Gilda L. Ochoa
Pomona College, Chicana/o-Latina/o Studies, Department Member
- Chicana/o-Latina/o Studies Professor Author of Becoming Neighbors in a Mexican American Community (2004), Learning fr... moreChicana/o-Latina/o Studies Professor
Author of Becoming Neighbors in a Mexican American Community (2004), Learning from Latina Teachers (2007), and Academic Profiling (2013)
Co-Editor of Latina/o Los Angeles (2005) and Reframing Immigration (2015)edit
Chapter 1 of Learning from Latino Teachers
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Table of Contents for Volume 18 Number 2 Fall 2015. This special issue centers migration perspectives, testimonials, theories, and pedagogies that have been marginalized in the mainstream immigration scholarship. Focusing on Queer and... more
Table of Contents for Volume 18 Number 2 Fall 2015.
This special issue centers migration perspectives, testimonials, theories, and pedagogies that have been marginalized in the mainstream immigration scholarship. Focusing on Queer and Trans migrations, migrant struggles, detention and the politics of immigration courts, race and migration, and undocumented and documented labor, this issue includes a western hemispheric interrogation of migration in the era of globalized capital where the working poor are losing their rights to land, markets and daily survival. While this special issue engages primarily with immigration in the US, it does not ignore the transnational migration "circuits" in the Américas. To broaden frameworks on immigration and better capture heterogeneous experiences, this issue includes research articles, theoretical conceptualizations, creative pieces, oral histories, and book reviews that speak to the above topics and perspectives.
This special issue centers migration perspectives, testimonials, theories, and pedagogies that have been marginalized in the mainstream immigration scholarship. Focusing on Queer and Trans migrations, migrant struggles, detention and the politics of immigration courts, race and migration, and undocumented and documented labor, this issue includes a western hemispheric interrogation of migration in the era of globalized capital where the working poor are losing their rights to land, markets and daily survival. While this special issue engages primarily with immigration in the US, it does not ignore the transnational migration "circuits" in the Américas. To broaden frameworks on immigration and better capture heterogeneous experiences, this issue includes research articles, theoretical conceptualizations, creative pieces, oral histories, and book reviews that speak to the above topics and perspectives.
Research Interests: Critical Theory, Sociology, Ethnic Studies, Chicano Studies, Latino/A Studies, and 19 moreLatin American Studies, American Studies, Queer Studies, Latin American and Caribbean History, Teacher Education, Queer Theory, Critical Pedagogy, Immigration, Immigration Studies, Central America and Mexico, Gender and Sexuality, Race and Ethnicity, Undocumented Immigration, Migration Studies, Transnational migration, Intersectionality, Latin America, Sociología, and Latinoamerica
As California school districts prepare for a new requirement that all high school students take an ethnic studies course for graduation, contentious conversations continue about a "model" ethnic studies curriculum for the state's K-12... more
As California school districts prepare for a new requirement that all high school students take an ethnic studies course for graduation, contentious conversations continue about a "model" ethnic studies curriculum for the state's K-12 schools. Less attention, however, has been given to the role of relationality in the vision, development, implementation, and longevity of ethnic studies courses and programs. In the spirit and praxis of Chicana/o/x studies, which centers solidarity, relationships, and critical community engagement, we write this essay as a transgenerational team to reflect on our justice-centered horizontal learning and teaching for the past fifteen years in Pomona, California. Writing collaboratively both reflects and enacts our ethos of relational connection in and across movements for educational justice. Our collaborative learning in Chicanx/Latinx studies (CLS) has resisted hierarchies and notions of linearity; instead it has been recursive and participatory, transcending the traditional forms of universitycommunity partnership. We have fluidly moved between our individual positionings as both learners and educators in our joint CLS work. In this essay we uplift salient memories as we collectively strive to answer the question What is the role of relationships in fostering Chicanx/Latinx studies spaces?
