Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

The Multidimensionality of Arte Bilingualism

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-7-2026

Abstract

Bilingualism is a multidimensional experience shaped by linguistic, sociocultural, cognitive, and affective dimensions. Yet understandings of bilingualism and translanguaging often foreground linguistic practices, leaving less visible the artistic, visual, material, and experiential dimensions through which bilingual individuals make meaning. This article introduces the Multidimensionality of Arte Bilingualism (MAB) framework, which brings multidimensional bilingualism and art education into dialogue to conceptualize bilingual artistic practice as a form of relational knowledge-making. Grounded in Anzaldúa’s nepantla and autohistoria-teoría and Rivera Cusicanqui’s ch’ixi, MAB positions linguistic, artistic, and lived experiences as interconnected resources for inquiry and theorizing. Through an arts-based investigation of the translanguaged zine Signs of Resistencia y Esperanza, we examine how language, image, materiality, memory, culture, affect, and place operate relationally within bilingual meaning-making. Our analysis demonstrates that translanguaging can operate as a multidimensional artistic practice wherein linguistic and cultural contradictions remain generative without requiring resolution, and that artmaking can transform lived experience into a site of knowledge production. We conclude by proposing zine-making as one pedagogical enactment of MAB through which bilingual learners can mobilize their multidimensional skills to interpret, theorize, and share knowledge from their lived experiences.

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© 2026 NABE

https://www.tandfonline.com/share/JGAM3DJFQEPTGPVK4WIT?target=10.1080/15235882.2026.2736488

Publication Title

Bilingual Research Journal

DOI

10.1080/15235882.2026.2736488

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