Masking or Challenging Inequality? Latino Intergroup Relations in a Dual Immersion School

• In Event: 259 - Section on Latino/a Sociology Paper Session. Latino/a Intra and Inter-Group Relations

Abstract

Previous research on intergroup relations highlights the challenges of overcoming divisions between Latinos and other racial/ethnic groups, while existing work on Latino intraethnic relations shows the complexity of uniting a group with great internal heterogeneity. Drawing from over 20 months of ethnography and 66 interviews in a Spanish/English dual immersion school in Los Angeles, this article builds on these literatures by examining Latino and white parent’s efforts to lessen divisions between diverse families on campus. Though the adults described in this article cannot prevent inequalities from seeping into and replicating within the school, this article elucidates how they try to “create equal status for both languages (and speakers of both languages)” and bring them together. The strategies they use range from concealing economic disparities on campus to explicitly challenging families to increase their awareness of the unequal world in which they are all embedded. Moreover, while Anglo-centric and English dominant schools devalue Latino cultures in the classroom, this article illustrates how teachers and employees work to have Latino cultures and histories represented and included in everyday lessons and school materials, the aesthetics of the school and in parent organizations and committees. These practices are necessary because coming together does not happen organically between Latino and white families and because strategic work is needed to assuage inequalities and help them form relationships.

Author

• Jazmin A. Muro, Regis University