This article was downloaded by: [Tulane University]On: 30 August 2014, At: 20:19Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registeredoffice: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK

Bilingual Research Journal: The Journalof the National Association for BilingualEducationPublication details, including instructions for authors andsubscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ubrj20

Fractured Memories, Mended Lives: TheSchooling Experiences of Latinas/os inRural AreasClaudia Peralta aa Boise State UniversityPublished online: 05 Sep 2013.

To cite this article: Claudia Peralta (2013) Fractured Memories, Mended Lives: The SchoolingExperiences of Latinas/os in Rural Areas, Bilingual Research Journal: The Journal of the NationalAssociation for Bilingual Education, 36:2, 228-243, DOI: 10.1080/15235882.2013.818594

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15235882.2013.818594

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the“Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis,our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as tothe accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinionsand views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors,and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Contentshould not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sourcesof information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims,proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever orhowsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arisingout of the use of the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Anysubstantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing,systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms &Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

Bilingual Research Journal, 36: 228–243, 2013Copyright © the National Association for Bilingual EducationISSN: 1523-5882 print / 1523-5890 onlineDOI: 10.1080/15235882.2013.818594

Fractured Memories, Mended Lives: The SchoolingExperiences of Latinas/os in Rural Areas

Claudia PeraltaBoise State University

This study explored how Mexican immigrant and first-generation Mexican youth resist, conform to,and persist in schooling. Using Latino Critical Race Theory (LatCrit) as a framework, evidence of the“sticky mess” of racial inequalities (Espinoza & Harris, 1997) was shown to impact the lives of allparticipants. However, the strength of community cultural wealth (Yosso, 2005, 2006) mitigated theyouths’ negative school experiences. Analysis of the dialogic semistructured focal group interviewsthat comprise the data set focused on the students’ family, life in Mexico, and schooling experiencesboth in Mexico and the U.S.

INTRODUCTION

My experience working with Latino students draws on a wide range of settings and contexts.At Migrant Head Start in rural northern California, while working with infants and youngsters, Iheard about the parents’ dreams for their children. Every conversation with parents reflected theirreasons for migration for the sole purpose and hope that their children’s lives would be better.

My body aches from bending over while shearing the grapes, and carrying the heavy bags on myback, and I feel terribly guilty that I don’t spend more time with my children. But I have this tremen-dous confidence that my esfuerzos (“commitment”) would give our children an education that wouldliberate them from working as hard as my husband and I do. (M. Aguilar, personal communication,September 1989)

Similar comments were made to me by parents while working as a bilingual teacher at themost ethnically diverse neighborhood school in a small town in Northern California. On the otherhand, it was not unusual for me to hear teachers in the lunchroom or after parent teacher confer-ences devalue the culture and communication patterns of the Latino children and their families.The desire to engage in a social justice struggle against the hidden oppression perpetuated atschools and the Latino parents’ stories of commitment, struggle, and resilience motivated me

Claudia Peralta is Department Chair and Associate Professor in the Department of Bilingual Education at Boise StateUniversity.

Address correspondence to Claudia Peralta, Department of Bilingual Education, Boise State University,1910 University Drive, Education Building, Room 411, Boise, ID 83725-1725. E-mail: claudiaperalta@boisestate.edu

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tul

ane

Uni

vers

ity]

at 2

0:19

30

Aug

ust 2

014

LATINAS/OS IN RURAL AREA SCHOOLS 229

to attend graduate school. I committed to better prepare educators to effectively teach acrosssocioeconomic, cultural, linguistic, and gender differences.

As a professor in teacher education programs preparing future educators to work with bilingualstudents (Spanish/English), I have had the opportunity to hear from adult students whose parentssacrificed so that their children could attend college. Their stories shared an underlying commit-ment to fulfill their parents’ prophecies, to triumph no matter the barriers they faced. Intrigued bytheir educational experiences, I wanted to learn how they had been able to achieve the goals thattheir parents had set up for them and if their parents’ commitment and resilience had an impact ontheir accomplishments. Thus, this article focuses on the educational experiences of Latina/o stu-dents enrolled in graduate and bachelor studies at two state universities in Idaho and California.Specifically, I utilize Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth Framework to understand how varioussources of support shaped their college experiences.

EDUCATION FOR ENGLISH LEARNERS IN RURALCALIFORNIA AND IDAHO

Today, of the 74 million children in the United States (defined by the U.S. Census Bureau asthose under 18 years of age), the ethnic groups are: White 59%, Hispanic 19%, Black 15%,Asian 4%, and Other 3% (National Center for Children in Poverty, 2006). However, 84% ofthe teachers serving these students are White (Feistritzer, 2011); thus, the teacher workforce inurban and rural schools may lack the cultural knowledge to connect with and support the needsof the shifting and increasingly diverse student population. As an example, the number of Latinoimmigrant students in the United States continues to rise. The U.S. Census Bureau (2011) reportsthat the Hispanic population grew by 43%, rising from 35.3 million in 2000 to 50.5 million in2010, comprising 16% of the total U.S. population. In the past two decades, the Latino populationin rural and small-town America has doubled from 1.5 to 3.2 million and makes up the mostrapidly growing segment of urban county residents. Patterns of Latino growth have varied bydecade. During the 1980s, when total rural population growth was barely discernible, the ruralLatino population grew by 27%. During the “rural rebound” of the 1990s, when the total ruralpopulation grew by 10%, Latino growth more than doubled to 67%. Emerging residential patternsfrom this accelerated Latino population growth affected hundreds of small towns and rural areasacross America (Kandel & Cromartie, 2004). In fact, 44% of America’s English language learners(ELLs) were reported living in rural communities, yet only 33% of U.S. towns enrolled ELLstudents. Hence, ELL student enrollment growth across the U.S. appears to be increasing in ruralareas at a fast pace. The research reported in this article focuses on rural education in Californiaand Idaho because these states provide similar sociocultural contexts for Latino immigrants.

There are two major ethnic groups in Idaho. Of the 1,595,728 inhabitants, 93.9% are Whiteand 11.5% are of Hispanic or Latino origin (U.S. Census Bureau, 2011). Even though technologyhas become the number one industry, Idaho still has a strong foundation of agriculture. Many ofthe immigrants in Idaho come from Mexico.

Northern California’s Central Valley is a rural area, with a population of 220,266 (U.S.Census Bureau, 2011), including a Latino or Hispanic population that accounts for 14.7%. Latinostudents make up 19.14% of the Butte County K–12 public schools (K–12 School Ranking &Statistics).

