Centering Cultural Knowledge and Identity: Latine Indigenous Families Building Power with MICOP

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Thursday 4:15pm
  In Poster Session: The Parent Power and Leadership Project: Transforming Families Through Community Organizing

Abstract

1. Objectives or purposes

This paper discusses how 5 Latine families, 4 of whom were indigenous, living in the agricultural community of Ventura, California, partnered with the Mixteco Indigena Community Organizing Project (MICOP) to build power. Through their relationships with promotoras and one promotor, families utilized MICOP services, participated in early development and parenting programs, and strengthened their family ties and those with other Latine and indigenous families during their time with MICOP.

2. Perspective(s) or theoretical framework

Public discourse shares negative views of families of color, rather than celebrating them for their unique identities and contributions. Non-profit organizations like MICOP that build power for parents and their children illuminate how Latine indigenous families use power to build up their families and communities. MICOP uses the promotora model (Enriquez, 2025), which centers the engagement of families on connections with MICOP staff who serve as a promotora/promotor. MICOP also centers indigenous identities and experiences, which we will discuss throughout the findings.

3. Methods, techniques, or modes of inquiry

Program observations, self-portrait children’s drawings, and staff focus group, lead parent interviews, family focus groups, and children’s interviews/focus groups were completed with all 5 families. The researcher for the current study, built trust with MICOP staff and families by letting them shape how research would happen (e.g.-no photos during research, participating in some programs rather than observing, meeting in safe spaces like MICOP for interviews and focus groups with food to create a feeling of “familia”(family), and making certain families were interviewed in their preferred language which meant interviews being in 1-3 languages (Mixteco, Spanish, and English).

4. Data sources, evidence, objects, or materials

Data sources included field notes from observations of two conferences and multiple classes of the Abriendo Puertas program; transcripts from one staff focus group, five lead parent interviews, five family focus groups, and five children interviews/focus groups; and organizational documents.

5. Results and/or substantiated conclusions or warrants for arguments/point of view

Children admired their parents for navigating literacy and language differences with the support of MICOP. Parents and children were also proud of their cultural identities. Parents shared values and customs from their “pueblos” (towns) in Mexico. Children rejected deficit notions of Latine indigenous people, where one teenage son talked about how, when his friends made fun of themselves for being indigenous, he refrained from participating. Another young daughter talked about how, even though people speak negatively about Latine people, she ignores what they say because she and her family put food on their tables. Moreover, families built power through shared experiences or conversations related to MICOP.

6. Scientific or scholarly significance of the study or work

Latine indigenous communities like MICOP fiercely protect those who are amplifying their stories and documenting their experiences because of past atrocities and broken trust with indigenous people throughout history. The five MICOP families captured in the study will shed light on how non-profit organizations can cultivate power in multilingual Latine indigenous communities.

Author

• Wendy Y. Perez, NYU Metro Center