Inside the Latina Experience: A Latina Studies Reader

This book explores the varied and unique latinidades, or Latin@ cultural identities, that exist in the United States. Each author in the anthology is an insider of the Latin@ community who employs various theoretical tools to present the historical and current conditions of Latin@s living in the United States in the first decade of the twenty-first century. A unique collection of essays covering the Latin@ reality from various disciplinary perspectives, this book offers insights and incisive analysis which is sure to contribute to the future of Latin@ Studies.

"This interdisciplinary project reflects the contemporary, transnational experiences of many Latinas/os and would prove an important addition to our understanding of Latin culture and experience in the United States. The collection explores a number of interesting areas, some of which have only had only cursory attention by scholars in the past. This broad focus is clearly one of the collection's strengths, since it allows one to create connections across different disciplines and to recognize, for instance, the ways in which the twentieth century legal challenges faced by Latinas/os inform our understanding of the ways in which Latinas/os are marginalized from positions of power in the U.S. military. The book will appeal to undergraduates and graduates as well as scholars in the field."---Kevin Concannon, Assistant Professor of English at Texas A&M---Corpus Christi

Norma E.Cantu, a daughter of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, currently serves as Professor of English and U.S. Latin@ Literatures at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Author of the award-winning Canicula Snapshots of a Girlhood en la Frontera, and co-editor of Chicana Traditions: Continuity and Change; Telling to Live: Latina Feminist Testimonios; and Dancing Across Borders: Danzas y Bailes Mexicanos, she is known internationally as a poet, fiction writer, folklorist, and scholar of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands and of Latin@ cultural production
Maria E. Franquiz is Associate Professor of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Texas-Austin and is a native of Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico. Her research focuses on bilingual/multicultural education and language/literacy studies. She co-edited Scholars in the Field: The Challenges of Migrant Education and is co-editor of The Bilingual Research Journal. Franquiz's publications appear in national professional journals including Journal of Latinos and Education, English Leadership Quarterly, Multicultural Perspectives, The Journal of Border Educational Research, Language Arts, California English, The High School Journal, Reading Research Quarterly, Journal of Classroom Interaction, and in professional journals for an international audience including TESOL Quarterly and Education Research and Perspective