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tul

ane

Uni

vers

ity]

at 2

0:19

30

Aug

ust 2

014

230 PERALTA

The populations of Latino students in Idaho and Northern California’s Central Valley arecomparable socioeconomically and culturally, and the struggles faced are very similar. Theeducational opportunities and resources available for the rural students enrolled in schools inboth areas are often very scarce and thinly spread. Rural education, specifically for Englishlanguage learners, is further impacted because the rural schools have limited access to fed-eral discretionary grants. Additionally, teachers in rural schools typically know little about ELLteaching pedagogy, ESL curriculum development and assessment, and language-acquisition theo-ries. Finding highly qualified teachers and bilingual paraprofessionals for the teaching workforceis extremely difficult and sometimes impossible. Furthermore, rural schools typically receivethe fewest resources and serve large populations of economically disadvantaged and language-minority students (Johnson & Strange, 2009). Moreover, when resources in rural areas are limited,there is greater impact on the rural educational outcomes for students (Johnson & Strange, 2009).

A report by the Idaho Commission on Latino Affairs in 2007 shows a variety of indicatorsregarding Latino education outcomes. In the period between school years of 1993–1994 and2003–2004, over 7,000 (7,553) Latino youth dropped out of Idaho public high schools (IdahoCommission on Hispanic Affairs, 2007). In California, one of four young people were pushed outin 2007, a total of 127, 292. The California statewide 24% dropout rate also shows that 69,035 or30% of the total were Latinos (Asimov, 2008). These data indicate only reported dropouts. No oneknows exact figures for the unreported students who have left school.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Much of the recent literature on Latino “leavers” has focused on school practices that causefailure, drawing attention to how students have been pushed out and excluded in urban areas and,to a lesser degree, in rural areas (Hondo, Gardiner, & Sapien, 2008). While cases such as theseelucidate important lessons on practices that should be avoided, little research has been conductedon how rural students who face tremendous barriers have successfully completed high school andthen college. Guided by these tenets, the counterstories documented in this study responded to theresearch questions: What factors influenced the educational experiences of Latina/o students in arural setting? How did these experiences shape the educational trajectory of these students? Howdid students resist, conform to, and persist in their schooling? These questions were guided bythe tenets of Critical Race Theory and Latino Critical Race Theory in general, and the frameworkof Community Cultural Wealth, in particular.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Critical Race Theory (CRT) emerged out of critical legal studies in the 1980s as a way to theorizethe persistence of racism in American society (Delgado, 1995). Initially, CRT scholars critiquedsocietal racism in Black and White binary terms and addressed the slow pace and unfulfilledpromises of civil rights legislation. Eventually, CRT theorists applied the framework forwardto address the multiple ways Native Americans, African Americans, Pacific Islanders, AsianAmericans, Chicanas/os, and Latinas/os, continue to experience, respond to, and resist racismand other forms of oppression (Caldwell, 1995; Wing, 2000).

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tul

ane

Uni

vers

ity]

at 2

0:19

30

Aug

ust 2

014

LATINAS/OS IN RURAL AREA SCHOOLS 231

A powerful tenet of CRT is the examination of multiple forms of oppression that can crossthe lives of people of color and how these crossings play out in our daily experiences to mediatepersistence in or leaving from educational settings. Latino Critical Race Theory (LatCrit) is a the-oretical branch of CRT, concerned with a progressive sense of coalitional Latina/o pan-ethnicities(Solórzano & Delgado Bernal, 2001). LatCrit addresses issues often ignored by critical race the-orists such as immigration status, language, ethnicity, sexuality, culture, phenotype, accent, andsurname.

LatCrit theory offers insight into the way “race” operates as an ideological system. First, LatCrittheory highlights how the proliferating meanings of race can be used to preserve the project of whitesupremacy, even in the midst of significant changes in form. Second, LatCrit theory demonstrateshow language, culture, and nationality, as well as color, can be used to separate the privileged fromthe oppressed. (Espinoza & Harris, 1997, p. 534)

By rejecting the focus on color discrimination as the essence of racial discrimination, LatCritreminds us that language and culture are often as important as skin color in separating privilegedgroups from oppressed ones. Tara Yosso’s (2005) theoretical construct of Community CulturalWealth (CCW) challenges the interpretation of Bourdieu’s cultural capital theory by highlightingthe failure to account for the knowledge, abilities, skills, and contacts that Communities of Colorhave and use to survive and resist the oppressions felt at the macro and micro level. Uncoveringthe White privilege embedded in these misinterpretations of cultural and social capital, Yossooutlines cultural knowledges, skills, networks, and abilities developed by Chicana/o students andparents, which retain values often not recognized at schools. She argues that this cultural capitalstrengthens the Chicana/o community’s resiliency and resistance to racism and other forms ofoppression (Yosso & García, 2007). She asserts that CCW comprises at least six forms of capital:aspirational, linguistic, social, navigational, familial, and resistant. While I used the communitycultural wealth framework to analyze the data initially, my findings show the significance ofaspirational, familial, linguistic, social, and resistant capital as the most critical elements of CCWamong participants.

METHODOLOGY

CRT and LatCrit emphasize counterstorytelling, giving voice, or naming one’s own reality as keyelements of legal scholarship and recognize these elements as important tools for achieving racialemancipation (Crenshaw, Gotanda, Peller, & Thomas, 1995; Delgado, 1995). Epistemologically,both CRT and LatCrit privilege the experiential knowledge of people of color as critical waysof knowing and naming racism and other forms of oppression. Moreover, CRT and LatCritplace race, racialization, and racism as central in the narratives of people of color. For CRT andLatCrit scholars, counterstorytelling and personal narratives serve several important methodolog-ical functions and benefits the person of color in a number of ways (Delgado, 1989; Solórzano &Yosso, 2001, 2002). First, it allows participants to reflect on their lived experience. In this study,counterstorytelling allowed participants to share their experiences within public educational insti-tutions in the United States and Mexico. Second, personal narratives allowed participants to speakabout their stories from their own frame of reference. Third, counterstorytelling also subverts the

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tul

ane

Uni

vers

ity]

at 2

0:19

30

Aug

ust 2

014

232 PERALTA

dominant story or the reality that is socially constructed by those who hold racist views about peo-ple of color (Delgado, 1995). By offering an alternative to the master narrative (Ladson-Billings,1995), counternarratives place the truthfulness and “objectivity” of that narrative in question.

