Echémonos Flores: A Mentoring Model for Latina Doctoral Students

Abstract

In this essay, Cynthia Carolina Terán López and Christina Convertino present a new mentoring model for Latina doctoral students, the echémonos flores mentoring model (FEMM), which draws on the ideas of new tribalism and nos/otras in Gloria Anzaldúa’s post-Borderlands work and the praxis of pláticas, or conversations, and testimonios to decenter whiteness in current mentoring models supporting Latina doctoral students. The authors lay out FEMM’s five interrelated principles of epistemological kinship, academic scholarship focused on a shared commitment to social change, critical reflexivity, rejection of the split between bodymindspiritsoul in higher education, and dialogue between mentor and mentee using pláticas to express vulnerability, courage, and change and explain and illustrate each principle through the vivid experiences of their own mentoring relationship.