The lived experience of Nortenas de Nuevo Mejico : Finding voice and reclaiming identity

The research problem derives from understanding how particular stereotypes have become hegemonic for Latinas, marginalizing and making them invisible in the popular, political, and scholarly discourses.;This study introduces to the literature a geographical, cultural, historically specific group of Latinas who, despite the marginalization they experience, developed strengths from the richness and complexity of their life experiences. The research identifies themes of dissonance and consonance in life experience with respect to language, religion, education, skin color, family and relationships, and ethnic identity, finding that the essence of their experience is constituted in their genealogy: "They've been here forever" in their ancestral homeland in what is now northern New Mexico. Further interpretation identifies a second-order finding, thesis ⇔ antithesis: the dynamic of holding the tension; and a third-order finding, synthesis: being and bearing witness to oppression. The study gives voice to the participant Latinas who live between cultures and reveals more fully the essence of their lived experience, presenting their lives lived as art and bodies lived as sites of struggle.;This study is based on a thorough reading of the literature in the major works produced by Chicana feminists, theologians and historians. It is grounded on and draws from the literature of Chicana scholars, including among others Norma Alarcon, Gloria Anzaldua, Maria Bernal, Irene Blea, Ana Castillo, Oliva Espin, Deena Gonzalez, Ana Isasi-Diaz, Jacqueline Martinez, Cherie Moraga, Sonia Saldivar-Hull, and Patricia Zavella.;The research is approached through hermeneutic-phenomenology, additionally informed by feminist and narrative theory, critical race theory, Chicana feminism, and liberation theology. The study has an autobiographical, historical basis and is grounded in social meaning and relevance.