High School Latinx Counternarratives

This book represents an ethnographic study of the experiences and counternarratives of twelve Latinx young adults. All of the participants in this study are first generation immigrants to the United States, representing different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds and immigration statuses. Drawing from Latino Critical Theory (LatCrit) and Queers of Color Epistemologies as a theoretical framework, this book analyzes the personal experiences of Latinx during and after finishing high school. This book uses a classroom project (dialogue journals) to reconnect with twelve former English language learners (ELLs) from the Southeast after ten years. Through the use of dialogue journals as an English as a second language (ESL) strategy to support writing, the participants in this book document personal and communal experiences as Latinx immigrants in the United States. This book will represent an excellent asset for teachers, school administrators, counselors, staff, preservice teachers, practicing educators, graduate students, scholars, and policymakers.

Juan Ríos Vega is an assistant professor at Bradley University, Department of Teacher Education, Counseling, and Leadership. He earned an M.A. in curriculum and teaching with an emphasis in ESL from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro; a women’s and gender studies certificate from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro; and a Ph.D. in philosophy in educational studies with a cultural studies concentration from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. In 2014, he received the Daniel A. Solórzano Mentoring Program Award. In 2015, Dr. Ríos Vega published his first book Counterstorytelling Narratives of Latino Teenage Boys: From Vergüenza to Échale Ganas.