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By 10 January 2017, activists in the predominately Latina/o working class city of La Puente, California had lobbied the council to declare the city a sanctuary supporting immigrants, people of color, Muslims, LGBTQ people, and people with... more
By 10 January 2017, activists in the predominately Latina/o working class city of La Puente, California had lobbied the council to declare the city a sanctuary supporting immigrants, people of color, Muslims, LGBTQ people, and people with disabilities. The same community members urged the school district to declare itself a sanctuary. While community members rejoiced in pushing elected officials to pass these inclusive resolutions, there were multiple roadblocks reducing the potential for more substantive change. Drawing on city council and school board meetings, resolutions and my own involvement in this sanctuary struggle, I focus on a continuum of three overlapping and interlocking manifestations of white supremacist heteronormative patriarchy: neoliberal diversity discourses, institutionalized policies, and a re-emergence of high-profiled white supremacist activities. Together, these dynamics minimized, contained and absorbed community activism and possibilities of change. They reinforced the status quo by maintaining limits on who belongs and sustaining intersecting hierarchies of race, immigration status, gender, and sexuality. This extended case adds to the scant scholarship on the current sanctuary struggles, including among immigration scholars. It also illustrates how the state co-opts and marginalizes movement language, ideas, and people, providing a cautionary tale about the forces that restrict more transformative change.
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¡Juntos Podemos!/Together We Can! is a multigenerational, districtwide collective of educators, community organizers, and activists. Located in eastern Los Angeles County, the group developed intentionally and horizontally to address the... more
¡Juntos Podemos!/Together We Can! is a multigenerational, districtwide collective of educators, community organizers, and activists. Located in eastern Los Angeles County, the group developed intentionally and horizontally to address the disenfranchisement of the working-class communities of La Puente and Valinda using the California Voting Rights Act. Drawing from a praxis-oriented approach, ¡Juntos Podemos! explores the process of organizing and its connection to theory and practice. This approach builds from the experiences of members to see how different positionalities influence their participation in the struggle for school transformation. First, we highlight the politics of the school district and history of community-based school organizing from which ¡Juntos Podemos! emerges. Second, we present narratives of two collective members who grew up in different areas of the district at distinct time periods to illustrate how their experiences were shaped by dominant ideologies of schooling and why they became involved in ¡Juntos Podemos! Third, we discuss how our efforts to change the ways school board members are elected as a first step in shifting the composition of the school board. We conclude with a discussion of transformation as an ongoing process that draws on multiple approaches and strategies.
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An intersectional and continental analysis of the immigrant rights movement in Los Angeles.
Research Interests: Social Movements, Chicano Studies, Latino/A Studies, Latin American Studies, Globalization, and 21 moreMexican Studies, Transnationalism, Latin American politics, Immigration Studies, Central American Studies, Migration Studies, Latin American History, Transnational migration, Labor History and Studies, Mexican Politics, Diaspora and transnationalism, Latino/as in the U.S., U.S. Foreign Policy, Los Angeles, Mexico, Chicano History, Movimientos sociales, Estudios Latinoamericanos, América Latina, Migración, and Mexican American Studies
Since the Civil Rights Movements, the emphasis on confronting power, inequality, and racism in US schools has receded. So too has the movement to reverse racial/ethnic segregation and enhance student interactions. Instead, much popular... more
Since the Civil Rights Movements, the emphasis on confronting power, inequality, and racism in US schools has receded. So too has the movement to reverse racial/ethnic segregation and enhance student interactions. Instead, much popular and academic discourse focuses on standardized tests and achievement gaps, leaving the social aspects of schooling and race/ethnic interactions under-explored and largely ignored. Meanwhile, racial/ethnic tensions, hierarchies, inequalities, and the patterns, institutions, and systems that maintain them persist. During a period of growth in the percentages of Latina/o and Asian American/Pacific Islander students, this article argues for the importance of theorizing, researching, and reconceptualizing race/ethnic interactions in schools. Key to this process is adopting a multifaceted and multilevel approach. This involves moving beyond dichotomous thinking and instead adopting a framework that explores (1) the strengths of quantitative and qualitative research; (2) cross- and intra-racial/ethnic relations; (3) the significance of race/ethnicity, class, and gender; (4) a conflict-solidarity continuum of relationships; and (5) the salience of macro-, meso-, and micro-dynamics on school interactions. The adoption of this approach allows for a more complex, nuanced, and contemporary analysis of the phenomena occurring in today’s schools, thereby facilitating the possibility for change.
