Primero Madres: love and mothering in the educational lives of Latina/os

This article examines the historical and contemporary role of Latina madres in the educational lives of their children and communities. Latinas, in their work as mother-activists, have played critical roles in the schooling lives of their children, seeking educational equality for their communities in general, amidst the growing racial politics they contended with within US schools. I aim to examine here how these mothers challenged traditional conceptions of feminism, as they bridge a politics of motherhood and activism for survival in their everyday lives. These mothers transform their children’s lives–and by extension their own lives and the lives of their community–through discourses of love that complicate traditional gender roles and forge new articulations of feminist solidarity. I utilize Chicana feminist theory to highlight the intersectionality of Latina identities to examine the quotidian struggles of women occupying multiple roles in the face of inequality in contemporary US society.