In the poetry of Ana Castillo and Sandra Cisneros, the bicultural struggle for a liberated personhood is reflected in the interpersonal relationships with their parents and the traditional values of the culture. Often, women in Mexican culture are confined to be mothers and wives; an inheritance meant for the daughter as well. Nonetheless, in U.S. society, women are not as limited by their familial relationships, rather are encouraged to leave home and pursue their passions. This support is rarely seen in Mexican families who expect their women to follow the traditional roles and oftentimes reprimand their daughters for choosing a different future. Situated between the U.S. society and the patriarchal Mexican culture, Cisneros and Castillo attempt to forgo the expectations and espouse their own passions as writers. These acts of defiance, such as leaving the household and refusing to marry, are treated as rebellions that insult the standard, causing the poets to experience consequences like rejections and oppressive loneliness from their family. This presentation argues that the works of Cisneros and Castillo serve as bridges for understanding the complexities of traditional parental relationships in U.S. society in relation to the daughter’s perceived personhood. In analyzing the works of the poets, the presentation investigates their influence towards other Mexican-American women who may find their situations mirrored in these women’s work. With the poetry of Castillo and Cisneros, other daughters can look at this ‘rebellion’ and recognize their own capacity to embrace their dreams regardless of the limits.

Colorism among individuals of Mexican descent originates from the racial hierarchies of the Spanish colonial period (fifteenth to the early nineteenth century). Subsequently, colorism has been resurrected, reinstated, and perpetuated among Mexican Americans, who retained gendered connotations of colorism. Current literature indicates that Mexican American women experience colorism through generational trauma, patriarchal structures, assimilation, and lingering gendered racial hierarchies. However, the qualitative data from the studies focusing on Mexican American women’s experience with colorism do not exceed ten participants. This sample size is significant because research acknowledges that Mexican American women experience colorism differently from their male counterparts, but their gendered experiences still need to be explored. In my research, I ask how colorism in the Mexican American community has shaped family life, gender, and racial identity for Mexican-American women in the twenty-first century. For my data collection, I will use testimonios, a qualitative research method that consists of loosely structured interviews and facilitated group discussions, to interview at least twenty Mexican American women. I will use Emma Pérez’s theoretical intervention, “the decolonial imaginary,” to analyze the experiences of Mexican American women with colorism under an alternative historical consciousness.

Voting is an integral part of a democracy. Scholars have looked at the multiple factors that impact voter turnout and behavior, among them political affiliation, education level, and the perceived identity of the candidate. Studies have shown that women of color tend to vote for more women of color than white women. This paper explores the role of descriptive representation in voter turnout and behavior. Description representation is the characteristics of representatives that match their citizens. Drawing on a review of the literature and a small sample of interviews with college-aged women of color, I examine whether descriptive representation affects people’s decision to vote and their choice of candidate. With an increasingly diverse government, this research will provide insight into the future of women of color in elective offices.

At the University of Washington, first-generation students of color often navigate and negotiate their available support through Registered Student Organizations (RSOs). Student leadership serves as a counter narrative to the lack of representation and promotes action towards social change. The purpose of this study is to explore and understand the ways in which first-generation students of color create, perpetuate, and increase access, support, and sense of belonging through culturally responsive safe spaces on campus. Applying theories from George DeVos and Lola Romanucci-Ross on instrumental and expressive use of ethnicity, and Diana Bui’s essay on mutual aid associations, to interrogate both formal and informal structures of campus, as manifested in safe spaces for students of color who use these resources to enhance belonging and activism. This qualitative study uses DeVos and Romanucci-Ross’ and Bui’s theories to curate questions and analyze how ethnicity acts instrumentally and expressively in culturally responsive organizing. Through semi-structured interviews with executive board members of RSOs each representing different cultural backgrounds, I predict that deconstructing norms of student activism and fostering belonging are difficult among RSOs due to gaps of cultural knowledge and difficulty aligning diverse experiences and perspectives to multiple social causes. Through this research, I aim to refine my focus on the acquisition and perpetuation of ethnicity in student organizations and its impact on the undergraduate experience for first generation students.