Finally, counterstories are transformative and empowering. Sharing these stories with othersraises students’ individual consciousness of common experiences, or as Foucault calls it, “popularknowledge” (as cited in Ware, 2000, p. 112). For me, as both researcher and educator, studyingthe experiences of marginalized Latina/o students was especially informative. By documentingthe marginal (and often misunderstood) sociocultural practices of Latina/o youth, I developed adeeper understanding of oppressive forces facing these students, while at the same time learninghow they used their personal agency to resist inequitable social conditions. The counterstories Ihave gathered through my research are mediated by me as the researcher in several ways: first, asa Latina from Uruguay I do not share the same personal or educational history as the participants;second, unlike the students I interviewed, I emigrated by myself to the United States; lastly, acommon characteristic with the participants is that I too was a first-generation college graduate.

I used qualitative data semistructured focus group interviews and follow-up electronic com-munications to examine how Latina/o students experience education in the United States andMexico. The sample students were either born in Mexico and had immigrated with their familiesto the United States or were first-generation Mexican Americans. They all had attended schoolsthat were located in rural areas (as defined by IES National Center for Education Statistics).1

Focus groups generated a wealth of understanding about participants’ experiences and beliefsthrough guided discussions, during which the group’s dynamics provided insights into the worldof the participants (Morgan, 1997). Through the focus groups, students noted that they and theirfamilies had experienced similar verbal and nonverbal insults, racially motivated harassment, anddiscrimination. They also noted how their families and communities have provided them with thestrength to persevere through these experiences. I also conducted separate, personal, unstructuredconversations with students, lasting about 1.5 hours. Initial data collection was guided by the fol-lowing interview questions, designed to elicit personal narratives and counterstories for analysisof common themes:

1. Can you describe your educational experiences both in Mexico and the U.S.?2. What support were you provided?3. What were some of the challenges you encountered?4. Can you describe the role that your family played during your educational experience?5. Can you describe the role that school members played during your educational experi-

ence?

These conversations took on a life of their own in markedly different directions, guided only bythe topics my interviewees brought up and by my further probing into some of those topics duringinitial data collection as well as during data analyses for trustworthiness of my interpretations.

1IES National Center for Education Statistics defines rural in three categories: (a) Fringe: census-defined rural ter-ritory that is less than or equal to 5 miles from an urbanized area, as well as rural territory that is less than or equal to2.5 miles from an urban cluster; (b) Distant: census-defined rural territory that is more than 5 miles but less than or equalto 25 miles from an urbanized area, as well as rural territory that is more than 2.5 miles but less than or equal to 10 milesfrom an urban cluster; (c) Remote: census-defined rural territory that is more than 25 miles from an urbanized area and isalso more than 10 miles from an urban cluster. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2007/ruraled/exhibit_a.asp

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tul

ane

Uni

vers

ity]

at 2

0:19

30

Aug

ust 2

014

LATINAS/OS IN RURAL AREA SCHOOLS 233

PARTICIPANTS

The study participants consisted of 17 Latina/o, Mexicana/o and Chicana/o (terms used by theparticipants themselves) students in a postbaccalaureate and/or graduate program at two predom-inantly White state universities. Purposeful sampling (Patton 1990, 2002) was used to identify theparticipants, based on individuals who met the criteria related to the study. Participants were pur-posively selected based on the following criteria: (a) identified themselves as Latina/o, Hispanic,Mexican, or Mexican American; (b) completed a college degree; (c) enrolled in a postbaccalau-reate or graduate program. Of the 17 Latina/o, Mexicana/o, Chicana/o students who agreedto participate in the study six were females from California, six females from Idaho, three malesfrom Idaho, and two males from California. Snowball sampling (Denzin & Lincoln, 1994; Patton,1990), a method of expanding the sample with the help of key people who are in a position toidentify and recommend possible participants, was also used.

Two focus groups were conducted, one with five females and one male in California, andanother with five females and one male in Idaho. The remaining participants were interviewedseparately. The focus group in California was videotaped. Spanish was used to communicate.The focus group from Idaho was audiotaped. One female in this group code-switched betweenEnglish and Spanish, while the rest of the students used Spanish. The individual interviews werealso conducted in Spanish, except for the two males and one female student from Idaho, whoresponded in both English and Spanish. For this article, to remain true to their language, I haveprovided the Spanish comments, as voiced by participants, followed by English translation.

DATA ANALYSIS

After reflecting on the data, I coded the transcripts and organized them into thematic “chunks”(Rossman & Rallis, 1998). While analyzing the data, I became aware of the ways studentsresponded to their experiences of oppression by drawing on hidden funds of knowledge(Martínez-Roldán & Fránquiz, 2008) present in their families, peers, and communities. As I cre-ated common categories across transcriptions of the audio and video recordings, I found that thecategories aligned well with Yosso’s (2005) forms of cultural capital as reflected in her CCWframework. The findings reported in this article advance Yosso’s (2005) framework by illuminat-ing how participants from rural areas cultivated various forms of cultural capital to move beyondoppressive structures in order to achieve positive educational outcomes.

In the presentation of my findings I will first describe the CCW framework as explained byTara Yosso (2005, 2006). Second, I will present examples from the data to demonstrate how theCCW framework provides an explanatory theory for interpreting the counternarratives voiced bythe students.

FINDINGS

The interviews shed light on how students persisted despite negative racial experiences at thehigh school, undergraduate, and graduate levels. Specifically, race, class, and gender inferences,as well as language, culture, and immigration status, each played a role in how the participants

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tul

ane

Uni

vers

ity]

at 2

0:19

30

Aug

ust 2

014

234 PERALTA

perceived their ability to resist oppressive structures in schools. Language, in particular, was acentral racial marker identified by all of the interviewees as having a profound impact in theirlives in school settings. The educational opportunities for these ELLs2 from rural settings wereextremely limited due to the lack of English-language development programs and the lack ofprofessionals prepared to work with ELLs. As a result, many of the students were placed in lowergrades not corresponding to their chronological and developmental age, which affected their self-esteem and further perpetuated deficit models regarding their schooling potential. Even though allthe six forms of capital (aspirational, linguistic, social, navigational, familial, and resistant) werefound in the data, in the following sections, I focus on ways aspirational, familial, linguistic, andsocial capital were utilized by the students. The examples selected most clearly represent howCCW emerged in the lives of the students and how these forms of captal were used to navigatedifferent academic contexts.

