The author explores the words and writing of Rocky, Reyna, Blanca, and Elizabeth (grades 6-12) through their participation in Somos Escritoras/We Are Writers, a creative space for Latina girls and their parents. For 6 weeks, alongside their parents, girls used drawing and personal writing to dialogue about their experiences and bring into language…

In this study, we explored (a) how Latina undergraduate students negotiated their multiple identities while participating in a research internship designed to create spaces that counter master narratives, and the forms of cultural wealth that were implicated in these identity negotiations, and (b) ways in which the various elements of the research…

This article highlights how the preservation of heritage languages is essential in the construction of three Georgia Latina participants' cultural identities and the creation of support networks that allow them to develop resiliency and achieve academically. We conceptualize resiliency as a strategy developed by the Latina participants using…

In this reflective narrative I share my experience as a contingent faculty member, woman of color, and mother, working, and parenting through a global pandemic and social uprising. I utilize testimonio (Delgado Bernal et al., 2012) as a methodological tool to make visible the labor I engage in and the collective experience between contingent…

Research underscores the 'gender reversal' in college enrolment and educational attainment that appears to favour women today. However, less is known about how Latinas navigate doctoral study demands and gendered cultural expectations within their ethnicity. We use Chicana/Latina Feminist Theory to explore how the ethnic cultural script of…

Racially minoritized college presidents represent less than 17% of all college and university presidencies in the United States, and less than four percent are Latinx/a/o. This study explored how Latino college president men, a heavily underrepresented group in the leadership pipeline, ascribe meaning to their intersecting identities while…

This qualitative study on the experiences of Latina leaders in PK-12 educational settings reveals the significant impact of their community cultural wealth on leadership development and effectiveness. By integrating personal and professional narratives, in the form of "testimonios," with theoretical frameworks like LatCrit and Culturally…

How Latinas experience their racial identity is unique when viewed through the Black and white racial dichotomy that exists in the United States. In Latin America, race is understood to be phenotypical and determined based off the color of your skin, whereas in the United States, race is often understood to be genotypical (Darity et. al, 2005),…

The superintendent is one of the most important positions within public school districts because they have the capacity to influence policies, practices, and perceptions among school staff while simultaneously holding sway over the public. Yet, few Latinx administrators are hired into the superintendency -- even fewer are Latinas. Consequently,…

This paper is about leveraging cultural ways of knowing such as ethnobotany in order to increase STEM engagement in Chicanx populations. The novel Community Learning and Ecological Sustainability Paradigm (CLESP) framework utilized in this study combines social justice, Chicana feminist epistemology, land-based pedagogy, critical place-based…

This study centers the experiences of 9 Latinas enrolled in a continuation high school. This study attempts to understand how this continuation school engages with Latinas and attempts to improve their conditions and opportunities in this marginalized sector that is overrepresented with racially minoritized youth. Despite all the challenges they…

Since college, La Puente, CA has been the focus of my research and activism from bilingual education, sanctuary to by-trustee area school board elections. As a graduate student in the 1990s, I returned to live and research in this city of my childhood and where my immigrant grandparents eventually moved to in the 1950s from Nicaragua and Sicily.…

In this project, we share how we--two differently situated Women of Color, one Indigenous and one Chicana, with myriad other identities (e.g. mothers, partners, daughters, friends, co-conspirators, academics)--grew to be friends, and how we foster our friendship as a site of coalitional refusal for creating a more just academy. We offer our…

Hispanic female students are the minority population when it comes to taking higher level classes in the Science Technology Engineering and Math fields. According to Hinojosa, Rapaport, Jaciw, and Zacamy (2016), "STEM fields are defined here as majors in computer and information sciences, engineering and engineering technologies, biological…

The purpose of this qualitative narrative inquiry was to explore the lived experiences of Latina educational administrators. This study sought to uncover and understand the relationship between biculturalism and effective educational leadership in the personal and professional lives of second-generation Latina educational administrators. For this…