"Hoy por Ti, Mañana por Mi": First-Generation Chicana/Latina PhD Student Comadrismo

• In Event: AERA Research-in-Progress Roundtable Session 1
  In Invited Roundtable: Latinx Student Experiences: Curriculum, Pedagogy, Identity, and the School to Prison Pipeline (Table 3)

Abstract

Finding community in settler colonial institutions can be challenging for first-generation Chicanas/Latinas, who often struggle to relate to those with different academic and societal backgrounds. For these students, connecting through chisme, laughter, and ancestral wisdom becomes a way to assert their presence and resist cultural erasure. Anzaldúa (1987) notes that Women of Color navigate multiple cultural realities, fostering complex identities (Comas-Díaz, 2020). This pilot qualitative study explores the experiences of Chicana/Latina graduate students in Southern California. Guided by Chicana Feminist Epistemology, this paper examines the intergenerational wisdom in Comadrismo, a model of resistance against traditional academic relationships. The author will share preliminary findings from Pláticas conducted in Spring 2024, revealing insights into resistance, identity, and coping within academia.

Author

• Daisy Gomez-Fuentes, University of California - Riverside