Aspirational Capital

Aspirational capital, defined by Yosso (2005) as the ability to maintain hopes and dreams for thefuture, even in the face of barriers, was illustrated in the life story of Marcela. Marcela, at the timeof the study, was enrolled in a master’s degree program and after the study continued as a grad-uate student in a doctoral program at a Research One university. She was born in Nuevo León,Mexico, and immigrated to the U.S. when she was three years old. When Marcela was in highschool a counselor talked her into giving up the “State Power” scholarship3 because, as the coun-selor said, “You already have one” and “The deadline is tomorrow, are you sure you will make it?”Marcela gave up the scholarship because she “didn’t want to be greedy.” What she didn’t knowwas that a young man competing for the same scholarship was financially better off than shewas. Marcela’s dad had died in a work-related accident and her mom had one leg amputated, soshe couldn’t work. Scott’s parents, however, owned a store in the rural community. Despite thesehardships, including a lack of support from her counselor in her needs and abilities, the circum-stances actually challenged Marcela to stand up for herself and family—fulfilling requirementsfor high school and college completion would not be a dream she would defer. She honored thesacrifices of her mom while raising the family on her own by persisting in school. In her mother’ssurvival story and in her mother’s desire that Marcela be an accomplished student, their dreamswere kept alive. This family aspiration assisted María all the way through high school, college, amaster’s degree program, and into a doctoral degree where becoming a professor to help othersobtain an education was the central goal.

Carlos provides a different example of aspirational capital. He was born in a rural area andattended school with Native Americans. He sadly remembers the blatant discrimination towardMexicans and his Native American peers. He was one of seven students who graduated from high

2The participants in the study either migrated from Mexico or were brought up in Spanish-speaking families in ruralcommunities. The students’ first language is Spanish, thus they were classified as English language learners (ELLs) bythe school system.

3Idaho Power Scholarship for Academic Excellence acknowledges individual achievement, community awarenessand involvement, and academic accomplishment. The Scholarship provides $2,000 toward tuition for 10 students grad-uating from service area high schools. The students must enroll at an accredited Idaho or Oregon college, university, orvocational-technical school.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tul

ane

Uni

vers

ity]

at 2

0:19

30

Aug

ust 2

014

LATINAS/OS IN RURAL AREA SCHOOLS 235

school. While talking about college I asked him what kept him going. He said, “My mother andme; I wanted to be someone.” Apparently his mom would sit down to read with him, and whenhe got distracted she would reprimand him saying, “You know what, if you don’t follow alongwhile we’re reading, no vas a graduarte” (“you are not going to graduate”). That was his firstindication that school was important to her, and he did not want to disappoint her.

At the time of the study Carlos was a graduate student at a state-funded university. In aninterview he not only recalled his mother’s aspirations for him to graduate but also recalled thatthese aspirations were not shared by his academic advisor in college. His counterstory included anaccount of when he learned at the retirement party of his advisor and director of the undergraduateprogram, how surprised he (the advisor) was that Carlos had “made it” (graduated). Even thoughCarlos was insulted by his comment, it wasn’t unfamiliar; to him, it was the same “garbage” hehad heard many times in the small town where his grew up. While such indignities were frequent,he secretly reveled in them because he felt the power of being “(in spaces) where others didn’twant me to be” assisted him in maintaining his aspirations. Carlos drew on his mother’s words ofencouragement to work hard and make it through school. He recounted how she set the exampleby working hard at a packing factory and cleaning houses on her days off just so she could providefor her three children. Carlos aspired to someday be the teacher who told a different story thanthe ones he had heard about the “unsuccessful” Chicano. Carlos continued his education at thesame university. He continued to fulfill requirements for a master’s degree in Bilingual Educationand became a middle school teacher at a rural school.

Familial Capital

A second form of capital that was prevalent in the data is familial capital. Familial capital canbe understood as the “cultural knowledges” cultivated within families that are guided by commit-ment to “community well-being” (Yosso, 2005). Sometimes this cultural knowledge could alsobe seen as the emotional capital given by parents to their children, as this theme of emotionalstrength emerged in many of the interviewees’ counterstories. For example, Noemí, a studentwhose immigrated to the U.S. when she was one year old, shared:

My parents always supported me. . . . They told me they didn’t want me to work at the casinolimpiando cuartos (“cleaning rooms”), cleaning ashtrays, but to take advantage of the opportuni-ties. My parents told me: “You need to use your mind, not your body . . . ” But they were very strict:“No hagas cosas que parezcan buenas pero sean malas” (“Don’t do things that seem good but arebad”). (Personal communication, May 2007)

As the youngest daughter of immigrants, and the only one of seven siblings to graduate fromcollege, she explained that she respected her parents’ work ethic and understood why they wantedher to go to school, to follow the dream that would elevate the status of the family and the com-munity. Noemí was in a graduating class of 12. In the rural community where she attended highschool, of the 12 students she was one of seven Latinas who graduated and one of three Latinaswho attended higher education. The familial capital she acquired in a small rural community hasinspired her to advocate for the new generation of Latinas/os wherever she finds herself.

Imelda provided another example elucidating the strength that a student can find within family.Imelda was a ninth grader and one of five siblings. Her family moved from Mexico to the U.S. fora better life. At the time of the study, she was a graduate student at a state university. Whenever

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tul

ane

Uni

vers

ity]

at 2

0:19

30

Aug

ust 2

014

236 PERALTA

Imelda shared her parents’ expectations, her face filled with a smile. Although her family neverwanted her to live too far away from them, they accepted her decisions to move in order toacquire higher education. Her father didn’t want any of his children to work while they wereattending school because “Él quería que nos fuera bien en la escuela. Nos trajo de México paraque tuviéramos una vida mejor” (“He wanted us to do well in school. He brought us from Mexicoto have a better life”) (Personal communication, May 2007). During interviews she recounted herdad working two jobs and still managing to attend her sporting events to let his family knowthey had his complete support (even if it meant sleeping only 2–3 hours a day!). She has neverforgotten the strength of her parents in moving from the only familiar place they knew to a newland, a land where they believed their children would have better opportunities. Her family’smigration experience is a form of cultural knowledge that carried a sense of family commitment.Imelda used the familial capital rooted in her family migration story to maintain her own hope inand commitment to making a difference in schools that educate children and families like hers.