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Although Latinas/os have a long history in the USA and represent a growing percentage of the population, they remain largely invisible or stereotyped in dominant images and discourses. Such representations are often ahistorical, and they... more
Although Latinas/os have a long history in the USA and represent a growing percentage of the population, they remain largely invisible or stereotyped in dominant images and discourses. Such representations are often ahistorical, and they camouflage the effects of US power and inequality. However, the spring 2006 immigrant rights demonstrations disturbed dominant conceptions. The demonstrators called attention to the contradictory US practices that disrupt home countries, recruit labor migrants, and deny immigrants full participation. Likewise, the role of students in these demonstrations spurred reflections on why youth would walk out of their schools for immigrant rights. Inspired by these demonstrations, we combine materials from multiple disciplines to emphasize the significance of US imperialism, exploitation, and exclusion on Latina/o migration, education, and activism. Key to this article is a reframing of how the media, K-12 curriculum, and popular discourse often engage in a cultural cover-up that sustains inequality.
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Research Interests: Chicano Studies, Latino/A Studies, Latin American Studies, Multiculturalism, Social Sciences, and 10 moreHigher Education, Critical Pedagogy, Social Studies Education, Chicana/o Studies, Service Learning, Race and Ethnicity, Learning And Teaching In Higher Education, Teaching History, Service Learning in Higher Education, and Teaching sociology
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Research Interests: Social Movements, Chicano Studies, Multiculturalism, Education, Teacher Education, and 10 moreHistory of Education, Immigration, Chicana/o Studies, Race and Ethnicity, Collective Action, Undocumented Immigration, Immigration History, Latino Studies (Ethnic And Racial Studies), Labor History and Studies, and Immigrant youth
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Book Review: Mexican American Assimilation, Mexican Migration, and U.S. Power and Exclusion Setting the Record Straight: Edward E. Telles and Vilma Ortiz Generations of Exclusion: Mexican Americans, Assimilation, and Race. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2008. Robert Joe Stout Why Immigrants C...more
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http://www.truth-out.org/speakout/item/33800-campus-protests-are-the-result-of-generations-of-racist-exclusion November 25, 2015 Once again, students are protesting entrenched inequities. Building on grassroots movements for justice such... more
http://www.truth-out.org/speakout/item/33800-campus-protests-are-the-result-of-generations-of-racist-exclusion
November 25, 2015
Once again, students are protesting entrenched inequities. Building on grassroots movements for justice such as Black Lives Matter and decades of student organizing, these demonstrations at colleges and universities are inspiring but not surprising. Students' demands (http://www.thedemands.org/) expose a pattern of neglect and outright exclusion generations in the making.
November 25, 2015
Once again, students are protesting entrenched inequities. Building on grassroots movements for justice such as Black Lives Matter and decades of student organizing, these demonstrations at colleges and universities are inspiring but not surprising. Students' demands (http://www.thedemands.org/) expose a pattern of neglect and outright exclusion generations in the making.
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" I thought this was going to be about students, and instead all you've done is presented us with cases of discrimination and sob stories. " After a five hour training with high school teachers on Race, Class, Gender, and Education, these... more
" I thought this was going to be about students, and instead all you've done is presented us with cases of discrimination and sob stories. " After a five hour training with high school teachers on Race, Class, Gender, and Education, these concluding comments by a White male teacher and one of the most vocal in the group did not surprise me. It simply summarized what I had come to understand over the course of the day. It also affirms U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's recent comments that the U.S. in many ways is " a nation of cowards " when it comes to acknowledging and discussing racism.
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Delivered to graduating seniors and their family and friends at Pomona College's 2017 Class Day
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As California school districts prepare for a new requirement that all high school students take an ethnic studies course for graduation, contentious conversations continue about a "model" ethnic studies curriculum for the state's K-12... more
As California school districts prepare for a new requirement that all high school students take an ethnic studies course for graduation, contentious conversations continue about a "model" ethnic studies curriculum for the state's K-12 schools. Less attention, however, has been given to the role of relationality in the vision, development, implementation, and longevity of ethnic studies courses and programs. In the spirit and praxis of Chicana/o/x studies, which centers solidarity, relationships, and critical community engagement, we write this essay as a transgenerational team to reflect on our justice-centered horizontal learning and teaching for the past fifteen years in Pomona, California. Writing collaboratively both reflects and enacts our ethos of relational connection in and across movements for educational justice. Our collaborative learning in Chicanx/Latinx studies (CLS) has resisted hierarchies and notions of linearity; instead it has been recursive and participatory, transcending the traditional forms of universitycommunity partnership. We have fluidly moved between our individual positionings as both learners and educators in our joint CLS work. In this essay we uplift salient memories as we collectively strive to answer the question What is the role of relationships in fostering Chicanx/Latinx studies spaces?
