Testimonios of community: empowering Latinx and Portuguese youth in a Toronto-based academic program

In this article, I highlight some of the narratives that I collected from tutor-mentors and students about their experience as Spanish or Portuguese-speaking youth in the Toronto public education system and within a community-led academic success program (Our Youth Success program). I use testimonio, a method from Latina feminism, to present their narratives of marginalization from the mainstream educational spaces and community building within the Our Youth Success space. I pose that the youth in OYS engage in a pedagogy of cariño that is predicated upon authentic caring and sharing of consejos within a transnational context that promote youth wellbeing beyond academics.