Leaving La Puente: A Critical Race Counterstory of Rural Chicana/Latina College Choice

Abstract

1) the centrality of race and racism and their intersectionality with other forms of subordination, (2) the challenge to dominant ideology, (3) the commitment to social justice, (4) the centrality of experiential knowledge, and (5) the transdisciplinary perspective. 6 Additionally, to develop this counterstory I draw on my cultural intuition, 7 including my own 1 This counterstory models the intentional writing styles of Scholars of Color who capitalize terms such as "Communities of Color." Dra. Lindsay Pérez Huber, for example, argues that capitalizing these terms rejects the standard grammatical norm and moves toward empowerment and racial and social justice. The rule of capitalization will also apply to the terms "Scholars of Color," "People of Color," "Students of Color," and "Brown" throughout this counterstory.2 See Solorzano and Yosso ( 2001) for a discussion of storytelling in African American, Chicanx/Latinx, and Native American communities.3 See Solorzano and Yosso ( 2001) for a discussion of storytelling and counterstorytelling in the social sciences, humanities, law, and education.4 Anzaldúa (1990) argues that as People of Color, we must ". . . occupy theorizing space, that we not allow white men and women solely to occupy it. By bringing in our own approaches and methodologies, we transform that theorizing space" (xxv).Solorzano and Yosso ( 2001) argue that counterstorytelling is a methodological response to this call. I hope that my counterstory also answers this call by using the methodological tool of counterstorytelling to occupy theorizing space for and with rural Chicanx/Latinx students and families.5 I include both the terms "Chicana" and "Latina" to account for the varying racial, cultural, social, and political identities that collectively represent women who are from or have roots in Latin America. 6 See Solorzano (1997) for a discussion of the five tenets included in a Critical Race Theory (CRT) in Education framework. 7 Delgado Bernal (1998) theorizes cultural intuition as "the unique viewpoints Chicana scholars bring to the research process" (p. 2). She

Insights on Narrative Analysis from a Study of Racial Microaggressions and Microaffirmations

“…While our example study does not employ narrative configuration, it is important to note how other critical scholars in the field use this process. Polkinghorne himself does not frame narrative configuration this way; however, many critical researchers use their participants' narratives to construct counterstories: representative stories that are often directly juxtaposed against preexisting dominant narratives (see Pazey, 2020;Persaud, 2019;Puente, 2020;Rodriguez, 2011;Wagaman et al, 2018).…”