MAS for Community (College)! Chicana Feminist Third Space Movidas in the Struggle for Ethnic Studies

• In Event: Movimiento, Empowerment, and Hope in Latinx Educational History

Abstract

We analyze the educational work of two community groups, the Southwest Educational Development Labs (EDL) and the Chicana Research Latina Collaborative (CRLC), in the formation of Austin Community College’s Mexican American Studies program in the sociohistorical context of Chicanx educational struggles in Texas between 1965 and 1975. We argue that these community-institutional third spaces acted as important sites of movidas (Espinoza et. al., 2018), or tiny revolutions, that mobilized identities and fostered community action. Our analysis centers the oral histories and archives of Martha Cotera, one of the organizers of both groups, as a methodological movida to center the daily revolutions of organized struggle, and thus weave our analysis of ACC MAS in the context of Chicanx educational resistance.

Authors

• Eliza Epstein, University of Texas at Austin
  Presenting Author

• Christopher L. Milk Bonilla, Texas State University
  Presenting Author

• Emmet Campos, University of Texas at Austin
  Presenting Author