Mariela, like Imelda, was enrolled in a postbaccalaureate teaching credential program at thetime of the study. Born in Michoacán, México, Mariela immigrated to the United States whenshe was 14 years old. She lived on a ranch, and the school she attended had only four rooms.Recounting her schooling experience in Mexico, she explained that the teachers taught her mathand how to read but never taught her science or other content areas because “Los maestros casi noiban, no les pagaban” (“Teachers rarely went to school themselves because they were not gettingpaid”). She shared that in order to continue her education after sixth grade she would have tomove to the closest town. Because her parents didn’t have money to finance her schooling awayfrom home, she didn’t continue until arriving in the U.S. She fondly remembers her dad tellingher and her sister, the only ones to pursue an education in their new home, that they (mom anddad) hadn’t had the opportunity to study, but they (Mariela and her sister) did, so they shouldtake advantage and continue on: “Hasta que ustedes digan, hasta ahí vamos a llegar, hasta ahílas vamos a apoyar” (“We will be here until you tell us you are done, we will always help you,we will be here until the end”) (Personal communication, May 2010). When Maria talked abouther accomplishments, they were not personal but family accomplishments. She was awarded aBA and completed course work to obtain a teaching credential. Recounting the journey alwaysmade her eyes fill with tears. Her parents’ survival experiences and constant encouragement area form of cultural knowledge that sustains her to this day. Throughout the conversations wehad, she mentioned her parents and that her goal as a teacher is to help other Latinas/os whoimmigrate to have rewarding and more humane experiences in school settings. Mariela sharedthat she continues to find her family a necessary source of personal strength so she can perseverein the education of other people’s children.

Linguistic Capital

One of the biggest challenges students faced in school was language. It was apparent thatlinguistic capital, defined as the intellectual and social skills learned through communicationexperiences in more than one language and/or style (Yosso, 2005), was present but not alwaysappreciated by the teachers in the lives of these students. All the students talked about how theywere asked to drop their native language as soon as they walked through the school doors. Thefact that students were proficient in Spanish rather than English guaranteed them placement at

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tul

ane

Uni

vers

ity]

at 2

0:19

30

Aug

ust 2

014

LATINAS/OS IN RURAL AREA SCHOOLS 237

least one to two grades below their actual grade level. Unspoken discrimination was alive andwell in these rural settings. Students were sent to the resource teacher or the support teacher tolearn English, but most of these teachers were not credentialed or sympathetic.

Jasmín, who returned to the United States during second grade, was placed in first grade dueto the fact that she didn’t speak English, even though she knew how to read and write in Spanish.Her parents “wanted to fulfill the American dream and . . . wanted us to have a better life thantheirs . . . ” She mentioned “desde un principio (la maestra) decía mi nombre mal” (“From thebeginning she [the teacher] mispronounced my name”) (Personal communication, May 2007).The teacher told the only other Latino student in first grade to help her, but he didn’t, so she wouldtry to copy what he was writing. Jasmín felt sad and frustrated at a very young age. Her responsewas to learn English as quickly as she could. She was pulled into the Resource Room for abouta year and “out of madness, forced myself to learn to read quickly” (Personal communication,2007). By third grade she was in the highest reading group. At the time of the study, Jasmínwas teaching at a school where, even though her colleagues perceived her as a troublemaker, shestayed for the sake of the students. She knew the bilingual program worked, and her experiencesas a language learner gave her the strength to fight for what she believed was right.

Imelda, who emigrated at ninth grade, recounted that because she didn’t know the Englishlanguage well, she was placed in the seventh grade. The teachers told her, “Si piensas que se tehace muy fácil, y nos dices, te subimos un grado” (“If you think the work is too easy, and you tellus, we will move you up a grade”) (Personal communication, April 2007). Since all responsibilitywas placed on her, she faked it. “Yo no entendía nada, se me hacía difícil, yo no sabía nada, perono quería estar en el grado siete . . . entonces les dije que estaba fácil y me movieron al gradoocho” (“I didn’t understand what was going on. It was difficult, and I didn’t understand anything,but I didn’t want to remain in seventh grade . . . so I told them it was easy, and they moved meto eighth grade”) (Personal communication, April 2007). Moreover, she knew that her Englishteacher was not certified. She was hired at the school because she knew Spanish. This valuablelinguistic resource did not serve students like Imelda well because professional development inappropriate English as a Second Language pedagogy was denied to the teacher.

Many students, however, talked about the importance of preserving their language and usedit as a resource. Parents spoke Spanish at home, and it was not acceptable to speak English athome even if there were older siblings who helped them learn English. In front of their parents,they were required to speak Spanish. Reflecting on this time in their lives, students were happyabout these language demands and now feel that maintaining Spanish has provided them with anadvantage to be able to work with Latinas/os. Now some of the interviewees are bilingual teach-ers, and their linguistic capital has strengthened their ability to communicate within professionalspaces as well as to advocate for their students.

Social Capital

Students had a common story: One or more persons had encouraged them or supported themalong the way. This is defined as social capital, the networks of people and community resourcesthat can help a student navigate through social institutions (Yosso, 2005). For example, Jasmínshared that a teacher, who was a part-time government teacher and part-time principal, told her,“You are going to make it far.” When she mentioned her dream of working at the state capitolfor the summer, he helped her complete an application and made it happen. Gerardo chimed in

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tul

ane

Uni

vers

ity]

at 2

0:19

30

Aug

ust 2

014

238 PERALTA

by acknowledging how a teacher assistant who had gone to the state university for two years butdropped out because she couldn’t afford it organized a “Multicultural Club.” Gerardo explained:

This gave us—the Mexicanos, the drug dealers, the hard-core kids—a place to belong. And she wasthe one who told us about college. She helped us fill out the forms and almost encouraged recruiters tocompete against each other, to help us get the best scholarship. (Personal communication, February,2009)

It is evident that Gerardo’s lack of social capital hindered his ability to navigate the process ofentering the university. But with the help of a teacher assistant, he was able to gain the financialsupport he needed in order to attend.

