INNOVA Research Journal, ISSN 2477-9024  
La dualidad de ser tanto opresor como oprimido en diferentes lugares  
The duality of being both oppressor and oppressed in different places  
Evelyn Verónica Almeida García  
Universidad Central del Ecuador  
Universidad de la Fuerzas Armadas ESPE, Ecuador  
Autor para correspondencia: evalmeida@uce.edu.ec  
Fecha de recepción: 5 de enero de 2017 - Fecha de aceptación: 20 de Febrero de 2017  
Resumen  
El propósito principal de este artículo es ofrecer una perspectiva diferente de un opresor y una  
persona oprimida y comprender mi propia realidad a través de mi propia experiencia. Esta dualidad  
me hace una persona con características únicas. Características que en ocasiones me hacen  
privilegiada como mestizo y una persona que comúnmente oprime, explota y gobierna a otros con  
fuerza económica y social. Por otra parte, otras situaciones me convierten en una persona  
colonizada que se caracteriza por ser dependiente y oprimida cuando estoy en la posición de mujer  
latina en los Estados Unidos. Me gustaría pensar en mí como una mujer que está dispuesta a  
"desarrollar [mi] poder para percibir críticamente la forma en que [yo] existo en el mundo con el  
cual y en el cual [yo] me encuentro" (Freire, 2000, p. 12). Me gustaría ver este mundo como una  
realidad en un proceso de transformación.  
Palabras claves: dualidad; opresor; oprimido; latino; mestizo; migración; dominante  
Abstract  
The main purpose of this article is to offer a different perspective of an oppressor and an oppressed  
person and to understand my own reality through my own experience. My reality is that I am a  
mestizo from Ecuador, and in Ecuador mestizo is the dominant and “preferred” ethnicity. This  
duality makes me a person with unique characteristics. Characteristics that on occasion make me  
privileged and a person who commonly oppresses, exploits, and rules others with economic and  
social force. On the other hand, other situations make me a colonized person who is characterized  
by being self-depreciated, dependent, and masochist when I am in the position of Latino woman  
in the United States. I would like to think about myself as a woman who is willing to “develop  
[
my] power to perceive critically the way [I] exist in the world with which and in which [I] find  
myself” (Freire, 2000, p.12). I would like to see this world as a reality in a process of  
transformation.  
Key words: duality; oppressor; oppressed; Latino; mestizo; migration; dominant  
Revista de la Universidad Internacional del Ecuador. URL: https://www.uide.edu.ec/  
80  
INNOVA Research Journal 2017, Vol 2, No. 3, pp. 80-90  
Introduction  
Looking at the past must only be a means of understanding more clearly what and who  
they are so that they can more wisely build the future.” Paulo Freire  
I thought that topics such as hegemony, racism, discrimination, white supremacy, and  
oppression did not have much to do with me or with the life that I was living. However, after  
reading The Colonizer and the Colonized (Memmi,1991), Black Feminist Thought (Collins,  
2
000), Schooling in Capitalist America (Bowles & Gintis, 1976), Pedagogy of the Oppressed  
(Freire, 2000), Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria (Tatum, 2003) and  
articles such as “Rethinking Racism” (Bonilla-Silva, 1997) and “Globalization of White  
Supremacy” (Allen, 2001), I have realized that Critical Race Theory, Critical Pedagogy, Social  
Reproduction, Resistance Theory, and issues with power and race offer a critical perspective of  
educational, social, and race inequality, which perpetuate over generations and affect everyone. I  
have also found out that I was immersed and involved with these issues in more than one way. In  
this paper, I would like to talk about my positionality as a mestizo oppressor in my home country  
and also as an oppressed Latina in the United States.  
The main purpose of this article is to offer a different perspective of an oppressor and an  
oppressed person and to understand my own reality through my own experience. As Collins  
(2000) has stated, “[T]he primary responsibility for defining one’s own reality lies with the  
people who live that reality, who actually have those experiences” (p. 35). My reality is that I am  
a mestizo from Ecuador, and in Ecuador mestizo is the dominant and “preferred” ethnicity. This  
duality makes me a person with unique characteristics. Characteristics that on occasion make me  
privileged and a person who commonly oppresses, exploits, and rules others with economic and  
social force. On the other hand, other situations make me a colonized person who is  
characterized by being self-depreciated, dependent, and masochist when I am in the position of  
Latino woman in the United States. I would like to think about myself as a woman who is willing  
to “develop [my] power to perceive critically the way [I] exist in the world with which and in  
which [I] find myself” (Freire, 2000, p.12). I would like to see this world as a reality in a process  
of transformation.  
