I’m pleased to share some good news: my blog is currently ranked the fourth-best education blog in Texas and 20th among all Texas blogs according to Feedspot.com. I’m deeply grateful to my community here in Austin—and to friends, colleagues, and co-conspirators across the country—for your loyal readership and continued support. Thanks, in particular, to Latinopia, Voice of the Mainland, and to librarians nationwide for uplifting my blog over the years. Your engagement and encouragement keep this space alive and purposeful.
With nearly half a million new page views each year, this blog has become a trusted source for those seeking truth, coupled with a sustained, authentic voice, in an age of distortion. It's also a good window through which to view and understand at least some aspects of Texas education policy and politics.
I have asked former students and other scholars, including my husband, UT History Professor Dr. Emilio Zamora, to join me as a regular blogger (he has SO much to offer), but those I've asked are always either thinking about it or don't have the bandwidth.
Writing for a global audience, I understand, can seem daunting, particularly for scholars who perhaps find a modicum of refuge in conventional publication outlets. Writing for even larger audiences is yet another skill one must cultivate. I know it took me plenty of time to get to where I am today, so perfectly understood.
"Writing is a muscle," I always say, "that must be regularly flexed."
We should liberate writing, too—where writing is the act of thinking, a space for imagination and relief. Let's not underestimate the expressive power of writing. If you liberate writing, you liberate creativity and thought.
I shudder to think that in the earliest breaths of this blog, I chose not to host it through UT-Austin, but instead went with Blogspot.com. In hindsight, that decision was critical. Had I tied this blog to the university, it would most certainly have been dismantled, archived, erased, or rendered inaccessible, alongside countless other DEI-related programs and resources targeted under Senate Bill 17. To be honest, it was a healthy distrust of my university back in 2004 that guided me.
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| Recent photo delivering testimony on SB 37 |
I knew, even then, that the institutional winds could shift, and that critical voices—especially those advocating for justice, equity, and inclusion—would not always be protected. This decision, in retrospect, was shaped by what Dolores Delgado Bernal (1998) calls cultural intuition—an embodied, experiential form of knowledge rooted in our lived realities as scholars of color navigating historically exclusionary institutions.
Yes, very much based on my own difficult experiences in predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) throughout life and career, this intuition led me to create a space beyond institutional reach—a space that has become an archive of resistance, a tool for organizing, and a platform for truth-telling that endures even as the official record is being rewritten.
As public institutions are pressured to silence inclusive voices, this platform has become even more vital—a place where, I trust, communities are finding affirmation, knowledge, and collective purpose.
I love this picture I took at the Texas Capitol last Friday and is a fitting way to conclude: "This too shall pass. It might pass like a kidney stone. but it will pass."
-Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.
-Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.
References
Delgado Bernal, D. (1998). Using a Chicana feminist epistemology in educational research. Harvard Educational Review, 68(4), 555–582. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.68.4.5w7m447lmbx482l4
Valenzuela, A. (2021, Nov. 10). [Blog]. A Personal Message on Why I Blog and a Word of Thanks by Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.
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Note: I took this photo about a week ago when I was ranked third. As of today, according to Feedspot.com, I'm ranked fourth. Regardless of the shift, I’m honored to be in such close company with leading voices like the Texas Education Agency, the Texas Classroom Teachers Association, and the Pre-K Pages blog. To be part of this conversation—alongside institutions and organizations with far greater resources—is both humbling and energizing. It’s a testament to the power of community, critical dialogue, and public scholarship. It’s all good. 😊 -AV |