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By 10 January 2017, activists in the predominately Latina/o working class city of La Puente, California had lobbied the council to declare the city a sanctuary supporting immigrants, people of color, Muslims, LGBTQ people, and people with... more
By 10 January 2017, activists in the predominately Latina/o working class city of La Puente, California had lobbied the council to declare the city a sanctuary supporting immigrants, people of color, Muslims, LGBTQ people, and people with disabilities. The same community members urged the school district to declare itself a sanctuary. While community members rejoiced in pushing elected officials to pass these inclusive resolutions, there were multiple roadblocks reducing the potential for more substantive change. Drawing on city council and school board meetings, resolutions and my own involvement in this sanctuary struggle, I focus on a continuum of three overlapping and interlocking manifestations of white supremacist heteronormative patriarchy: neoliberal diversity discourses, institutionalized policies, and a re-emergence of high-profiled white supremacist activities. Together, these dynamics minimized, contained and absorbed community activism and possibilities of change. They ...
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Emphasizing the experiences of Mexican American women, this article identifies and analyzes Mexican Americans' attitudes toward and interactions with Mexican immigrants in a Los Angeles suburb, La Puente. In-depth, open-ended... more
Emphasizing the experiences of Mexican American women, this article identifies and analyzes Mexican Americans' attitudes toward and interactions with Mexican immigrants in a Los Angeles suburb, La Puente. In-depth, open-ended interviews with twenty-three Mexican Americans and participant observations in community sites are used to provide a detailed, context-specific analysis of the research topic. This article argues that in the context of prevailing ideologies and external factors, cultural variables such as language may result in both antagonism and a shared identity, while a similar racial background and class position may lead to intraethnic cooperation and mobilization. This article reveals how in particular circumstances, such as the school board's attempt to establish an English Only policy in schools, Mexican Americans and Mexican immigrants, possessing a shared structural position in La Puente, have organized around the maintenance of bilingual education. As reprod...
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1. Introducing Becoming Neighbors 2. Theorizing about Mexican American/-Mexican Immigrant Relations in "Occupied Mexico" 3. "Where the Past Meets the Future": Centering La Puente 4. "This Is Who I Am":... more
1. Introducing Becoming Neighbors 2. Theorizing about Mexican American/-Mexican Immigrant Relations in "Occupied Mexico" 3. "Where the Past Meets the Future": Centering La Puente 4. "This Is Who I Am": Negotiating Racial/Ethnic Constructions 5. "Between a Rock and a Hard Place, with No Easy Answers": Structuring Conflict 6. "We Can't Forget Our Roots": Building Solidarity 7. Constructing Puentes: Mexican American and Mexican Immigrant Mobilization 8. Revisiting and Envisioning the Processes of Becoming NeighborsAppendix: The Politics of Research
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Mapping the Causes of Unequal Schooling and the Transformative Possibilities of SociologyDespite the Best Intentions: How Racial Inequality Thrives in Good Schools, by LewisAmanda E.DiamondJohn B.New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. 249 pp. $27.95 cloth. ISBN: 9780195342727.Schooling the Next...more
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... To my parents, Francesca Palazzolo Ochoa and Henry José Ochoa, my most influential teachers ... Students Brenda Beas, Rosalba Chamu, Andrés Gallegos, Silvano Gonzalez, David Hender-son, Monica ... Listening to Latina/o Teachers 5... more
... To my parents, Francesca Palazzolo Ochoa and Henry José Ochoa, my most influential teachers ... Students Brenda Beas, Rosalba Chamu, Andrés Gallegos, Silvano Gonzalez, David Hender-son, Monica ... Listening to Latina/o Teachers 5 rigorous and important (Torres, 2003). ...
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... Ochoa, Ochoa / EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION 69 ... project tended to ignore the historical and contemporary significance of race-based hierarchies and immigration policies in favor of the myth that "we are all... more
... Ochoa, Ochoa / EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION 69 ... project tended to ignore the historical and contemporary significance of race-based hierarchies and immigration policies in favor of the myth that "we are all immigrants." In her analysis, she drew on course ...