Educational Uplift in the Era of the "Latino Education Crisis": The Legacy of Mexican-American College Students from the Texas Borderlands

• In Event: (Re)Claiming Power among Our Peoples: Traditions of Giving Back and Uplift in Communities of Color

Abstract

In 2009, the American public was formally introduced to the “Latino Education Crisis” – as the largest, youngest, fastest-growing racial/ethnic minority group, Latinas/os were arguably the most poorly educated (Gandara & Contreras, 2009). Nearly a decade later, the crisis has only become more pronounced. Research shows that out of 100 Latinx students, only 12 students will complete 4 years of college (Pérez Huber, Malagón, Ramirez, Camargo Gonzalez, Jimenez, & Velez, 2015). For Mexican-American students who live in the Texas-Mexico borderlands, these numbers become more grim. For instance, only 7% of students from Cameron county, one Texas bordertown county, earned a baccalaureate degree within 6 years (THECB, 2010).

Enduring governmental neglect and systemic racism in the Texas borderlands (Oliva, 2002; Rodriguez, 2016; Santiago, 2006, 2008; see also Sharp, 1998), combined with community members’ distrust of private and state bureaucracies (Rivas-Drake, 2009; Sánchez- Jankowski, 2008), has created fertile ground for a series of grassroots efforts to create change. Within the higher education arena, these locally-led efforts have resulted in the South Texas/Border Initiative (Oliva, 2002) and the implementation of mobile college access centers called “Go Centers” (Cunha & Miller, 2008, 2009; Stillisano, Brown, Alford, & Waxman, 2013).

This paper highlights how an educational uplift ideology manifests in the everyday amongst college students from a historically marginalized community to capture the spirit and ethos of the grassroots efforts that unfold in the Texas borderlands. Specifically, this paper details how students’ awareness of enduring systemic inequality in higher education prompts an unrelenting ingenuity and legacy of cultivating a college-going culture within their home and community. The data for this paper is derived from an ethnographic case study – specifically individual interviews, observations, and a review of artifacts (e.g. newspaper articles, college admission essays, YouTube video clips, etc.) collected from 17 Mexican-American undergraduates, as well as interviews with 23 family members and 9 educators.

Author

• Nydia Carole Sánchez, The University of Texas at Austin