“Mi Hija, La Independiente”: Latina Mothers and their Commitment toward Independencia for their Daughters

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 7:45 am - Gold 2
  In Roundtable Session: Critical, Inclusive, and Socially Just Perspectives on Higher Education

Abstract

This paper examines how Latina immigrant mothers cultivate independencia—a race-gendered principle distinct from dominant notions of independence—as a form of gendered resistance intended to empower their daughters through higher education. Drawing from a two-year qualitative study with 12 mothers and 15 daughters in California, I demonstrate how these women strategically promote higher education to challenge restrictive gender norms, redefine family roles, and envision financial autonomy for their daughters. By centering mothers’ agentic actions, the study reveals a counternarrative to assumptions about interdependence and familismo as solely inhibiting forces. Instead, mothers and daughters collaboratively reimagine the pursuit of college as both an act of self-fulfillment and collective transformation, positioning independencia as a liberatory framework within Latinx families.

Author

• Leslie Patricia Luqueño, Stanford University