Stories From the Technolands: Narratives of Immigration and Identity

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 5
  In Poster Session: Latina/o/x Research Issues SIG Poster Session

Abstract

In 2011, two organizations joined forces in Los Angeles to conduct a pilot study of a mobile literacy program in Spanish. The 15 participants were new immigrants from México and Central America eager to learn basic literacy and without access to traditional classrooms. Some lacked transportation, childcare or worked double shifts. During the pilot, I had the privilege of recording their stories over two years. In this paper, I present narratives, or technobiographies (Kennedy 2003), that give a first-hand account of migration and its challenges. Moreover, these technobiographies are a glimpse into the virtual borderland where men and women interact with technology as a social learning experience through which participants reflected, constructed and re-constructed their stories.

Author

• Karla Cristina Perez-Mendoza, University of California - Los Angeles