This article explores how a secondary ethnic studies course leveraged immigrant families' literacies rooted in the Mexican spiritual ritual of Las Posadas for in-school literacy instruction and to engage in community-responsive grassroots processions as social protest. Using ethnographic and participatory design research, the authors--one a…

This study investigated the effects of internal and demographic variables on civic development in late adolescence using the construct "civic purpose." We conducted surveys on civic engagement with 480 high school seniors, and surveyed them again 2 years later. Using multivariate regression and linear mixed models, we tested the main…

This article explores the process and impact of women organizing for educational justice in Northern California by documenting the efforts of a committed group of mothers who sought to address the disproportionate underachievement of Latino and African American students within their city's high school. Using a combined methodology of ethnography…

Objective: Data from the United States indicate pronounced and persistent racial/ethnic differences in the rates at which children are referred and substantiated as victims of child abuse and neglect. In this study, we examined the extent to which aggregate racial differences are attributable to variations in the distribution of individual and…

This study examined 32 Hispanic parents' perceptions of education, especially, (a) parent's motivation for their children's career choice, (b) their perceptions of education, and (c) informal means of education at home. The data were collected using openended questions and were analyzed using content analysis. Findings in this study provide…

Focusing on Jaime Hernandez's "Locas: The Maggie and Hopey Stories," part of the "Love and Rockets" comic series, I argue that the graphic landscape of this understudied comic offers an illustration of the theories of space in relation to race, gender, and sexuality that have been critical to understandings of Chicana…

This essay explores poetics and politics among Latino Catholics in Fresno, California, who draw on a tradition of storytelling and religious ritual to mitigate the hardships that result from their marginal social assignment. Storytelling and ritual allow them to recognize where faith and daily life intersect, exposing the tensions--including those…

Except for Mexico, there are now more Latino-origin people in the U.S. than there are people in Spain, Argentina, Colombia, or any other Spanish-speaking country. In fact, the nation is experiencing the greatest demographic transformation in the last 100 years of its history. As former schoolteachers of immigrant children in Texas and California,…

Research suggests that acculturation increases the risk of substance use among Hispanic youth. However, this process is not well understood. This study examined associations between acculturation and several substance use indicators among a sample of 714 Hispanic youth attending alternative high schools in southern California. Peer social…

Although the relationship between varying levels of acculturation and depressive symptoms has been established among Latino(a) youth, the positive role of family involvement in relation to depressive symptoms among immigrant Latino(a) families has been studied less. This study draws on a sample of first-generation Latino(a) youth from the…

The homeboy aesthetic is identifiable as an assemblage of key signifiers: clothing (baggy pants and undershirts are perhaps the most significant), hair (or, in the current moment of the aesthetic, lack of hair), bold stance, and distinct language (think "calo" mixed with hip-hop parlance), all combining to form a distinguishable cultural…

Reports findings from an exploratory investigation of a comparatively low dropout rate in a predominantly Mexican American school district (Calexico, California). Although many features contribute to the district's ability to retain students, these are best understood as interrelated parts of a complex system. The most important factor appears to…

This study investigated the role of three groups of risk and protective factors (e.g., individual, family, and extrafamilial) that are associated with teen pregnancy. Two groups of Latina adolescents (aged 15 to 19), nonpregnant/ nonparenting (NP; N = 48) and pregnant/parenting (P; N = 46), completed a demographic survey, an adolescent profile…

This digest explores the status of Hispanic community college students and the factors that affect their enrollment and persistence in college. America's 1,076 community colleges educate over half of all minority students in higher education. Hispanics are underrepresented in four-year institutions, and over 55% of all Hispanic students enrolled…

Explores the political and social reasons behind the denial of affirmative action at the University of California and analyzes the probable impact and human rights effects of the policy. Because the state has not allocated sufficient funds to improve elementary and secondary education for Blacks and Latinos, their numbers will inevitably decline…