Blog Post #5 Allegory, Counterstory, & Critical Race Theory: Aja Martinez’s Resistance of Anti-Mexican Legislation in Arizona

Before reading “Critical Race Theory Counterstory as Allegory: A Rhetorical Trope to Raise Awareness About Arizona’s Ban on Ethnic Studies” by Aja Y. Martinez, I was frankly quite skeptical that an allegory could act as a tool of resistance and have any stable ground to raise awareness. An allegory is a story that teaches you something. The story itself is not true, but the experiences and emotions can reflect the life of someone we couldn’t possibly understand ourselves. Martinez refers to Derrick Bell, a prominent voice in Critical Race Theory or CRT, who seeks to make invisible forms visible. Bell has used historical events and contemporary American legislation to supplement his allegories. Through his dramatization of real events that took place, Bell “ illustrates the imminent threat of cultural erasure posed when a people are denied the right to their history; a real threat in Arizona’s anti-ethnic studies climate” (Martinez 1).

Martinez writes this allegory about a first-generation American and college student respectively, Dr. Rosette Benitez. Before graduating and becoming a pioneer in the biomedical engineering field, Benitez recounts her time living with a host white family during the school year so she could attend a college preparatory high school. She compares the traditions or lack thereof of her family and the family she stays with. The family she stays with drinks hard liquor three times a day, never interact much with each other, and speaks more to their Consuelo than their own parents. Dr. Benitez recalled how strange it was that everything was done for them and she didn’t have to clean up after herself. At home, she had to do her own chores and family members drank only on special occasions. And if they did drink, it was just beer. These comparisons show the difference in home life that Benitez was able to encounter, showing readers a perspective we would otherwise not have been able to understand. 

What really changed the narrative for me was Dr. Benitez’s mentality that if her other family members worked just as hard as her, they could’ve done what she did. They just didn’t want it as badly. We know this is all not true and that minorities have not been given equal opportunities throughout history and even today. She realizes this isn’t true once Senator Borne proposes the use of Dr. Benitez as the face of this miraculous injection that makes people live forever.  This medical breakthrough was going to be made available only to pure descendants of the founding fathers, which are all white people. This would mean that everything Dr. Benitez worked for would result in the erasure of all minorities, including her own.

After reading about this fake bill proposed by Senator Borne, I was able to understand what House Bill 2281 really meant. This “equal” treatment of all students is not actually fair because you’re dismissing the underrepresented students who have cultural ties that are being cut due to this type of education they’re not receiving. This bill threatens school districts with a ten percent cut in funding if they fail to abide by these rules, which inhibit the teachings of cultural solidarity. Being able to understand this allegory helps to put into perspective an issue I can’t necessarily relate to. I’m not fully a minority and have never experienced what it’s like to be a first-generation American or college student. An allegory like this can really make people sit back and realize it’s not all about hard work when it comes to making it in this country. 

Works Cited:

Martinez, Aja Y. “ANTI-RACIST ACTIVISM: TEACHING RHETORIC AND WRITING Critical Race Theory Counterstory as Allegory: A Rhetorical Trope to Raise Awareness About Arizona’s Ban on Ethnic Studies Aja Y. Martinez, Binghamton University-SUNY.” Critical Race Theory Counterstory as Allegory, pp. 1–17.