Hybrid Citizenship: Latina Youth and the Politics of Belonging

Abstract

Drawing from interview data collected from high school students in Broward County, Florida, this article explores how eight adolescent Latinas understand citizenship and belonging vis-à-vis circulating images and discourses on Latina/o immigration, immigrant, and Latina. The author examines Latina youths’ citizenship identities and belonging using the conceptual frameworks of transnationalism, cultural citizenship, and hyphenated selves. The author demonstrates how first-, second-, and third-generation Latina youths’ citizenship identities and belonging are continuously shaped by dominant discourses and stereotypical images while at the same time are responses that modify, resist, or echo these discourses and images. The insights of the adolescent Latinas point to theoretical and practical implications that could improve citizenship education in the context of globalization and transnational migration.

Latina Youth, Education, and Citizenship: A Feminist Transnational Analysis

“…The aim was to synthesize studies (Bondy, 2011(Bondy, , 2014(Bondy, , 2015 that appeared relevant rather than studies from a particular qualitative tradition. I therefore prioritized relevance over each study's methodology (BarnettPage & Thomas, 2009).…”

“…As argued elsewhere (Bondy, 2014(Bondy, , 2015, there are risks, however, in the "prove-them-wrong" perspective (Yosso, 2002, p. 57). Linking notions of worthiness with academic success and credentials potentially marginalizes Latina youth for whom educational access and success is more elusive, blaming them for failing to meet the same goals as their ideal counterparts.…”

“…DeJaeghere and McCreary (2010) showed how a Latina youth, Ariel, resisted stereotypes of Mexicans as illegal aliens by supporting her friends who stood up like cheerleaders and shouted, "[P]lease don't deport us" (p. 241). Laura, a participant in a qualitative study (Bondy, 2015), told Downloaded by [Ryerson University Library] at 22:11 14 June 2016 a story when she felt engaged in the school community and acted upon her citizenship identity during a homecoming parade. Laura described the parade:…”

“…As Sánchez and Machado-Casas (2009) explained, "This indicates that Latinas/os are highly immigrant if we include in this definition those Latinas/os with at least one foreign-born parent" (p. 4). Research by scholars studying adolescent Latina/o students from immigrant communities has indicated that these youth live at the intersections of transnational constructions of gender, race, class, language, and nation (Bondy, 2014(Bondy, , 2015DeJaeghere & McCreary, 2010;Ek, 2009;Fránquiz & Salazar, 2007;Rodríguez, 2009;Sánchez, 2007Sánchez, , 2009Sánchez & Kasun, 2012;Villenas, 2007Villenas, , 2009). These researchers have described how adolescent Latinas/os create identities, lives, and communities betwixt and between nations, challenging traditional pathways of assimilation and incorporation.…”

“…Collectively, this research cultivates a more complex understanding of adolescent Latinas/os' transnational lives and highlights the identities forged in the in-between spaces as strengths and not deficits. As educational scholarship has slowly begun to focus on youth immersed in transnational contexts, the same can be said of studies on citizenship as they relate to youth in U.S. public schools: Researchers are now beginning to use a transnational lens when they encounter adolescents whose citizenship identities span national borders (Abu El-Haj, 2009;Bondy, 2014Bondy, , 2015DeJaeghere & McCreary, 2010;Maira, 2009). Educators, therefore, might come to a more complex way of knowing Latina/o youths' citizenship identities if they were understood through a transnational lens.…”