Before analyzing this duality, it is imperative to define concepts proper to this topic.  
Collins (2000) offers a definition of oppression as “any unjust situation where, systematically  
and over a long period of time, one group denies another group access to the resources of  
society” (p. 4). She also believes that “Race, class, gender, sexuality, nation, age, and ethnicity  
among others constitute major forms of oppression in the United States” (p. 4). Memmi (1991)  
considers that oppression is “the greatest calamity of humanity. It diverts and pollutes the best  
energies of man-oppressed and oppressor alike.” (p. xvii). In addition, colonial racism is built  
from three major ideological components: “one the gulf between the culture of the colonialist  
and the colonized; two, the exploitation of these differences for the benefit of the colonialist;  
three, the use of these supposed differences as standards of absolute fact” (p. 71).  
Referring to education, Freire (2003) creates a concept of the “banking of education,”  
where:  
Revista de la Universidad Internacional del Ecuador. URL: https://www.uide.edu.ec/  
81  
INNOVA Research Journal 2017, Vol 2, No. 3, pp. 80-90  
Knowledge is a gift bestowed by those who consider themselves knowledgeable upon  
those whom they consider they know nothing. Projecting an absolute ignorance onto others, a  
characteristic of the ideology of oppression, negates education and knowledge as process of  
inquiry. (p.72)  
Bowles and Gintis (1976) also focused on the idea of the inequality of education when  
they argued that, “the U.S. educational system works to justify economic inequality and to  
produce a labor force whose capacities, credentials, and consciousness are dictated in substantial  
measure by the requirements of profitable employment in the capitalist economy” (p. 151).  
Michael Katz stated as far back as 1880 that “American education had acquired its fundamental  
structure characteristics” and that these structures “have not altered since.” Katz continues,  
“Public education was universal, tax-supported, free, compulsory, bureaucratically arranged,  
class based, and racist” (As cited in Bowles & Gintis, 1976, 153). Tatum (2003) on the other  
hand believes that “stereotypes, omissions, and distortions are a preconceived judgment or  
opinion, usually based on limited information” (p.5). Tatum also compares racism to smog in the  
air, when she says that:  
Cultural racism the cultural images and messages that affirm the assumed superiority of  
Whites and the assumed inferiority of people of color is like smog in the air. Sometimes it is so  
thick it is visible, other times it is less apparent, but always, day in and day out, we are breathing  
it in. (p.5)  
Picture 1. Indigenous selling candies in Quito.  
Dominance of Mestizos  
According to the online dictionary, mestizo is a a person of mixed racial or ethnic  
ancestry. In Latin America is a mixed between American Indian and European descent. The  
indigenous people, their rights, and their situation as a minority group in Ecuador have not been  
topics of discussion in my country. The Population and Housing Census of 2010 showed that the  
mestizo population in Ecuador was 71.9% and indigenous people accounted for 7.1%. The data  
shows that mestizos are the dominant ethnic group in Ecuador. The mestizo group, which I am  
part of, influences and oppresses the indigenous groups. Paradoxically, even though the  
indigenous people are natives in the region, they are treated as foreigners in their own homeland.  
These minority groups, for example, Puruhá, Otavalo, Karanki, Cañaris, Cofanes, and the  
Huaorani, amongst others, have been subjects of discriminatory events throughout history. These  
people have been oppressed in different ways such as having limited access to education, basic  
services, work, language, territory, and culture. Oppression of these sociocultural aspects have  
resulted in a loss of identity for indigenous people. As Memmi mentioned, the assumption is that  
the colonizers’ living standards are high, while the colonizers are low. This assumption results in  
the oppressors attempts to enculturate the oppressed into the supposed dominant culture, and, as  
Revista de la Universidad Internacional del Ecuador. URL: https://www.uide.edu.ec/  
82  
INNOVA Research Journal 2017, Vol 2, No. 3, pp. 80-90  
a result, indigenous people are treated as low-class citizens, deprived from political and civil  
rights and services.  