Mariela, on the other hand, was not thinking about college. She just wanted to graduate fromhigh school and be gainfully employed in order to help her parents. She knew how hard they (herparents) worked and how much they continued to sacrifice, so she felt the responsibility to helpthem financially. It was not until her younger sister and cousin began inquiring about college asa result of advice they received from the University Latino Organization that she became awareof her possibilities to continue with higher education. Although Mariela was working, her sisterand her husband encouraged her to become a nontraditional student. As she reflected back, sheshared; “Yo solo quería ayudar a mis papás, nomás por ellos” (“I only wanted to help my parents,only to help them”) (Personal communication, May 2010). It is evident that social support wascritical for Mariela as she described how she found “seguridad” (“comfort”) knowing that hersister and husband would provide her emotional support during her years in college.

Another example of the power of social capital was provided by Isela. She was born inMichoacán and arrived in the U.S. at age 11. She finished fourth grade in Mexico and was goingto begin fifth grade with a teacher everyone in the community admired. However, one day herdad returned from the U.S. and told the family that in three days they would leave for California.She remembers how sad she felt when she realized that on Monday when school would start, shewouldn’t be there with the popular teacher. She remembers thinking about what a cousin toldher, that she would be placed in kindergarten. During the journey to the U.S. she kept thinking,“¿Cómo me van a poner en Kinder? No sé inglés pero tengo once años” (“How can they placeme in kindergarten? I don’t know English, but I am 11 years old”) (Personal communication,May, 2010). She doesn’t remember how but she learned English but recalled having a really goodEnglish literature teacher in seventh grade. The teacher would stay after school to help her withher work; she even allowed her to take tests home to study form and content so she could getgood grades.

Carlos talked about how he was always expected to “screw up” during his undergraduate years.He shared how he felt that he was only allowed to continue in school so he could mess it up, sohe could fulfill the stupid/lazy Mexican stereotype. However, a new chair in the department tookover, and he felt that he was allowed to flourish. “She showed me I had the skills to move beyondand make a difference. I was invited to take part (in my learning)” (Personal communication,June, 2010).

CONCLUSIONS

For the students in this study, CCW was critical for the opportunities that they would have innavigating the barriers they faced in the various levels of the U.S. educational school system.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tul

ane

Uni

vers

ity]

at 2

0:19

30

Aug

ust 2

014

LATINAS/OS IN RURAL AREA SCHOOLS 239

They received emotional support at home from family and in school from caring individuals whohelped them navigate degree requirements and scholarship opportunities. They found people athome and in the school system who believed in them and in their potential as future citizens,teachers, and other professionals.

Although students talked about “memorization” and the “banking model” of teaching usedin rural schools, they used aspirational capital to overcome the constraints of such traditionalapproaches. For example, Ema, a graduate student at the time of the study, shared that she wasasked to memorize the Nutcracker for half a year. She was sent to a special room, to a readingteacher. The teacher would make her listen to the Nutcracker over and over while she was doingher assignments. Finally, by the end of fourth grade she was able to retell and recite the story.However, the next year she was not asked to return to participate in the theatrical production.In spite of best efforts the funds of knowledge from home and community remained hidden(Martínez-Roldán & Fránquiz, 2008).

On the other hand, the most common message from the parents served as aspirational capitalthat kept the students going. Parents had come for a better life and communicated these aspirationsto their children. The parents reminded them that they should go to school so they wouldn’thave to clean other people’s houses, clean hotel rooms and ashtrays, or pick and pack fruit andvegetables.

Gerardo, a graduate student who was born in Idaho and at age three moved to Mexico, pro-vides a poignant example. He attended two different schools and after completing third grade,at age nine, moved back to Idaho. His dad always reminded him that he didn’t know how tohelp him with homework because he had only received a sixth-grade education in Mexico. ButGeraldo remembers how his dad always asked how he was doing, what grades he had gotten, andwhere he ranked in his class and school. He fondly remembered his dad’s inspirational words:“Yo quiero que te vaya bien en la escuela, así les podemos mostrar (a los americanos) quelos mexicanos también pueden” (“I want you to do well at school so you can show them [theAmericans] that Mexicans can do it, too”) (Personal communication, June, 2007). Consequently,Geraldo graduated from high school and college. He became a certified teacher and completeda master’s degree. At the time of the study he enrolled in a doctoral program at a top-rankedresearch university.

It is evident that the parents concretely supported high educational outcomes by communicat-ing to their children how they valued education and by establishing a standard of expectationsthat was caring all the while. What emerged from the counterstories is similar to the conclusionsreached by Pérez Huber (2010), and that is that familial and aspirational capitals were at timesintertwined. It was parents’ aspirations for a better life as well as the efforts of a caring networkof people both inside and outside the family that assisted students from rural areas to succeedonce they left home. Several of the students revealed that completing their education would maketheir parents proud and also be an inspiration for their brothers and sisters. The following areexamples of this intergenerational form of capital.

Mariela shared that when she practiced words aloud from a picture book the other studentswould laugh. I asked: “What helped you move forward?” Mariela responded: “Me pongo muyemocionada [se toma la cara, limpia sus lágrimas] por mis papás. Cómo ellos me miraban,por la necesidades que ellos tenían” (“I get very emotional [covers her face, dries her tears] formy parents. The way they would look at me, the needs they had”) (Personal communication,interview, May 2010). Although her peers would laugh at her pronunciations, Mariela, as the

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tul

ane

Uni

vers

ity]

at 2

0:19

30

Aug

ust 2

014

240 PERALTA

oldest child and caring daughter, became the “language broker” (Buriel, Pérez, Demente, Chávez,& Moran, 1998; Faulstich Orellana, Reynolds, Dorner, & Meza, 2003) for the family. She vividlyrecalled going to the store with her parents and noticing how people ignored and mistreated them,and it was then that she promised herself to learn English even better so she could help them inall the contexts that impacted their lives. This modeling was subsequently imitated by siblings.

José, a graduate student, shared that he was sent from Zacatecas to Mexico City after highschool to study for the simple reason that his mom didn’t want him to work in the fields likehis dad. But he confessed that at one point he became rebellious and decided not to study anymore, thus he left school. “Ellos sufrieron una desilusión muy grande . . . yo básicamente losdefraudé, entonces cuando llegue acá (U.S.) me puse a trabajar, pero les debía algo a ellos. Esafue mi motivación de salir adelante, de seguir estudiando.” (“They suffered a big disappointment.I basically let them down, so when I arrived here (U.S.) I started working. But, I owed them some-thing, that was my motivation to move forward, to continue to study”) (Personal communication,May, 2007). José’s getting back on track also served as a model for other family members.

