A Transnational Educator’s Conocimiento Journey

Globally, the number of immigrants keeps growing. More and more people leave their familiar places to seek a new life, and each of them carries their own story of migration. While a macro view is crucial in understanding migrations, the value of those individual stories has been recognized, but not enough. This autoethnography shares a story of the transformation of an East Asian female educator who migrated to the United States. Her transformation—from an apologetic and quiet East Asian woman with a “culturally surrendered mindset” into a proud advocator of multilingual children’s language rights—is analyzed with the notion of Conocimiento by Gloria Anzaldua. Conocimiento is a process of reaching enlightenment by recognizing and accepting ourselves as we are and connecting with others. Reflecting the spirit of Conocimiento, the study ends with a calling to fellow immigrants to rethink their self-identity and to be proud of who they are.