Soy Yo! Latina Mothers and Daughters Writing, Loving, and Ways of Being

• In Event: Cultivating Homeplace: Centering Feminized Knowledge in Educational Spaces With Girls of Color

Abstract

This paper will share the voices, stories and ways of knowing of seven Latina girls (grades 7-12) as they participated alongside their mothers in [Program Name] (Author, 2018). [Program Name] is a creative space, created with and for Latina girls and their mothers that invites them to write and perform stories from their lived experiences. The voices, stories, experiences and ways of knowing of Latina girls and their mothers are central to all aspects of workshops in which they are viewed as “holders and creators of knowledge” (Delgado Bernal, 2002, p. 107). At workshops, girls and their mothers worked alongside each other to craft writing and create artwork that examines and critiques the many ways to express and define being a Chicana/Latina/Mexican-American girl and woman.

[Workshop Name] builds upon the work of scholars that have worked alongside Black girls in intentionally designed spaces and have written about the ways Black girls have performed, written, and rewritten their lives while highlighting the brilliance of Black girls and Black girlhood (Brown, 2013; Muhammad, 2012; Price-Dennis, Muhammad, Womack, McArthur, & Haddix, 2017; Winn, 2011; Wissman, 2011). In addition, scholars have written of the ways that Latina mothers, some as immigrants in a new country, utilized writing and oral storytelling to challenge and critique their experiences with different forms of oppression and marginalization (Delgado Gaitan, 2005; Hurtig, 2005; Valdés, 1996; Villenas, 2005). [Workshop Name] brings together Latina girls and their mothers to illuminate the importance of spaces that celebrates the brilliance of Latina girls and their unique experiences and perspectives, while connecting them to their mothers for the intergenerational exchange of stories, histories and knowledges.

As a participant observer (Spradley, 2016), I conducted a case study (Dyson & Genishi, 2005) of the weeklong program (Monday-Saturday) consisting of six, two-hour evening workshops including a final celebration of writing. Drawing upon ethnographic field notes, girls’ and mothers’ art and writing, interview transcripts and video recording of workshops, I provide insights into the ways mothers are raising their daughters to be “Chicas Fuertes/Strong Girls,” with tools to blaze their own trails while staying connected to their cultural and familial resources (Yosso, 2005), for guidance and strength.
Findings illuminate the ways that mothers and daughters engaged in “literacies of convivencia,” [communalism] (Villenas, 2005), through the crafting and sharing of intergenerational stories, knowledges and histories to cultivate a community of writers authoring their lives as mujeres/chicas on their own terms. Implications highlight what we can learn from this mujer/womanist-pedagogical space about who they are, what matters to them and what they envision for their futures in order to create educational opportunities that are humanizing (Gallo, 2017; Paris & Winn, 2014), centering their voices, wisdom and ways of knowing.

Author

• Tracey Terece Flores, The University of Texas at Austin