Abstract Sandra Cisneros, one of the most prominent Mexican American authors alive today, began integrating Buddhist themes in her work as early as 1994. This article explores how Cisneros’s Buddhist practice has strengthened over time, with evidence taken from her poetry, archival documents, and interviews. The analysis then turns to a close reading of her 2002 novel, Caramelo, to identify how she incorporates Buddhist themes into the text. Using the motifs of recuerdos/memories, dust/dirt, and the woven rebozo scarf, Cisneros uses the Buddhist concepts of impermanence and interdependence to tell the story of a granddaughter’s growing wisdom and compassion towards her Mexican American family.

Abstract Latina students’ challenges as a minoritized group in Science, Engineering, Technology, and Mathematics (STEM) programs call for a deeper understanding of their social and academic identities, which are crucial aspects in successfully navigating rigorous STEM programs. Through a qualitative approach, seven Latina college students were interviewed at a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) during COVID-19, to gain insight into their experiences as they develop their social and academic identities. The findings of the study revealed three key factors influencing Latinas’ social and science identity formation: 1) culture and gender experiences prior to and during the pandemic; 2) the ongoing search for a science identity through female role models despite the inadequate representation of Latina STEM faculty; and 3) the participants’ self-advocacy to achieve academic success. Lastly, the continued challenges the students experienced related to the global pandemic, rigorous STEM academic programs, and the need for a coherent science identity were explored.

Abstract Since the 1990s, when mandatory sentences for drug related crimes were first imposed, Blacks and Hispanics have been disproportionately given lengthier prison terms. Latinas have been especially affected by the harsh consequences of the war on drugs, as they have been detained in proportionally larger numbers. In this article, using the case of Yraida Guanipa, I explore the effects of the war on drugs on a Latina. Yraida Guanipa was the mother of two boys, aged 4 and 3 when she was sentenced in 1998 to 151 months even though she was a first-time non-violent offender. The magnitude of her sentence particularly affected her role as mother of two very young children. During five years (1998 – 2003) out of her 13-year detention, Yraida wrote to the late Illinois Senator Paul Simon (1928 – 2003). The close textual analysis of her letters provides a unique perspective on the toll of the war of drugs. Yraida's correspondence shows how she fiercely negotiated motherhood and became an activist for prison reform.

Abstract One of the intellectual and emotional labors undertaken by children of immigrants is having to negotiate their place in between two different cultures. Existence in this in-between space is understandably challenging and is explored in Julia Alvarez’s How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, as the protagonist Yolanda and her sisters struggle to find themselves in between American and Dominican cultures. This article argues that memory plays a key role in navigating this space, as Alvarez constructs her semi-autobiographical work in reverse chronology, allowing Yolanda to work through the decision of where she believes she fits best using a series of flashbacks and memories from her own eyes and the eyes of other members of her family. While Marianne Hirsch theorizes that postmemory affects generations following those that experienced trauma, what Yolanda experiences differs. The trauma of navigating the “hyphen” of Dominican-American identity is her own, and it is through these memories, in addition to a focus on linguistic differences between English and Spanish that the girls struggle with, we follow Yolanda on her journey of self-discovery. What works such as Alvarez’s How the García Girls Lost Their Accents prove is that individuals have to find peace in an identity that is neither here nor there, ni de aquí ni de allá.

