This essay recounts the efforts by various groups throughout Texas with a special emphasis on the Rio Grande Valley to implement Mexican American Studies at the turn of the twenty-first century. We offer a historical timeline of events that demonstrates how the Mexican American Studies course came into existence. We also detail the way in which…

Knowledge on the transition to adulthood of undocumented immigrants arriving in childhood primarily derives from the experiences of minors arriving below the age of 13 years--or the 1.5 generation. The transition to adulthood of the 1.25 generation--those who immigrate between the ages of 13 and 17 years--has been largely missed. This article…

The aim of this study was to better understand Latinx adolescents' experiences during the pandemic and the transition to distance learning. Guided by the community cultural wealth framework, this study focuses on the key challenges and the sources of support that Latinx adolescents relied on during this unique period. Participants included 40…

The authors share how their Arabyyat and Chicana feminist pedagogies and methodologies, haki/pláticas ~ testimonios/shahadat, contribute to a decolonial praxis. We center haki/pláticas ~ testimonios/shahadat and introduce what we term as "Arabyya feminista decolonial praxis" in education as an act of linguistic and epistemic…

Research has shown that ethnic-racial socialization (ERS) predicts education and mental health outcomes for adolescents. However, limited research has evaluated the ERS experiences of Latinx students. The current study examined ERS experiences of Mexican American youth in four focus group interviews that were transcribed and analyzed at both the…

How Latina administrators construct their leadership philosophies in the K-12 public education system and what makes them unique in a traditionally male-dominated context was explored in this qualitative study. Using a narrative inquiry approach, seven Mexican American women working as school principals in California's Central Valley were…

This study analyzes the impact that U.S. curricula have on Mexican transnational returnees. Specifically, this article focuses on the ideological development of the army and imperialism promoted in U.S. schools among Mexican populations. Using a framework that combines critical literacies, transnationalism, and Bourdieu's concepts of…

We present the first quantitative analysis of the impact of ending de jure segregation of Mexican-American school children in the United States by examining the effects of the 1947 Mendez v. Westminster court decision on long-run educational attainment for Hispanics and non-Hispanic whites in California. Our identification strategy relies on…

Teacher retention is a global problem, and why individuals choose the teaching profession can help sustain teacher motivation. This study surveyed 29 predominately Mexican American female students enrolled in the College of Education at a border university in South Texas. The participants were selected using convenience sampling from two courses…

The historical mistreatment of Xicanx (pronounced CHEE or SHE-canx) communities is rooted in nativism and white supremacist ideology that is inextricably linked to the conquest of the Americas and the creation of the United States. The subsequent multiple demonizing forces and ideology emanating from these origins have resulted in quantifiable…

While the number of Hispanic undergraduate students enrolled in higher education has more than doubled in the past 15 years, graduation rates for this population continues to be well below that of white students. Understanding the unique life experiences of bicultural Hispanic undergraduate students becomes vital for higher education professionals…

We used the psychosociocultural framework to conceptualize, analyze, and narrate the perceptions of 10 Latina women about their mothers' influence and role on their educational persistence in higher education. The Latina undergraduates were upper-division students who were of Mexican descent and sought educational success. To make meaning of the…

The performing arts, specifically the Mexican balladry called corridos, can offer new vistas for what constitutes civic inclusion, poetics, and worldmaking for racially and linguistically minoritized youth. This paper provides a textual analysis of "El Llanto de El Paso," a corrido (ballad) written by youth balladeer, Josué Rodríguez,…

Drawing from an ethnography with mixed-status families residing in Mexico, we examine what we term transborder literacies of (in)visibility, or diasporic people's innovative interactions around texts that prepare them to move across incompatible mononational institutions divided by borders. Through close attention to the literacy practices…

To understand the ASD diagnosis and treatment pathways for US families, N = 38 Mexican-heritage mothers were interviewed about how and when they obtained an ASD diagnosis for their children. Most children (84%) were diagnosed between two and three years old. One-third of mothers reported receiving four to seven referrals before diagnosis. Mothers…