Chicas fuertes: Counterstories of Latinx parents raising strong girls 

Intergenerational Literacies: The Racial, Linguistic, and Cultural Resources of Families in Raising Young Children of Color

“…Alma’s sharing of her life experiences and histories through crafting her own “De Donde Yo Soy” poem is part of a larger case study (Dyson & Genishi, 2005) conducted by Tracey in Arizona. Seated alongside her 14-year-old daughter, Blanca, and three other Latinx parents and their adolescent daughters, Alma wrote this poem at our first Somos Escritoras/We are Writers Creative Writing Workshop (Flores, 2018). In her poem, Alma described her deep connectedness to the Earth and to all human beings—“despite its borders.” Her words speak against the xenophobic discourses that villainize Latinx communities and the politicians seeking to build, both physical and metaphorical, borders and walls.…”

“…Somos Escritoras is a family engagement space that invites Latinx parents and their daughters (Grades 7–12) to draw, write, and share stories from their lived experiences. Six weekly sessions were designed with and for Latinx parents and their daughters to open space for the intergenerational reciprocal exchange of stories and experiences within a political context that continuously and increasingly works to silence and control their voices, narratives, and bodies (Flores, 2018). Within the larger study, Tracey wanted to understand what we can learn from the art, narratives, and oral stories shared between Latinx parents and their daughters about who they are, what matters to them and what they envision for their futures.…”

“…Their embodied experiences help us to theorize (Anzaldúa, 1999) and understand the ways Latinx parents draw upon their histories and stories to teach their daughters lessons to carry with them in their everyday lives. The experiential knowledge that are embodied in their stories along with the theoretical and methodological tools provided by CRT and LatCrit offer a lens to begin to understand how their histories and intersecting identities inform the ways that Latinx parents are raising their daughters to be “Chicas Fuertes” (Flores, 2018, p. 344) and thrive in ways beyond the lives they had imagined for themselves.…”

Literacies of Interrogation and Vulnerability: Reimagining Preservice Teacher Preparation Designed to Promote Social Justice in Education

“…Parents and their daughters used these pieces and discussions to tell their own stories and share their own histories through drawing, storytelling, and writing. Importantly, renderings from both girls and their parents addressed stereotypes, tensions, and contradictions they navigate on a daily basis (Flores, 2018). Additionally, their renderings illustrated the ways that parents supported their daughters' desires to embrace mainstream culture and the life goals it offers, while they also worked to emphasize the importance of staying closely connected to their cultural roots.…”

“…Within these experiences and interactions, preservice teachers learned about lived experiences of families and the vitality of communities, which was critical to their developing understanding of structural inequality and social (in) justice. Now we turn to Flores (2018) work with four Latinx parents and their adolescent daughters as they participated in the Somos Escritoras/We are Writers project. This work highlights the intentional design of a program that centered voices, histories, and stories of Latinx families through art, writing, and storytelling, which cultivated care and understanding between parents and their daughters, as well as between and among all families involved.…”