The schooling of young empowered Latinas/Mexicanas navigating unequal spaces

In recent years, important advancement has been documented in the literature about the educational attainment among female Latinas. However, Latina girls and young women continue to face significant challenges throughout their education journeys that are not always evident in statistical analyses. This chapter aims to map out a range of sources of oppression at the intersections of transnational constructions of gender, race, class, language, and citizenship that continue to shape the educational trajectories and life prospects for Latina youth and that manifest in ways that are not always accounted in the literature about educational outcomes. More importantly, the chapter brings critical attention to the nuanced forms of agency that Latina youth enact as they navigate the material and discursive conditions of their daily realities that are often erased or obscured under the “at-risk” labels. The chapter concludes with a case study to illustrate the ways in which both oppression and agency emerge in the life of one Latina teen, urging educators to examine their own expectations, constructions, and discourses and to reimagine the ways in which they may collaborate with these youth to foster, justice, transformation, and a more humanizing education.