As both Mariela and José pointed out, their parents’ aspirations and continued involvementin their success were the biggest motivation for continuing their own education as well as theeducation of their kin.

Accomplishments

A common theme among the counterstories presented in this article is the importance of par-ticipating in higher education. This participation provided a great feeling of accomplishment,individually and collectively. In their discourse of the counterstories, specific words were used.For example, in José’s story he said he owed his mother something. He had dropped out of highschool, and he needed to make it up to her. When he graduated (from college), she cried andfelt so proud, inspiring José to continue to graduate school. Overall students’ counterstories wereinfused with details regarding the ways parents inspired them to work hard, to stay in school, andto dream of participating in and contributing to higher education. The response from children totheir parents for passing their cultural values and aspirations to them was to help parents withtranslation, financial support, and even encouragement to learn English and achieve their owneducational potential.

Educators in rural areas and in urban areas of the U.S. face tremendous challenges as theystrive to meet the needs of a growing influx of language-minority students. A fast-growing pop-ulation, Latinas/os now number 50.5 million and comprise 16% of the population in the UnitedStates, according to the U.S. Census Bureau (Ennis, Ríos-Vargas, & Albert, 2011). It is projectedthat the number of Latina/o enrollments in K–12 schools will continue to increase for decades tocome. Considering that the population of Latina/o students is growing considerably in urban andrural areas, it is significant to further investigate and give attention to the higher education paththey do or do not undertake.

As demonstrated in the counterstories, residents in rural communities do not generally havemuch experience with “outsiders” of any sort. There are many rural areas where a majority ofthe local residents have had little or no experience with people from other cultures proficient inother languages. This can lead to fear and misunderstanding when immigrants begin to settle inan established and perhaps isolated community. Findings in this study suggest that, despite the

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tul

ane

Uni

vers

ity]

at 2

0:19

30

Aug

ust 2

014

LATINAS/OS IN RURAL AREA SCHOOLS 241

less-than-ideal school environments and underpreparedness of teachers in rural areas, immigrantsand first-generation college-going students can be successful in completing their education. Usingtheir cultural wealth (the knowledge of their families and the strength or commitment of theircommunity members) assists students to continue to persevere in completing K–12 educationand to go on to college and often to complete a postbachelor’s degree and/or a graduate degree.

Contributions to Educational Policy and Practice

The findings of the study revealed that racist discourses are perpetuated by English-languagedominance in schools. In California it has been 15 years since Proposition 227 was passed in1998, banning bilingual education programs in public schools. Years after the passing of such arestrictive law, the impact in urban settings is better known (Parrish et al., 2001, 2002) than inrural areas. In Idaho English was declared the official language in 2007. Since then English-onlylanguage instruction shapes an ideology of linguistic superiority and considers other languages,in this case, Spanish as inferior. Educators and institutional agents must advocate for bilingualeducation and for an end to English-only instruction. The CCW that these students bring intothe classroom is rich, as revealed by the interviews. At the beginning of the study, I reflectedon my own personal experiences with migrant parents who explained over and over again thatthey were willing to make sacrifices for the greater educational opportunities of their children.The counternarratives of resilience in the face of all odds of the students in the study present achallenge to the language policies in place today. The stories of Latina/o students who refused tobe pushed out and the persistent aspirations within their families defy the misconstrued imagesand perceptions that many educators may have of them.

Recommendations

Sharing rural immigrant students’ experiences through counterstories has the potential forthe development of humanizing approaches to teaching (Fránquiz & Salazar, 2004; Huerta,2011; Salazar, 2012). Besides humanizing stances, the programmatic and organizational socialstructures of schools should provide immigrant students with opportunities to integrate theirmultiple cultural capitals into their everyday school experiences. Moreover, teachers shouldhelp Latina/o immigrant students to strengthen their cultural wealth so other students mayalso become aware of how to use the values, knowledge, language, and wisdom of multiplecommunities to their benefit. Throughout the interviews, students revealed how they were treatedwith disrespect and often became objects of ridicule. The advice received was to drop outof school and join the workforce. Some ways to counteract this ill advice is for educationalsettings to provide spaces for students to learn from each other and to establish and fosterintercultural activities and organizations in schools. These spaces would provide students withopportunities to develop a community of responsibility and respect for all. Benton Lee (2006)has demonstrated how cultural wealth can be utilized as a theoretical “scaffolding” to developeffective college programs by drawing on the strengths that Students of Color bring to schoolingexperiences. This model can be used in developing a course at the middle and high schoollevel to encourage students to recognize and utilize the cultural wealth of their communities.Romero (2008) explored how Latina/o students negotiate and navigate racism in their high

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tul

ane

Uni

vers

ity]

at 2

0:19

30

Aug

ust 2

014

242 PERALTA

schools and discussed the opportunities missed by school administrators to acknowledge andmake use of the CCW. These studies and the counternarratives within the present study can be apowerful tool in the high school counselor preparation program taught at most college campuses.High school counselors participating in these programs can become the conduits, during theirpracticum, to help other administrators understand the importance of learning about the wealthof knowledge in diverse communities. Furthermore, the pipeline supporting college programssuch as (Upward Bound, ETS, SSS) are increasingly focused on bringing first-generation highschool student graduates to campus to showcase the possibilities available to them. Collegesserious about recruitment of linguistically and culturally diverse students want to recruit fromlocal and not-so-local high schools. A recommendation I have already proposed for the TeacherEducation Program at my university is to create spaces where the college students who sharedtheir stories can become the mentors/advisors to freshmen and sophomore students. It is alsodesirable if high school students from rural and urban communities participate in these sessions.Creating these spaces in “cross-cultural leadership centers” or “diversity centers” would openlyand safely allow students to talk about their experiences and to learn how to use their culturalwealth to be successful. Moreover, teachers, counselors, and advisors should be invited to thesediscussions to understand how much cultural wealth these students possess.

REFERENCES

Asimov, N. (2008, July 17). California high school dropout rate far higher than expected. San Francisco Chronicle.Retrieved from http://articles.sfgate.com/2008-07-17/bay-area/17174438_1_dropout-rate-students-ethnic-groups

Benton Lee, M. (2006). How and why ethnicity matters: A model for developing programs that serve students of color.In M. Benton Lee (Ed.), Ethnicity matters: Rethinking how Black, Hispanic and Indian students prepare for andsucceed in college (pp. 117–150). New York, NY: Peter Lang Publishing.

