| This dissertation is an inductive study about activists and leaders in a Chicana/Latino community. This study shows that Chicana/Latino leaders historically have engaged in social change through individual (although not individualistic) and organizational venues. Twenty-six life histories and ethnographic accounts facilitate the analysis and allow the presentation of findings through historical accounts of each leader's negotiated interactions and involvement.;Contesting traditional notions of individualistic and positional leadership, and building on John Brown Childs' perspectives of leadership--Mutualist and Vanguard--this dissertation argues that Chicana/Latino leaders engage a relational leadership perspective for social change. This perspective is formed and shaped through daily interactions as leaders engage in reflexive sense-making of themselves as gendered, raced, and classed individuals. Despite the internal conflicts they encountered as they negotiated and compromised in the social change process, a notion of leadership emerged from these leaders' struggles. Moreover, daily interactions with their family, peers, and institutions which guided and informed their activism provided these leaders with a conscious foundation for understanding issues of justice, equality and fairness.;These leaders use informal leadership networks and organizational venues in their involvement. Chicana/Latino leaders/activists consciously use themselves as vehicles for change in their leadership interactions. That is, they make an effort to understand themselves and others within leadership relationships, issues, struggles, or situations. Assessing strength of forces, with an analysis of power and its structural constraints, these leaders approach activism with a reflective analysis of the multiplicity of agendas for change, as leaders/activists gauge their and others' position. Those who engage in leadership for their own gain are mistrusted and scrutinized, personal gain is not considered an outcome of "genuine" leadership.;Finally, relational leadership is a collective activity where other agendas come into play when and if these are in the best interest of those desiring the change. Family members, significant others, and influential others have played a part in the formation of the leaders/ activist. The majority of the subjects in the study come from a long line of activists who instilled in these leaders/activists their commitment to social justice and social change. |
