In this study, I use the pláticas methodology and Latina feminist storytelling to explore my relationship with my younger sister as a lens into the emotional and cultural complexities of navigating education as a first-generation Latinx student. Through educational pláticas, I reflect on the intimate conversations we’ve shared, moments where themes of internalized racism, privilege, body image, and relationship dynamics, both within and beyond school, repeatedly emerged. These dialogues have become sites of learning, resistance, and healing, revealing how dignity and social mobility are both gained and compromised in the pursuit of education. By analyzing how the aforementioned topics reveal themselves in classrooms and through our pláticas, we see how they shape and impact the engagement with our peers, ourselves, and our families. Our stories expose the paradoxes of schooling which offer the promise of advancement while distorting our sense of self and connection to home. This work contributes to the field by expanding what counts as educational and narrative research, centering siblinghood and cultural memory as legitimate sources of knowledge. By blending personal narrative with ethnographic inquiry, I offer these educational pláticas not only as testimony, but as a call for institutions to recognize and sustain the humanity of first-generation Latinx students, particularly those navigating the unseen spaces between sacrifice and survival.

Melancholia is an original composition initially conceived in 2022. As my piano proficiency and mastery of music theory expanded over the next three years, I began to fully conceptualize its purpose and realize what I wanted to do with it, resulting in this composition.

This research focuses on pathways which tribal communities in Minnesota can take to achieve food sovereignty and food security with a main focus on reclaiming traditional food sources. This research will try to find pathways in which Dakota communities bolster food sovereignty efforts by analyzing and adapting what other tribal communities and Dakota communities have done towards their own food sovereignty efforts. This project mainly consists of literature review, focusing on historical disruptions to Indigenous food systems, the impacts which colonization had on Tribal Nations, and how federal policies have impacted Indigenous food sovereignty. Through this lens, this research will examine the broader concepts of food justice, sustainability, and Indigenous rights, positioning food sovereignty as a crucial step toward cultural revitalization and maintaining tribal sovereignty. To supplement the literature review, this research involves a couple of interviews with people who are actively working to restore traditional food practices and knowledge. Those first hand accounts will offer critical insight into strategies communities are currently using along with the challenges which they have faced along the way. By combining academic research with community voices, this project seeks to highlight practical approaches that support Indigenous food sovereignty in tribal communities in Minnesota.