BESITOS stories have spanned over 20 years of persistence across predominately White spaces. The BESITOS program model (Herrera, Morales, Holmes, & Terry, 2011) served as a gateway to higher education for more than 200 students, with students of color comprising nearly 90 percent of teacher education graduates. At the heart of the program’s purpose were socio-reconstructive opportunities for students to explore their own identities, as grounded in their communities and the public schools they attended. Some of these prior social influences had hegemonically instilled a meaning perspective of doubt – an imposter syndrome that limited their potentials as students and as future professionals.
Differential opportunities of the program responsively fostered critical consciousness, positive racial and linguistic identity development, and shared resolve in becoming themselves, before becoming teachers. They cast aside the language of the oppressor in order to better comprehend their world and its various oppressive systems, as revealed through their histories, contexts of socialization, and counternarratives.
Although designed for students of color, BESITOS also encompassed a small cadre of white students who were willing to reflect upon their own identity formation, become bilingual, and build their capacities for social justice. Collectively, these future teachers engaged in race-visible dialogues that envisioned a future where students’ assets, trajectories, and potentials were maximized.
The BESITOS documentary highlights the stories of five educators whose individual narratives reflect their personal journeys and echo the histories of participants whose stories have been researched and chronicled over the last two decades (e.g., Herrera & Holmes, 2015; Herrera & Morales, 2018; Herrera, Murry, & Holmes, in press; Holmes, Fanning, Morales, Espinoza, & Herrera, 2012; Holmes & Herrera, 2009; Morales, Diaz de Sabátes, Fanning, & Murry, 2007).
Music Licensed from Sound stripe:
Beyond Reach – Alsever Lake
Still You’re Here – Adrian Walther
The Daylight – Adrian Walther
A Whisper Be Still the Earth –
Hope is Found -Moments
Reflected Time – Alsever Lake
Atmos Gold Coast
Coming Home – Gold Coast
Edgar Evins Titus
Music Licensed from Music Vine:
Lakeside Blessings – Brock Hewitt
The Hollow Lane – King
Equinox Kevin Graham
Home Philip G Anderson
Into our Hearts – Brock Hewitt
Reflections – Klangriket
Silence – Movediz with Birdsong
All our Memories Adi – Goldstein
Light Breaks – Hemlock
Little Cedar – Evoli Anbience
Navy – Tiny Houses
With Love – Shimmer
Still – Caleb Fincher
Here forever – Adi Goldstein
Intro – Brock Hewitt
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