Centering Motherhood: Latinas Engaging in Collective Acts of Resistance for Education Justice

On September 15, 2010, approximately a dozen Latina immigrant mothers took over a fieldhouse adjacent to their children’s school in the heart of the Mexican community of a large Midwestern City. The immediate demands of the mothers revolved around the preservation of the fieldhouse they occupied-which was slated to be demolished-, the construction of a library, and the disbursement of Tax Increment Financing funds that they had advocated for and secured throughout a seven-year long battle. The mothers engaged in collective acts of resistance which resulted in a highly publicized sit-in that captured the hearts and minds of the local community as well as across the United States and even internationally. Although this highly visible battle did not result in the mothers acquiring their initial demands, it had an important impact at the grassroots level, where the mothers were able to not only define what they believed an education with dignity entails, but more importantly, through their actions, they were able to build a community of resistance that put forth a critical and practical concept of education and human rights. Using testimonio as a methodology and framed using Critical Race Theory and Chicana/Latina Feminist Epistemology, this study complicates the general understanding surrounding Latina mothers’ engagement in their children’s educational rights. In this study, the mothers’ testimonios serve to document the ways in which their actions and beliefs help us to re-conceptualize and redefine what education justice looks like vis-à-vis neoliberal policies and practices. From the local to the global the mothers helped to reimagine a world in which education is a human right and in which the participation of those most affected by the effects of globalization and neoliberal policies can begin to reclaim their inalienable rights.