Primero Madres: love and mothering in the educational lives of Latina/os. Issue 4 (7th June 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Velazquez, Mirelsie
• Is Part Of: Gender and education. Volume 29:Issue 4(2017)
• Page Start: 508
• Page End: 524
• Publication Date: 2017-06-07
• Subjects: Cultural studies -- motherhood -- historical -- North America -- Latinas; Sex discrimination in education -- Periodicals; Sex role -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; Women -- Education -- Periodicals; Discrimination sexuelle en éducation -- Périodiques; Rôle selon le sexe -- Périodiques; Femmes -- Éducation -- Périodiques; 379.26
• DOI: 10.1080/09540253.2017.1318206
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0954-0253

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article examines the historical and contemporary role of Latina madres in the educational lives of their children and communities. Latinas, in their work as mother-activists, have played critical roles in the schooling lives of their children, seeking educational equality for their communities in general, amidst the growing racial politics they contended with within US schools. I aim to examine here how these mothers challenged traditional conceptions of feminism, as they bridge a politics of motherhood and activism for survival in their everyday lives. These mothers transform their children's lives – and by extension their own lives and the lives of their community – through discourses of love that complicate traditional gender roles and forge new articulations of feminist solidarity. I utilize Chicana feminist theory to highlight the intersectionality of Latina identities to examine the quotidian struggles of women occupying multiple roles in the face of inequality in contemporary US society.