Buriel, R. W., Pérez, W., Demente, T. L., Chávez, D. V., & Moran, V. R. (1998). The relationship of language brokeringto academic performance, biculturalism, and self-efficacy among Latino adolescents. Hispanic Journal of BehavioralSciences, 20, 283–297.

Caldwell, P. (1995). A hair piece: Perspectives on the intersection of race and gender. Duke Law Journal, 1991(2),365–396.

Crenshaw, K., Gotanda, N., Peller, G., & Thomas, K. (Eds.). (1995). Critical race theory: The key writings that formedthe movement. New York, NY: New Press.

Delgado, R. (1989). Storytelling for oppositionists and others: A pleas for narrative. Michigan Law Review, 87,2411–2441.

Delgado, R. (Ed.). (1995). Critical race theory: The cutting edge. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (1994). Handbook of qualitative research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Ennis, S. R., Ríos-Vargas, M., & Albert, N. G. (2011). The Hispanic population: 2010. 2010 census briefs. Washington,

DC: U.S. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration, U.S. Census Bureau.Espinoza, L., & Harris, A. P. (1997). Afterword: Embracing the tar-baby: LatCrit theory and the sticky mess of race.

California Law Review, 10(1), 499–559.Faulstich Orellana, M., Reynolds, J., Dorner, L., & Meza, M. (2003). In other words: Translating or “para-phrasing” as a

family literacy practice in immigrant household. Reading Research Quarterly, 38(1), 12–34.Feistritzer, C. E. (2011). Profile of teachers in the U.S. 2011. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Information.

Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/media/pot2011final-blog.pdfFránquiz, M., & Salazar, M. (2004). The transformative potential of humanizing pedagogy: Addressing the diverse needs

of Chicano/Mexicano students. The High School Journal, 87(4), 36–53.Hondo, C., Gardiner, M. E., & Sapien, Y. (2008). Latino dropouts in rural America. Realities and possibilities. Albany,

NY: State University of New York.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tul

ane

Uni

vers

ity]

at 2

0:19

30

Aug

ust 2

014

LATINAS/OS IN RURAL AREA SCHOOLS 243

Huerta, T. M. (2011). Humanizing pedagogy: Beliefs and practices on the teaching of Latino children. Bilingual ResearchJournal, 34(1), 38–57.

Idaho Commission on Hispanic Affairs. (2007). The Hispanic profile data book for Idaho 2007 (2nd ed.). Boise, Idaho.Retrieved from http://icha.idaho.gov/docs/HispanicProfileDataBook.pdf

Johnson, J., & Strange M. (2009). Why rural matters 2009: State and regional challenges and opportunities. Retrievedfrom http://wwwstatic.kern.org/gems/acsaxi/DOC111809.pdf

Kandel, W., & Cromartie, J. (2004). New patterns of Hispanic settlement in rural America. Washington, DC: EconomicResearch Service. Retrieved from http://www.ers.usda.gov/media/561319/rdrr99_1_.pdf

Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy. American Educational Research Journal,32(3), 465–491.

Martínez-Roldán, C., & Fránquiz, M. E. (2008). Latina/o youth literacy. In L. Christenbury, R. Bomer, & P. Smagorinsky(Eds.), Handbook of adolescent literacy research (pp. 323–342). New York, NY & London, England: Guilford Press.

Morgan, D. L. (1997). Focus groups as qualitative research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.National Center for Children in Poverty. (2006, May). The racial gap in parental education. Factsheet. Retrieved from

http://www.nccp.org/publications/pub_660.htmlParrish, T. B., Linquanti, R., Merickel, A., Quick, H. E., Laird, J., & Esra, P. (2001). Effects of the implementation of

Proposition 227 on the education of English learners, K–12: Year one report. Palo Alto, CA: American Institutes forResearch

Parrish, T. B., Linquanti, R., Merickel, A., Quick, H. E., Laird, J., & Esra, P. (2002). Effects of the implementation ofProposition 227 on the education of English learners, K–12: Year two report. Palo Alto, CA: American Institutes forResearch.

Patton, M. Q. (1990). Qualitative evaluation and research methods (2nd ed.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.Patton, M. Q. (2002). Qualitative research and evaluation methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Pérez Huber, L. (2010). Sueños indocumentados: Using LatCrit to explore the testimonios of undocumented and U.S.

born Chicana college students on discourses of racist nativism in education (Unpublished dissertation). University ofCalifornia, Los Angeles.

Romero, A. F. (2008). Towards a critically compassionate intellectualism model of transformative education: Love, hope,identity, and organic intellectualism through the convergence of critical race theory, critical pedagogy, and authenticcaring. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press.

Rossman, R. B., & Ralllis, S. F. (1998). Learning in the field: An introduction to qualitative research. Thousand Oaks,CA: Sage.

Salazar, M. (2012). A humanizing pedagogy: Reinventing the principles and practice of education as a journey towardliberation. Review of Research in Education, 37(1), 121–148.

Solórzano, D. G., & Delgado Bernal, D. (2001). Examining transformational resistance through a critical race and LatCrittheory framework. Chicana and Chicano students in urban context. Urban Education, 36(3), 308–342.

Solórzano, D. G., & Yosso, T. J. (2001). Critical race and LatCrit theory and method: Counter-storytelling. InternationalJournal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 14(4), 471–495.

Solórzano, D. G., & Yosso, T. J. (2002). Critical race methodology: Counter-storytelling as an analytical framework foreducation research. Qualitative Inquiry, 8(1), 23–44.

U.S. Census Bureau. (2011). 2010 census shows America’s diversity. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/2010_census/cb11-cn125.html

Ware, L. (2000). Inclusive education. In D A. Gabbard (Ed.), Knowledge and power in the global economy: Politics andthe rhetoric of school reform (pp. 111–120). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Wing, A. K. (2000). Global critical race feminism: An international reader. Berkeley Women’s Law Journal, 16, 217–223.Yosso, T. J. (2005). Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth. Race,

Ethnicity and Education, 8(1), 69–91.Yosso, T. J. (2006). Critical race counterstories along the Chicana/Chicano educational pipeline. New York, NY:

Routledge Press.Yosso, T. J., & García, D. G. (2007). “This is no slum!” A critical race theory analysis of community cultural wealth in

culture clash’s Chavez Ravine. Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, 32(1), 145–179.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Tul

ane

Uni

vers

ity]

at 2

0:19

30

Aug

ust 2

014