Chicana Motherscholar and the Rise of the Resistance During Times of COVID

Abstract

For motherscholars, M(other)work cannot be disjointed. I use the Chicana M(other)work framework to chart juxtapositions of my mothering and scholaring. I rely on testimonios that deepen the coexistence of mother and academician identities. I examine the ways that these responsibilities overlap and strengthen to give rise to my resistance stance of Chicana M(other)work in a COVID-19 context. I draw on Chicana M(other)work to elucidate the entanglements of mother-scholar and the discomforts that arose from attempting to segregate identities, working against what I developed to be my identity as a mother in the workforce. I explore the ways in which I was participating in a separatist social narrative and how these testimonios highlight the false belief that I was a mother-scholar rather than a motherscholar.