Interpersonal partner violence (IPV) is a worldwide public health problem. As a result of IPV, victims report high rates of physical and behavioral disabilities. Help-seeking behaviors are key to obtaining support on facing and managing IPV. Cultural practices such as machismo, marianismo, and familismo are related to keeping quiet and remaining in an abusive relationship in Latinas. Difficulties in sharing emotions, setting interpersonal boundaries, and communicating needs are also behavioral barriers to seeking help in this population. All these factors are associated with social disconnection which reduces victims’ chances of obtaining support in risky situations. Although several programs have been developed for helping victims of IPV, more evidence on adaptions to particular cultural and interpersonal struggles faced by Latinas’ victims is needed. Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) proposes that therapeutic relationships based on intimacy can help victims of IPV to identify characteristics of those relationships that provide help when they need it. In this theoretical article, several FAP-based strategies aid therapists working with Latinas’ victims of IPV in strengthening clients’ interpersonal functioning and defeating cultural barriers when seeking help. / La violencia de pareja (IPV, por sus siglas en inglés) es un problema de salud pública mundial que genera altas tasas de discapacidades físicas y conductuales. Los comportamientos para buscar ayuda son claves para brindar soporte en el afrontamiento y el manejo de la violencia de género. El machismo, marianismo y familismo son prácticas culturales relacionadas con conductas de guardar silencio y permanecer en una relación abusiva en mujeres latinas. Asimismo, las dificultades para compartir emociones, establecer límites interpersonales y comunicar necesidades también son barreras para buscar ayuda. Estos factores están asociados a la desconexión social que reduce las posibilidades de que las víctimas sean apoyadas en situaciones de riesgo. Aunque se han desarrollado diversos programas psicológicos y sociales para ayudarlas, se necesita más evidencia sobre adaptaciones que respondan a los factores culturales e interpersonales propios de las mujeres Latinas víctimas de IPV. La Psicoterapia Analítica Funcional (FAP) propone que las relaciones terapéuticas basadas en la intimidad pueden ayudarlas a identificar características de relaciones que brindan ayuda cuando ellas la necesitan. En este artículo teórico se describen diferentes estrategias basadas en FAP con el fin de que los terapeutas que trabajan con Latinas víctimas de IPV puedan ayudarlas.

Latinas face many challenges within public schools. They are a marginalized group that has struggled to overcome the effects of practices that have created entrenched cycles of poverty and educational failure. The development of a critical consciousness has been proposed as a means of resisting and transcending oppression. Freire (1970) defined conscientização, or critical consciousness, as “learning to perceive social, political, and economic contradictions, and to take action against oppressive elements of reality” (p.19). This study reexamined the development and nature of critical consciousness through the use of critical feminist methodologies. Standpoint theories assisted in the development of counter-stories that challenged androcentric perceptions of consciousness. This qualitative study examined how some Latina teachers, working with Latina students, were able to transform an after-school club, lunchtime meetings, and a daylong conference into opportunities for Latina students to reexamine their role and position in their family, culture, American society, and develop a critical awareness or consciousness. What emerged from the findings was an approach used by these particular Latina teachers that elevated the affective domain to footing equal to the intellectual. The participating teachers created a matrix of connection with students that challenged a masculine perception of consciousness. They used socially and culturally located histories and experiences to develop a gendered critical consciousness. What was observed and heard throughout the research process was the unearthing of a consciousness that was decidedly enmeshed in the private arena of the body and identity, in addition to the public domains of politics and economics.

The objective of this thesis was to investigate intersectional (categorical/social) invisibility and the extent to which this phenomenon occurs in a comparison of dominant (i.e., Caucasian), and non-dominant (African-American and Latino) social/ethnic groups. It has been found that intersectional invisibility occurs among African-American women with respect to Caucasian men and women, and African American men (Sesko & Biernat, 2010), but little of this research has been done regarding Latinas. Thus, this experiment aims to not only examine whether Latinas are also subject to intersectional invisibility among dominant (i.e., Caucasian) and non-dominant (i.e., African American and/or Latino) groups, but to determine whether the theory can be extended to perceptions between non-dominant groups such as African-Americans and Latinos. Determining whether intersectional invisibility occurs among Latinas, moreover, may provide theoretical and practical insights of what advantages/disadvantages Latinas may particularly endure as members of the rapidly growing Latino population in the U.S.