Since the colonization of Ecuador by the Spanish began in the late 1500’s, indigenous  
people suffered through this enforced enculturation and loss of their ethnic identity. Now, in this  
period of post colonization, many Ecuadorians still have that mentality of separating the  
indigenous into the colonized and the mestizo into the colonizer. An example is what happened  
with the indigenous people during the Agrarian Reform and Colonization in 1964. This reform  
had an original objective of a set of political, economic, and social policies whose that offered  
the indigenous people bigger portions of lands for agricultural production. It also offered them  
social security and loans to continue their agriculture production. However, the reality was  
different; the reform helped the people in power by offering them productive lands and giving  
the indigenous people infertile lands. The indigenous people had debts that they could not pay  
and became poorer and poorer.  
Education has also been an issue for indigenous people in Ecuador over the time. There is  
a minimum population of indigenous accessing education; very few of them manage to graduate  
and have a job and decent work. We are used to seeing indigenous children of the streets selling  
candies, seasonal fruit, and flowers like the people in picture 1. These children do not go to  
school. The ones that manage to go to school are likely to live in poverty and experience the  
highest school dropout rates. They usually stay home and help their parents in their work instead  
of going to school. Other children work in the homes of mestizos as house cleaners, but even  
positions do not pay well.  
Because of the lack of access to quality education, Indigenous people usually are  
domestic workers and construction workers. Indigenous people are seen as an underclass not  
equal to the mestizos. It is common to see that mestizo group can benefit from the low rate labor  
of the indigenous people, who in many occasions are exploited and are not protected from the  
laws in Ecuador. I am sorry to recognize that my house has been one example of this situation.  
We have had some indigenous maids who have helped in the house cleaning, washing the  
clothes, cooking, and helping with the children. Collins’ (2000) comments on these types of  
arrangements when she mentions that domestic work is profoundly exploitative and that there is  
a unique relationship between the employer and employee. As a participant in this explotative  
structure, I am reminded of “Maria” the maid who used to work for us for many years. I  
remember she used to call me “Señorita Evelyn” and my mother “Señora Luisa,” which is a  
formal addressing. We had a very good relationship, especially because Maria used to take care  
of me and my two brothers for many years. We used to give her used clothes and other  
household items. She even used to wear a uniform and an apron. Now, I have realized that all of  
these actions just highlighted the economic and social inequality separating the domestic workers  
and the employers.  
Talking to my friend, Ana, about my essay, an interesting anecdote came into play. One  
of her classmates from elementary school had a very common indigenous last name. His last  
name “Ninagualpa” was an object of bullying, not from his friends in school but outside of it.  
Ana saw him after several years. And to her surprise, he had changed his last name for his  
mother´s last name, which had been, of course, a Spanish last name “Chavez.” He also changed  
Revista de la Universidad Internacional del Ecuador. URL: https://www.uide.edu.ec/  
83  
INNOVA Research Journal 2017, Vol 2, No. 3, pp. 80-90  
his first name. This is an example of how the psychology of this person worked and how  
ashamed he was to be an indigenous descendent. He gave away his identity to fit in this  
dominant “mestizo” group. He reinvented himself to be a person that he was not.  
The inequality of arrangements such as the one from my childhood extend beyond the  
mestizo/indigenous duality in Ecuador and can be found in many colonized and postcolonized  
societies. Collins (2000) remarks on this when she asks the question “If women are allegedly  
passive and fragile, then why are Black women treated as “mules” and assigned heavy cleaning  
chores” (p. 11)? In Ecuador, indigenous people are treated the same way. If they are not working  
as domestic workers, they are going in the fields and farm or helping their husbands in  
constructions sites.  
Exacerbating the oppression they experience, indigenous people are also segregated  
geographically. Quito, for example, which is the place I lived in, is divided in three sectors  
geographically. There is the south, the center, and the north. People who live in the north and  
part of the central of Quito are assumed to have money and have a better life style. On the other  
hand, the poor people and the indigenous people generally live in the south and suburbs of the  
city. They are segregated not only by the people that live in the north, but also from the  
government and the authorities. While the North and North Central portions of the city enjoy  
successful governance and the luxuries provided by well-dispersed taxes and services, the places  
where the indigenous people live in Quito lack basic services such as drinking water, sewage,  
electricity, and garbage disposal.  
