¡Sí Se Pudo! ¿Sí Se Pudo? Latina/Latino Student Activists in the 1990s

In the early 1990s, Latina/Latino students at a large, Midwestern university in the United States organized and emerged in the campus community to demand recognition. Student activists demanded a Latina/Latino Studies program,... [ view full abstract ]

In the early 1990s, Latina/Latino students at a large, Midwestern university in the United States organized and emerged in the campus community to demand recognition. Student activists demanded a Latina/Latino Studies program, more Latina/Latino faculty and staff, and the removal of a racist mascot. Their activism resulted in the establishment of a Latina/Latino Studies program, the hiring of Latina/Latino faculty, and other actions, which have not been fully documented together. In excavating the lives of these students, this pilot study uses critical ethnography and sociohistorical analysis to explore Latina/Latino student activism in the early 1990s. This pilot study will examine the presence of Latina/Latino studies since the original protests at the university and by revisiting the demands of the student activists for more Latina/Latino faculty and staff and increased recruitment, the study hopes to reveal some of the additional efforts aimed at retention of Latina/o students and faculty on campus. This paper is a part of preliminary research toward an intended dissertation.