usual asymmetries present in research. The work is based on community workshops—Cafecitos (little coffees)—that create a space for Latinx mothers to voice and share their experiences with GBV. In Latinx culture, to have a cafecito is much more than having a coffee. It is a ritual, a special moment in which one can discuss meaningful themes in a friendly and supportive environment. Our project in South Bend, United States embraces the communal significance of cafecitos and enables women to share their experiences with motherhood and GBV through employing art, literature, and storytelling workshops led by artists and group members. Art and literature function as languages with which Latinx women can narrate and share their motherhood experiences. This paper will present the ways that participant’s engagement with literature and the visual arts can facilitate deeper knowledge about harm, healing, and prevention in the community and around GBV, and how participants themselves have taken greater ownership of the Cafecito space through their engagement. Building collective channels to make stories visible can lead to better knowledge of the prevalence of GBV among historically marginalized groups, inspire further studies, create spaces for sharing and healing, and create pathways for accountability and restitution.