Unpacking Voice and Silence: A Phenomenological Study of Black Women and Latinas in College Classrooms

The Other in mainstream U.S. society—in this case, the Latino Other—faces oppressive forces in the journey to find belonging. Latinos are marked by stereotypes, regardless of whether such stereotypes have a factual foundation. Latinas specifically are labeled as submissive servants, maids, or nannies. On the other end of the spectrum, Latinas are exotic and enticing sexual beings that must satisfy white men’s fetishes and lechery. Through this thesis, I will explore what Latina women face as an Other that is paradoxically both rejected and desired and evokes aversion as well as awe. In this creative thesis, in creative nonfiction, poetry, and oral history interviews with Latinas in my life, I will survey and expose stereotypes of Latinas, with the goal of uplifting the voices of such women of color and helping bridge the gap of understanding between the “average American” and their “Othered” Latino neighbors. If the non-Latino American public becomes educated on topics such as xenophobia and anti-Latino discrimination, they may do their part to create a community that is more inclusive and welcomes the ethnic diversity that has always been present in America.

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Latinas represent a large proportion of the United States early care and education workforce, and thus have the potential to wield significant influence over the growth and development of millions of American children. However, the voices of Latina early childhood professionals often are missing in both research and mass media. Instead, social, political, and academic frames cast Latinas as foreign regardless of nationality, uneducated notwithstanding expertise, and passive despite action and influence. This testimonio analysis draws on Chicana feminist epistemology to re-center the perspectives of Latina child care providers and reveal more authentic insights on how they understand and perform their roles within the broader social contexts that define and delimit Latina identity in the United States. The collective account that emerges from their testimonios is one of straddling multiple borders: between influence and invisibility, between the personal and the professional, and between community and isolation.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Curriculum and Instruction / Kay Ann Taylor / This qualitative case study examined how the intersection of gender, ethnicity, and college experiences affected five Latina undergraduate students' academic persistence in a predominately White, Research Extensive Midwestern State University. Latinas' gender, race, ethnicity, and college experiences influence their educational achievements directly. Because most research concentrates on understanding Latinas' educational experiences from a cultural deficit perspective, this research addressed the need to investigate Latinas' personal understanding of the challenges they face in college and their responses and coping strategies utilized to navigate their experiences and persist academically. Cultural Congruity was the theoretical framework for analysis and interpretation in this study because it contextualized the understanding of Latinas' culture of origin and its values in relation to the cultural values upheld by the university Latinas attend. The research utilized life narratives to understand the meaning the participants gave to their college experiences. Life narratives invent, reform, and refashion personal and collective identity for underrepresented people. Life narratives provided direct access to accounts of participants' lived experiences while identifying the ideologies and beliefs shaped by those experiences. The findings in this study identified the stereotypes, racism, obstacles, and support encountered by Latinas in college and at home. Further findings include: Impact and relevance that caring relationships and high expectations had on their academic persistence, Latinas' determination to be involved in college and give back to their parents and communities, and how academic effectiveness acted as a form of resistance for Latinas' college persistence. Four additional themes emerged: How self-efficacy was used by Latinas to redefine themselves in college, the changing effect that intellectually stimulating courses had on Latinas in college, their tenacity to succeed, and Latinas' identification of their fathers as feminist role models. Recommendations for practice and future research are addressed. The results contribute to the limited research on Latinas' persistence in higher education and the personal meaning that they give to the obstacles and support they encounter in college. Further, the findings defy the stereotypes attributed frequently to Latinas.