There is a social pressure in Ecuador influenced by mestizos against indigenous people.  
Because of that, many indigenous people give away their culture, including their way of dressing  
and their language. One vivid example is that mestizos speak Spanish and do not recognize  
Quichua, which is an indigenous language, as an official language. In schools, indigenous  
children are forced to speak Spanish and English. Additionally, indigenous people had to give  
away their religion. For example, in Ecuador the indigenous celebrations have been mixed with  
the Spaniard traditions such as Fiesta de la Mama Negra in Latacunga, Ecuador. It starts with a  
traditional mass and an indigenous parade, which includes masks, adorned with dead animals,  
bottles of wine and liquor, dancers and music. It is a mix between Catholic and pagan  
celebrations. This is just one example of the influence that the Spanish colonizers have had on  
indigenous religions.  
Indigenous people in Ecuador constitute the oppressed group, while the oppressor group  
are the mestizos. As a mestizo, there are several ways in which I somehow have used my  
privilege as a member of the dominant group against the ingenious people. We know that there  
are differences but no one wants to face it. No one stands out for the minority. Now that I am  
aware of my privilege. I do not deny it, but neither use it against the people that are in minority  
groups. It is necessary to put ourselves in the shoes of other people in order to understand what  
they are going through so we do not misjudge or stereotype them. Privilege should not determine  
anyone’s outcomes. Mestizos are the majority in Ecuador, but that does not mean they have to be  
oppressors against the indigenous people. They are part of our past, present and future and  
should be respected and treated as equal.  
Revista de la Universidad Internacional del Ecuador. URL: https://www.uide.edu.ec/  
84  
INNOVA Research Journal 2017, Vol 2, No. 3, pp. 80-90  
Oppression of Latinos  
Being a Latino woman in the United States has made me become part of the minority,  
part of the oppressed group. There are several examples that show discrimination against my  
group. For instance, the moment I entered the University and went to the Student Union Building  
or to a dining hall, I noticed that every person cleaning the tables or cleaning the bathrooms were  
Mexican or Hispanic decedents. This division of labor where the oppressed are the ones in  
menial labor was apparent even here, in the United States. Another example came on the first  
day of class. I wanted to print some of the essays for my Seminar class and I did not know how  
to use the printer located on the first floor of the SUB, so I asked a cleaning lady and she  
answered me in Spanish and told me that she was from Mexico. I also went to the dining hall and  
met Carlos, an Ecuadorian person who cleans there. For the students, these workers are invisible;  
they are just labor force whose job is only limited to cleaning. This situation reminded me about  
a sentence from Collins (2000), which stated the situation of African American woman in the  
United States. Collins states, “This group treatment potentially renders each individual African  
American woman invisible as fully human” (p. 100). I felt so sad and also discriminated because  
that could also have been my brother or family.  
Latino women have a higher percentage of suffering from discrimination and abuse, not  
only from white people but also from Latino men. I have heard this issue from many sources  
such as news, TV, internet, and even from people who have seen these types of abuse first hand.  
One example is a nurse, who we are going to call Teresa. She comes to my house every  
Thursday to check on my daughter. She has seen how Latino men mistreated Latino women  
verbally and physically in Albuquerque, NM. She even had to go to court and support these  
women. One story that almost made me cry was that of a Mexican immigrant who had just given  
birth and her husband hit her. She was so afraid to go to court because her husband threatened  
her. Additionally, the judge told her that if she did not attend to the hearing he was going to take  
her kid from her because she was not strong enough to defend herself and her child. These stories  
are every day stories of Latino women in the United States. And the cases are even worse when  
they are illegal immigrants. In a 2015 article in the Spanish language periodical New Herald, it  
was presented that 1 out of 12 Latinas in Chicago have experienced domestic violence in the last  
1
2 months. It further described that married immigrant women are more likely to be abused than  
single women, particularly during the period of pregnancy. Also, the news article reported that  
these abused women rely less on police and prefer to go to their friends, families, or neighbors  
for help.  
