Mexican Immigrant Parents Advocating School Reform (The New Americans: Recent Immigration and American Society)

Reyes Cruz describes the experiences of Mexican immigrant parents working to make public schools responsive and accountable to Latino American children and their families in a small Midwestern town. The town is a racially divided city where a community of working-poor Latino American immigrants is forming. The parents do not believe schools are preparing their children for academic success and publicly advocate reforms. In the process, power struggles, knowledge-claim battles, and a generalized colonial mentality conspire to silence the parents basic claims for respect, dignity, and their children s rights. Reyes Cruz tells the story from a critical perspective with an eye for understanding how power is played out in the daily reproduction and contestation of social inequalities.

Reyes Cruz describes the experiences of Mexican immigrant parents working to make public schools responsive and accountable to Latino American children and their families in a small Midwestern town. The town is a racially divided city where a community of working-poor Latino American immigrants is forming. The parents do not believe schools are preparing their children for academic success and publicly advocate reforms. In the process, power struggles, knowledge-claim battles, and a generalized colonial mentality conspire to silence the parents' basic claims for respect, dignity, and their children's rights. Reyes Cruz tells the story from a critical perspective with an eye for understanding how power is played out in the daily reproduction and contestation of social inequalities.