Racialization of Space in a Rural San Joaquin Valley Context: Mexican (Im)migrant Farmworkers and Apoyo as Educational Engagement

• In Event: 44.032 - Bridging Home, Community, and School: Approaches to Family Engagement in Mexican-Origin, Immigrant, Rural Communities

Abstract

This investigation examines how the intersection of parents’ immigration status and social class background, combined with the racialization of space creates what I call geographic and spatial distancing. Geographic distance that shapes how (im)migrant farmworkers actively (dis)engage from participating in formalized spaces in the education of their children in racialized rural contexts. This study draws from political economy (Mitchell, 2002; 2003) and Latino Critical Theory (LatCrit) (Solorzano & Yosso, 2000) frameworks to deconstruct and analyze the complex transnational migration processes that (im)migrant farmworking families have navigated to provide greater educational access for their children. A political economy framework reveals the linkages between economics and asymmetrical power relations in society, illuminating the devastating effects on the quality of life of farmworkers. Through the crafting of immigration, labor, and educational policies that serve agricultural business interests across a transnational context, farm employers and their allies in government divest immigrants of their rights, particularly those that are undocumented. This study utilizes a qualitative methodological approach and case study design (Yin, 2003) relying on oral history (Portelli, 1991) and in-depth interviews, participant observations, and historical archives. The study draws from a purposeful sample of 8 Mexican origin, mostly undocumented (im)migrant farmworking families from a rurally isolated community of Trabajo located in a congressional district in California recently identified as the poorest in the United States (Burds-Sharp, Lewis, & Martins, 2008).
The life narratives of farmworkers revealed parents’ conceptions of educational engagement were more nuanced than normative school-centric understandings and are best captured by the concept of apoyo—broad based, culturally specific forms of familial
support. Specific practices of apoyo went beyond school-based expectations and consisted of: 1) providing economic support, 2) cultivating their children’s agency 3) making meaningful sacrifices, and, 4) modeling academic excellence. Two emergent themes in this study related to racialization and rurality illuminated the ways in which social and spatial distance mediated the educational engagement of farmworker families. Social distance highlights the racial, cultural, and linguistic hostilities experienced by parents at the hands of school officials.
Spatial distance refers to geographic space (20 miles) separating parents in the community of Trabajo from the high school their children were bused to. In this respect, parents’ specific forms of educational engagement are tempered by the material conditions and the racism families experienced as marginalized farmworkers. In spite of the social and spatial distance, parents resort to non-traditional, yet innovative ways of providing “apoyo”, or critical support in the service of their children’s schooling.

Author

• Pedro E. Nava, Mills College