Discussion, Recommendations and Final Thoughts
This study explored if and how life history and testimonio as methods can assist in understanding the ways Mexicanas develop strategies for navigating higher education, in particular the doctoral journey, in the Midwest. A life history method offered the opportunity to examine the educational trajectory of five Latinas of Mexican descent as they recalled it, as they remembered it, anecdotal snapshots. A testimonio offered me the opportunity to expose the papelitos guardados of contradiction as well as resistance of the multiple oppressive institutional structures the mujeres belonged to through out educational journeys. Furthermore, through testimonios, the mujeres narratives become more than just the retelling of a story – they depicted a sense of urgency that moves me beyond just sharing their lived experiences, challenging me as a researcher and so their voices become counternarratives to the dominant narrative about Latinas in education. As such, the act of testimoniar/tesimonio then “turns the established narrative on its head, seeing through, resisting, and subverting its assumptions” (Anzaldúa 2002, p. 561). Their testimonios reclaim these experiences and embraces them as sources of strength enable them to succeed.
Furthermore, by using Community Cultural Wealth, with roots extending from Critical Race Theory and LatCrit, it exposed narratives that counter the deficit narratives of Latina/os and education. CCW was also instrumental in answering the following questions - 1) What strategies did first generation Mexicanas employ when navigating their doctoral studies at public, Research I and Predominantly White institutions (PWIs) in the Midwest, and what role, if any, did family, culture, gender and class play in their formation as Mexicana scholars? Furthermore, it sought 2) to understand the impact of their K - 16 experiences in preparing them to navigate the doctoral
journey and 3) if these past experiences and the daily experiences have had or have any influence on the completion of the doctoral degree? All within the context of being Mexicanas from the Midwest.
The Midwest, also known as the Heartland, has a long history of Latina/o/Mexican/Mexican American (im)migration. In fact, specifically Chicago in Illinois, has a rich history of Mexican residents. The first large groups of Latina/o immigrants to Chicago and the Heartland were Mexicans who arrived as contract workers to replace soldiers and other European ethnic workers during World War I, that is early 1900s. Mexican immigrants moved to neighborhood near the industries that recruited them, such as South Chicago because of the steel mills, Back of the Yards near meatpacking houses, and near the West Side area close to vast railroad networks and light industries like candy making and clothing manufacturing (Kerr, 1975). By the 1930s, Chicago became a Mexican immigrant hub, outside of the Southwest (Kerr, 1975). Therefore, the presence of Mexicans in the Heartland is before the turn of the 20th century. Even Sor Juana reminds us that the Mexican presence, especially in the meatpacking industry in places like Green Bay has been there since the 1990s, at least. We both stress an importance to research the experience of the Mexicana/o in our own disciplines because they have for too long been erased from the text.
The need to conduct research in the Heartland also stems from my own experience in the recruitment of participants for this study. The University of the Midwest, is a top ranking, public, Research I, PWI, yet my department of study is one of the most diverse programs in the nation. At least in the student body. Therefore, I did not think it would be so difficult to recruit participants for the study. Nevertheless, the recruitment took over six months. A snowball process did not work, instead it was other peers of mine that would ultimately be key in helping
me get the five participants for the study. Having to go through made it clear that this work mattered and that there was a need to research this particular region.
Getting participants for the study was difficult, even though by 2013, the Midwest was the home to 7.3% Latina/os, with Illinois making up 3.9% and being the in the top five states where Latina/os reside. Illinois (16.4%), Indiana (6.4%), Iowa 5.4%), Michigan (4.7%), Minnesota (4.9%), Missouri (3.8%), Ohio (3.3%), and Wisconsin (6.3%), are considered the eight states to constitute the Midwest. Illinois is the home of the largest Latina/o population as well as the largest Mexican immigrant population (724,845), followed by Indiana (102,777), Michigan (83,896), and Wisconsin (80,515) (Paral, 2009). With 31% of Latina/os aged 17 and younger living below poverty and 19% of the 18 – 64 age bracket living below poverty, with a median income of $21,000 (Motel & Patten, 2012).
In the state of Illinois 20% of the 25-year and over Latina/o population had less than a high school education, 29% had at least a high school education or had received their GED, however even those with a high school diploma still fell about 11% points lower than the 40% U.S. born non-Latinos (The Illinois Report 2012 Chapter 2, Chapa, 2012). Also, 31% had some college, with at least 14% having a bachelor’s degree and about 6% having some type of advance degree. Yet, 20% of U.S.-born Latinos with a college degree (BA) or higher is still 12% lower than the 32% of the U.S. born non-Latinos (Chapa, 2012). Nationally, Latina/os make up 17% of the U.S. population that is over 56 million people. They are currently 22% of the K – 12 populations. The median age of Latina/os is 27 years of age. Only 20% of Latina/o adults (25 and older) has earned an associate degree or higher compared to 36% of all adults, that means that 2 out of 10 Latina/os have some level of higher education while of all adults 3.6 of every 10 have earned a degree (Chapa, 2012). In 2012, Latina/os earned 7% of all master’s degrees
conferred, in total they only represented 3% of Latina/o adults that held a master’s degree. In that same year, 5% of doctoral degrees conferred were earned by Latina/os, less than 1% of the entire Latina/o population. As of 2013, a total of 141,000 Latina/os had earned a doctoral degree as the highest degree earned, that same year only 1,200 of Latinas had earned a doctoral degree (Doctorate Recipients from U.S. Universities: 2014, 2015). The low educational attainment of Latina/os in the Midwest, mirrors that of the nation; the one difference being that the narratives of these students are rarely discussed or researched at the same extent as other regions of the country. Stressing the need to further research this specific area due to the richness of the history of Mexicana/os in the Midwest. And so this study adds on the current state of Latina/os, more specifically Latinas, educational attainment in the Midwest. Furthermore, suggesting that there is a lot more work to be done, researched, in this area and specifically on the history and current state of Latina/o educational attainment, lived experiences, and policy implications.
On another level, the mujeres testimonios and CCW exposed the hypocrisy of meritocracy. In this study all of the mujeres were in the “college track.” Being on the college track did not save or prevent any of the mujeres from not being academically ready for the college curriculum. Emma, Cherríe and Maria Felix, were students in the Chicago Public School system that instead of offering quality schooling and curriculum across schools, students had to take exams, pass them, and then find their way to the school, whatever that meant (taking the bus, train, carpooling). Finding a way to the school was one of the challenges that the mujeres in this study faced, because they were all smart and passed the exams, however, they were not permitted to go tot the school because they were too far. Therefore, the mujeres relied on their familial and social capitals to navigate the various stages of their educational trajectories. Emma shared on a journal entry,