Another example of privilege and power was when I was going to a dinner at a Christian  
church. I saw something that got me thinking about how unconsciously we as parents help  
perpetuate the inequality and the differences of classes, gender, and race. There was a young  
white boy around 12 years old who was wearing a suit and tie and behaved very properly. This  
boy, who I soon realized was the pastor’s son, was guiding the catering people, who happened to  
be Mexicans, with the food for the event. What was shocking to me was the attitude of this boy  
towards the catering people. It seemed that he knew he was superior and he was ordering them  
with his fingers and an attitude, demanding the caterers to “put this here,” “move this,” and “this  
way.” I felt that this boy, because of his young age, should not treat the adult catering people that  
way. On the other hand, the catering workers seemed that they felt ok with that type of treatment.  
Revista de la Universidad Internacional del Ecuador. URL: https://www.uide.edu.ec/  
85  
INNOVA Research Journal 2017, Vol 2, No. 3, pp. 80-90  
Their response was “yes, sir” and “thank you.” The boy did not mistreat the caterers in a physical  
way; however, it was and unconscious way of stating power and privilege between him and the  
workers. It appeared to me that this was an example of Freire’s “false generosity” which  
constrains the fearful and subdues the “rejects of life,” to extend their trembling hands. (2000,  
p.45) So, though this young white boy was being kind to the workers, his status, his appearance,  
and his assumed authority over adults was all indicative of unequal power relations based on the  
assumption that Latinos, immigrants, and non-English speakers are inferior to white, male  
English speaking residents.  
Picture 2. El Nuevo Herald  
I have also seen geographic segregation in the town where I have been living. Similar to  
what Collins (2000) mentioned regarding racial segregation in urban housing, I can see racial  
segregation occurring in Albuquerque, NM. Latinos live in self-contained Latino communities  
such as South Valley, and their children attend Latino schools, worship at Hispanic churches,  
purchase food at Mexican supermarkets, and join Latino-based community organizations. This  
geographic separation of Latinos to their own communities, schools, and religious centers  
hinders racial interaction and integration.  
Another vivid example of discrimination was what happened to my friend Claudia, an  
Ecuadorian student at the university. She was pregnant and had a complication. She went to the  
emergency room at the hospital and had to wait for about 9 hours to be seen. Yes, 9 hours! She  
lost her baby afterwards. I do not think it would have been the same if she were white or had an  
English accent as opposed to a Spanish accent. I felt so helpless when I heard of her loss. In my  
country, this would not have happened. I do not know if the baby could have survived, but I  
know for sure that the treatment would have been completely different. She would have entered  
into an intensive care unit immediately because, once again, we have the mestizo privilege back  
in Ecuador.  
When I started to read Tatum’s (2003) book Why Aare All the Black Kids Sitting  
Together in the Cafeteria? it reminded me of myself and my Ecuadorian friends who are also  
here studying at the university. We usually sit together during lunch in the SUB because we felt  
the need to connect with someone who looks like us and share the same experiences. We came to  
study with a scholarship from the university we worked at back in Ecuador. The education and  
the university is excellent and we are thankful for that. However, some aspects make us feel  
segregated and oppressed. We have the feeling that we have lost our identity, our status as  
professors, and we that we have become mere students. I see how my classmates and I, back in  
Ecuador, used to have cars, take taxis, dress formally, all of that is gone now. In other words, we  
had a completely different lifestyle. Here in the United States, we are just “students” to the other  
people at the university. And, worse, to others outside the university we are just Latino  
immigrants and not necessary decent. This idea that Latino immigrants are not good people  
Revista de la Universidad Internacional del Ecuador. URL: https://www.uide.edu.ec/  
86  
INNOVA Research Journal 2017, Vol 2, No. 3, pp. 80-90  
affected me first hand when myself and a friend of mine went to a Dollar Tree store. They asked  
us to put our backpacks away, like we are thieves and we were going to steal something. I felt so  
discriminated against and furious at the same time. How could this happen to us? I am a  
prestigious university professor in my country, how could they treat me like that?  
