(In)visibility to Advocacy: The Insider–Outsider Experiences of AfroLatinX Higher Education Professionals

ABSTRACTDespite the racial, ethnic, linguistic, geographic, and cultural heterogeneity of LatinXs, extant educational research positions them as a monoracial, and oftentimes monolithic, group. Most research on LatinXs primarily focuses on mestizX-identified individuals. Inadvertently, the presence and experiences AfroLatinXs have largely been invisibilized. The limited research on AfroLatinXs in higher education mostly presents the experiences of students. Minimal published empirical research centers on the lived experiences of AfroLatinXs working in higher education. This study seeks to address this gap by exploring the racialized educational and professional experiences of self-identified AfroLatinX higher education professionals. Findings reveal how they experience an outsider–insider paradox that amounts to (in)visibility, lack of recognition in both Black and LatinX circles, and how language is utilized as a tool of exclusion and inclusion. Collaborators underscore how their racialized experiences motivated them to pursue a career in higher education.KEYWORDS: AfroLatinX, facultyhigher education professionalsracializationLatinX heterogeneitynepantlathe fact of AfroLatinidad Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. The signifier of LatinX, is utilized as opposed to Latina/o, Latin@, and even Latinx. The “X complicates and makes space for discussions that do not solely rely on binary configurations” (Milian, Citation2019, p. 2). It accounts for the experience in the labor force and geographic crossings; placing emphasis on an X represents the liminality of LatinX in the United States.2. The terms Afro-Latin American, Afro-Latino/a, and Afro-Latin@ are referenced throughout the literature; however, in this study we employ the use of AfroLatinX for the same reasons we use LatinX. The hyphen is removed to counter the imposition of a hyphenated identity.