The Xicana Sacred Space: A Communal Circle of Compromiso for Educational Researchers

The Xicana Sacred Space resulted from an effort to develop a framework that would center the complexities of Chicana ontology and epistemology as they relate to social action projects in our communities. Claiming indigenous roots and ways of knowing,the Xicana Sacred Space functions as a decolonizing tool by displacing androcentric and Western linear notions of research in favor of a Mestiza consciousness(Anzaldúa, 1999). Organically born, the space proved to be an important source of knowledge, strength, inspiration, and reflexivity for the authors in their journey as graduate students. Here the authors explain how the space evolved and detail its promise as a tool for raising consciousness, gaining strength, cultivating cultural intuition (Delgado Bernal, 1998), examining positionalities and standpoints, and achieving intellectual growth among those interested in conducting decolonial, emancipatory,and feminist research and action projects.