Abstract On November 27th, 1871, eight young medical students were marched into a public plaza in Havana and shot by Spanish authorities. On the first anniversary of their death, the exiled José Martí used their execution to denounce Spanish rule in Cuba, and to legitimize the violent struggle for Cuban Independence. The executed students became martyrs to Cuban nationalism. Since then, their execution at the hands of tyrants has been repeatedly repurposed in revolutionary periods in Cuban history. This article engages with the work of Maurice Halbwachs, Jan Assmann, and Pierre Nora to reflect on the process of collective and cultural memory formation and reformation. It considers the factors that contributed to the transformation of the execution of these students from a singular tragedy, among a wider field of atrocity, into a defining moment in Cuban identity. Further, drawing on works by Jay Winter, Robin Cohen, and Ron Eyerman, this article interrogates the role of individuals and groups in this process. Over one hundred and fifty years, members of exile communities, moral witnesses, student protesters, and revolutionary leaders used the memory of these martyrs to contest authoritarian rule, hoping to advance their vision of a Cuba that could be. Driven by changing political imperatives, the memory of the students altered to reflect new collective priorities. This case study shows change and continuity in cultural memory. Tracing the evolution of this narrative from the Cuban War of Independence, through the rule of dictators, Castro’s revolutionary war, and the following socialist era, this article concludes by asking how their memory is being—once again—transformed today. With a focus on the construction and use of public monuments and memorials, but incorporating literature, images, annual marches, and films, this article argues that the public memory of their deaths altered in different periods to invoke a revolutionary vision of Cuban national identity battered by a century and a half of instability.

We tested the immigrant social ties hypothesis for Latino health outcomes by examining whether positive social support from, and negative interactions with, spouses/partners, friends/relatives, and children accounted for the differences in depression symptoms between immigrant and U.S.-born Latinos. We analyzed data from the 2001–2003 Chicago Community Adult Health Study. Immigrants and U.S.-born Latinos reported similar levels of positive support from spouses/partners and children, but the U.S.-born reported higher levels of positive support from friends/relatives. At the same time, U.S.-born Latinos reported higher levels of negative interactions with friends/relatives, spouses/partners, and children. For the full sample and the sample with children, U.S.-born Latinos show higher levels of depression symptoms when compared to immigrant Latinos, even after controlling for sociodemographic characteristics. However, no differences on depression symptoms were found when the sample was restricted to married ...

The article examines a model for transformative parent engagement in predominantly Latino and ethnically diverse school communities. A case study illustrates the initial phases of the five-level process and the challenges of actualizing the parent engagement process. The author's challenge commonly accepted boundaries of bicultural parent involvement. A case study provides a real-life example of a large urban school district that has introduced community school-based reform to create and apply the hopeful vision of what authentic and democratic parent engagement can become, and how parents can be transformative change agents for their children and their schools. The authors outline challenges and provide recommendations to operationalize transformative parent engagement in predominantly Latino communities.

Few studies have addressed how Latino families resident in the United States for many years have been impacted by the economic downturn of 2007–2009, the household economic strategies these families adopted to cope with financial distress, or if such efforts are affected by localized responses to immigration policy. Drawing on survey and matched qualitative interview data from a random sample of Latino households in Phoenix, Arizona, we examine the types and number of household economic strategies families deploy; whether social network composition and exchanges vary according to the level of financial strain experienced and the types of strategies used to ameliorate that strain; and how the local policy context affects the strategies. We find that households do not rely on just one strategy but deploy multiple strategies engaged in by different family members concurrently. There is little variation in household social network composition or resource exchange by strategy, but some variation in resource ex...

Recent headline-grabbing statistics that Latino high school graduates enroll in college at higher rates than their White peers might lead many to conclude that disparities in college access may be a thing of the past. However, disparities in enrollment persist across institution types as Latino students are overrepresented in the two-year sector, and many who are qualified to attend four-year selective institutions undermatch to less selective institutions at higher rates than their similarly qualified White peers. While past research has shown that Latino students have disparate college choice processes than White students, this study advances the literature on college choice and undermatch by examining differences in the characteristics that predict undermatch for White and Latino students using nationally representative data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002). Results from separate multi-level analyses revealed that family income, net college costs, gender, and high school resourc...

The focus of this article is creation of film Tomboy, an animated short film that explores issues of gender independent children, bullying, and Latina representation. Connections between Chicana feminist theory and making and screening of Tomboy are highlighted as strategic approaches for critical pedagogy. In particular, author investigates how cartoon employs notion of border pedagogies, the body as pedagogical device, and pedagogies of home.