The Re-Education of a Pocha-Rican: How Latina/o Studies Latinized Me

Abstract

The story of Latinas/os in higher education in the United States is often one of exclusion and erasure. In this essay, Arelis Hernandez argues that, from grade school to college, there is rarely an occasion for Latinas/os to learn their history and to produce scholarship based on their communities. Instead, they are pressured to subscribe to a homogenizing paradigm of history that stresses assimilation and a negation of their particular stories. The author describes the movement initiated at the University of Maryland at College Park in the spring of 2008 for the institutionalization of a U.S. Latina/o studies minor. After the administration refused to recognize the legitimacy of Latina/o studies, students used insights from historical efforts to fight for equity to leverage the creation of a Latina/o studies program. A student leader of this movement, Hernandez examines the collaboration among faculty, staff, and allies to transform their campus. In the process, she explores her own transformation.