A Latina mother on TV: challenges of intragroup advocacy for equity in a Latinx community

Abstract

This article analyzes a ‘critical race moment’ in an ethnographic study to examine intragroup advocacy in a diverse Latinx community. In this moment, a Spanish-language TV newscast used an image of the first author and her young son to report on local Latinx leaders’ advocacy to address disparities impacting the broader Latinx community. Informed by Critical Race Theory, Latino Critical Race Theory, and Chicana Feminist Epistemology, this paper employs a unique analytical approach of unpacking a ‘critical race moment’ to examine the intragroup representative messages used by leaders. While their advocacy efforts led to investments in educational programming, Latinx leaders at times employed deficit ideologies about low-income, Spanish-speaking, immigrant Latinx families as they spoke to policymakers. Findings reveal the potential political binds Latinx leaders may encounter when they seek to advocate and speak for (rather than with) other Latinx community members in White dominant policy spaces.