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Gender and identity in a community of working class Latina immigrants in United States Carolina De Los Rios University of Maryland Baltimore County The purpose of this study is to uncover and describe the impact of the migration experience on the lives of twenty working class Latina mothers in a mid size city in Maryland, focusing particularly on issues of gender and identity. The research questions address the following themes: transformation of gender systems and gender relations, redefinition of identity and the construction of hybrid identities, and migration as a liberating or non-liberating experience. The research design is qualitative with ethnographic methods for the data collection and analysis. The fieldwork consists of long-term participant observations, collection of life histories in 20 individual interviews, and a follow up focus group of eight participants who share similar characteristics. It is hoped that by unveiling the migration experiences of these mothers, this study will help those who work with immigrant families become more aware of the social realities Latina immigrant mothers encounter throughout the migration process. Results of this study will be of particular interest to educators, administrators, and all other school staff as, by understanding the experiences of immigrant families, they may become more culturally sensitive to the educational needs of the immigrant children in their schools. About Carolina De Los Rios Carolina De Los Rios is from Cali, Colombia, where she earned a BA in psychology and worked with women and children, victims of the armed conflict. She pursued a Master’s in Counseling Psychology at Towson University, Baltimore, Maryland, where she coordinated the Cross Cultural Health Program as a Graduate Assistant. Through this program, she promoted cultural awareness and served as a liaison between international students and the U.S. health care and educational systems. As part of her MA, she also completed a one-year practicum in Counseling Psychology at the Hispanic Apostolate in Baltimore, Maryland, providing counseling to the Latino community, but particularly to Latina women. In the Language, Literacy, and Culture doctoral program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), she have studied and engaged in productive discussions about diversity in the U.S. and, through papers and projects, she have investigated alternatives to provide support and services to the immigrant population. She has worked as an intern at the Maryland Office for New Americans (MONA), where she is responsible for improving outreach strategies for asylees. She is now in the process of writing the analysis of her dissertation which deals with the migration experiences of Latina immigrant mothers.
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