Another form of oppression as a Latina that I have seen, read, and been told about is the  
discrimination of language. This discrimination can be seen in different levels, from teachers of  
elementary school not wanting their students to speak in Spanish, to Hispanic university scholars  
choosing to publish their research articles in English in North American journals instead of in  
Spanish and in international journals. Even though there is a high percentage of people whose  
native language is not English, there is still a strong English-only movement, which are in favor  
of anti-bilingual education, and this makes it difficult for non-native speakers to be successful in  
publishing in their home language. The article Preparing Teachers for Bilingual Students (Blum  
Martinez & Baker, 2010) reports that, according to the Pew Hispanic Center in 2007, immigrants  
accounted for 12.6% of the population of the United States. Additionally, two thirds of the  
population growth in 2002 came from immigrants (p. 321). Therefore, it is unbelievable that  
such English-only movements exist. These movements have a great negative impact not only on  
students, but also on teachers and their professional development. Without bilingual education,  
Latino students will not be able to perform in the same way as they could in their native language  
and have a great disadvantage over students whose first language is English.  
Even though there is the No Child Left Behind legislation, there are problems that  
students, teachers, and authorities have to face. While the “system allows for testing English-  
language learners (ELLs) in their native language, only 11 states have taken advantage of this  
possibility” (Blum Martinez & Baker, 2010, p. 323). In addition, bilingual programs are easy  
targets because they are new programs and are not well-formed. Blum Martinez and Baker  
(2010) stated that “School districts have utilized these funds for other purposes” (p. 333). There  
is a lack of availability of assessments and materials for native languages. Another problem is  
that “many bilingual teachers [are] inexperienced and undertrained with a large percentage  
working on an emergency waiver. Most programs served poor populations, their schools were  
underfunded and suffered from a high level of teacher transiency” (p. 323). All of these issues  
come together to keep English as the “dominant” language and jeopardize the use of other  
languages for socializing, learning, and for doing business.  
Because of these personal experiences, I believe that linguistic discrimination, or what  
Phillipson terms “Linguistic Imperialism” (1992), absolutely exists in the United States. How  
many times I have heard “I do not understand your accent,” “I do not speak Spanish,” “Sorry I  
do not understand?” This has happened to me and to several of my Ecuadorian friends who are  
studying at the university. One vivid example of this linguistic discrimination was when I was  
going to Human Services to obtain medical service for my little baby. I was with my husband,  
who does not speak English, and my newborn baby. I would like my husband to understand  
everything that was going on so I asked the human resources worker if he could speak Spanish.  
To me he was Hispanic. However, he was irritated and told me that he did not speak Spanish and  
that they only speak English at the Human Service office. I felt so embarrassed and ashamed of  
speaking Spanish at that moment. I started to think why Hispanic decedents feel so bad about  
speaking Spanish and if this is connected to the idea of feeling or wanting to appear “white.” I  
Revista de la Universidad Internacional del Ecuador. URL: https://www.uide.edu.ec/  
87  
INNOVA Research Journal 2017, Vol 2, No. 3, pp. 80-90  
did not understand the discrimination of Mexican Americans and Nuevo Mexicanos against  
Mexican Nationals and other Spanish speaking immigrants. For me, this was so absurd and  
unbelievable how they refused to speak Spanish.  
After asking a Nuevo Mexicano the reason why he did not speak Spanish, I started to  
connect this situation to “the concept of linguistic imperialism where Phillipson believes that  
there is a “very strong case for claiming that English Language Teaching and the intellectual  
tradition behind it are neo-colonialist” (p.72). In order to preserve English as a dominant  
language, Phillipson focuses on fallacies including the monolingual fallacy that English is best  
taught without reference to learner’s native language; the native speaker fallacy that the best  
teacher is a speaker from one of the center countries; the early start fallacy, which states that the  
earlier a language is learnt the better is mastered; the maximum exposure fallacy, in which the  
more English one comes into contact with the better it is learnt; and the subtractive fallacy,  
which stated that the less a student speaks other languages the better their English will become  
(Personal communication, May 5, 2016). The Nuevo Mexicano explained to me that when his  
grandparents came from Mexico they entered school in New Mexico and it was forbidden to  
speak in Spanish. Children were punished and even physically assaulted by their teachers for  
speaking in Spanish. So in school kids were not allowed to speak Spanish and at home their  
parents only spoke Spanish when they did not want their children to understand what they were  
saying. Parents agreed that speaking Spanish was negative for their children’s future. The parents  
thought that their children would be discriminated against for speaking another language and that  
speaking Spanish would make them less American-like.  
