Narratives of Mexican American Women - Ch. 5 Emergent Identities In A University Setting

Ch. 5 of Garcia’s book deals with the 2nd generation daughters’ emerging identities in the university setting. The daughters find themselves leaving the comfort of their communities, as they attend university and realize that now they are the minority. The women find themselves seeking out students of color, people they can relate to and share experiences with.

The continuous idea of palimpsests or layers of identity seen throughout the book comes into play. When in the past, the women may have tried to reject such strong Mexican upbringing in exchange for more American living, the women now find themselves embracing their Mexican identity. The women find themselves intelligently defending their culture, as now they have access to understand their own culture’s history. They are dealing with passive aggressive, micro aggression and racism from both their fellow peers/students, and professors. Here in the university setting, the women are able to re-imagine and navigate their ethnic identity, and they end up embracing being the marginalized other. In the university setting, ethnicity is used as a marker, not for the women, but against them. Often the women “code-switch” or adjust their personalities to adapt to their situation or environment. If topics in class (ex: immigration) come up then the women find themselves acting as a spokesperson.

The women envision that one day there can be a community of students of color to help each other through these kinds of experiences. What they didn’t know at the time, was that they were actually paving the way for students like me and my journey. Their struggles are not forgotten and I am very thankful for the work they put in!