Another kind of discrimination that I have seen is when Spanish speakers want to publish  
in American, or so called “Western,” journals. Swales (1997) remarked on the monopolization  
of English language in American academic journals. In his article, he stated, “English is a  
Tyrannosaurus rex… English is a powerful carnivore gobbling up the other denizens of the  
academic linguistic grazing grounds” (p. 374). Giddens (as cited in Swales, 1997, p. 376)  
calculates that in 1994 no less than 31 percent of all papers published in mainstream journals  
emanated from the USA, and a very little percentage from countries where English is not the  
native language. This fact also supports the realistic view of Swales about the domination of the  
English language in journals. From my own experience, non-native speakers are discriminated  
against when trying to publish papers. According to Li (as cited in Belcher, 2007, p.3) 80 percent  
of non-native English speakers felt disadvantaged in competition with their native-English  
speaking counterparts. It seems to me that this underestimation of their language abilities,  
conscious or unconscious, is affecting the writers’ performance in a negative way. Even before  
writing, we see that we have a disadvantage, whether this is true or not.  
International journals require specific conventions strictly related to native-speakers of  
English. If non-native speakers, like myself, have to publish in these international journals, there  
are two options. The first one is to cope with it, and try to acquire this journal-writing discourse  
and pay attention to audience, topic, purpose, literature review, methods, results, discussion,  
pedagogical implications, and language use (Belcher, 2007). The second option is to fight for  
changes. These changes are that journals carefully choose international reviewers, that reviewers  
provide constructive critiques even if the papers are rejected, and, for me the most important  
Revista de la Universidad Internacional del Ecuador. URL: https://www.uide.edu.ec/  
88  
INNOVA Research Journal 2017, Vol 2, No. 3, pp. 80-90  
change, that “editors and reviewers begin to rethink the standard text convention and even  
variety of English privileged in English-language journals” (Belcher, 2007, p.19).  
As a Latina English teacher, whose first language is Spanish, I also felt discrimination  
from on my native speakers’ counterparts, students, teaching institutions, and community. In my  
own experience, there is a struggle to teach English as an international language. Holliday (2005)  
explores this struggle between native and non-native speakers of English. In terms of location,  
Holliday defines “Western centre” as the well-resourced countries, which have economic and  
political power, which are the dominant ones, and the others are the “periphery” which are the  
countries that possess limited resources and are under in a sense the domain of the west, in my  
case, Ecuador.  
The other point is to be aware of the implications that bring power and privilege of the  
English-speaking West in the “chauvinistic” TESOL world. Holliday believes that “non” usually  
implies disadvantage and deficit; this means that English as a Second Language (ESL) or English  
as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers have a disadvantage when referred to as “non-native”  
speakers of English, and, while this disadvantage is language based, it is heightened by the  
chauvinism in TESOL. With this premise, I am double-discriminated, first because I am a non-  
native speaker and come from a peripheral country, and second because I am a woman. There is  
no doubt that when teaching English as a second or foreign language, students, parents,  
institutions prefer to hire native speakers of the language.  
Even colleagues discriminate ESL and EFL teachers; there is a professional division  
between English-speaking West and non-natives in ways such as prejudice, identity, professional  
status, employability, and cultural problems in language learning. Holliday (2005) describes  
“non-native speakers’ students and colleagues as dependent, passive, docile, lacking in self-  
esteem, reluctant to challenge authority, and easily dominated. While, he argues, native speakers  
are” independent, autonomous, creative, respect freedom, change and equality” (p. 175). Even  
though English is a foreign language to many, it is a dominant language around the globe. The  
native speaker of English is, therefore, the norm. Native speakers are valued but they are not  
considered “custodians” of the English language. Instead, it is often the non-native speaker who  
have to do the “dirty work” or learning and teaching English to non-native speakers. While doing  
this already labor-intensive work, the non-native speaker must also provide credentials of their  
professionalism on a daily basis. The teacher is a native speaker, who brings her English and  
culture to the uninitiated environment. The teacher has theories of exotic foreign cultures. “It is  
not possible to label someone as a “foreigner” or a “non-native” as believe that he or she has  
equal rights to the language” (Holliday, 2005, p.6). With all of these negative prejudices, there is  
no doubt that non-native teacher such as myself feel discriminated. Holliday (2005) advises that  
“English-speaking Western colleagues, who become no more than speakers of a dominant  
variety of English must rethink and problematize their entire role, and exactly what it is that they  
can contribute and to whom” (p.15). He also believes that it is imperative to “seek a deeper  
understanding of individual people’s identity by avoiding preconceptions, appreciating  
complexity, not over-generalizing from individual instances” (Holliday, 2005, p. 174).  
Conclusion  
Revista de la Universidad Internacional del Ecuador. URL: https://www.uide.edu.ec/  
89  
INNOVA Research Journal 2017, Vol 2, No. 3, pp. 80-90  
It has been very difficult to position myself as a mestizo oppressor as well as an  
oppressed Latino woman. However, it was necessary in order to understand my reality and  
myself. As Tate (1983) said, “You have to understand what your place as an individual is and the  
place of the person who is close to you. You have to understand the space between you before  
you can understand more complex or larger groups” (as cited in Collins, 2000, p. 112). Now I  
can say that I understand my own reality as an oppressor and an oppressed person. I know what  
it is like to discriminate and to be discriminated. In my position of a dominant mestizo, I had a  
dilemma inside my head that Freire (2000) explained very well as an internal conflict. This  
conflict stems from choosing “between human solidarity and alienation, between following  
prescriptions or having choices, between being spectator or actor, between speaking out and  
being silent” (p. 48). Now what I can say that I have chosen to fight against injustice, to show  
true solidarity, to stand for the indigenous people in my country. I wish to develop a positive  
mestizo identity based on the truth, not on phony superiority.  
However, I believe that it is not enough. According to Tatum (2003) a developmental  
process must take place. The six stages are contact, disintegration, reintegration, pseudo-  
independent, immersion/emersion, and autonomy. In my personal case, I honestly believe I am in  
the second stage. I have passed the denial phase of not paying attention to the significance of my  
racial identity. I do not use the speech of color-blind or free of prejudice. Now I am aware of my  
privilege as a mestizo, and I do not mean to use it against anyone. I have a long way to go.  
Meanwhile, I, as a teacher, am going to work with my students to help them discover themselves  
and become co-investigators and re-creators of a new critical education that becomes “the  
practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with  
reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world” (Freire, 2000, p.34).  
I will also try to help my fellow compatriots overcome their fears and anger for being  
discriminated or abused. Finally, I know there is still a long way to walk, but it is a good start.  
Bibliography  
Allen, R. L. (2001). The globalization of white supremacy: Toward a critical discourse on the racialization  
of the world. Educational Theory, 51(4), 467-485.  
Belcher, D. D. (2007). Seeking acceptance in an English-only research world. Journal of Second Language  
Writing, 16(1), 1-22.  
Bowles, S., & Gintis, H. (1976). Schooling in capitalist America: Educational reform and the contradictions  
of economic life (Reprint Ed). Chicago: Haymarket Books.  
Blum Martinez, R., & Baker, S. (2010). Preparing Teachers of Bilingual Students. Yearbook of the National  
Society for the Study of Education, 109(2), 319-350.  
Collins, P. H. (2000). Black feminist thought (2nd Ed). New York: Routledge.  
Bock, Daniel. (November 2015). Alta cifra de hispanas víctimas de violencia doméstica. El Nuevo Herald.  
Retrieved  
from:  
http://www.elnuevoherald.com/noticias/estados-  
unidos/article44591847.html#storylink=cpy  
Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed (30th anniversary Ed.). New York: Continuum.  
Holliday, A. (2005). The Struggle to teach English as an international language. Oxford: Oxford University  
Press.  
Memmi, A. (1991). the colonizer and the colonized (Expanded Ed.) Boston: Beacon Press. (Original work  
published 1957)  
Tatum, B. D. (2003). "Why are all the Black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?" and other conversations  
about race (Rev. Ed.). New York: Basic Books.  
Swales, J. M. (1997). English as "Tyrannosaurus Rex". World Englishes, 16(3), 373-82.  
Revista de la Universidad Internacional del Ecuador. URL: https://www.uide.edu.ec/  
90