About the Book
Abriendo Puertas, Cerrando Heridas (Opening Doors, Closing Wounds): Latinas/os Finding Work-Life Balance in Academia is the newest book in the series on balancing work and life in the academy.
This volume focuses on the experiences of Latina/o students, professors, and staff/administrators in higher education and documents their testimonios of achieving a sense of balance between their personal and professional lives. In the face of many challenges they are scattered across the country, are often working in isolation of each other and must find ways to develop their own networks, support structures, and spaces where they can share their wisdom, strategize, and forge alliances to ensure collective.
The book focuses on Latinas/os in colleges of education, since many of them carry the important mission to prepare new teachers, and research new pedagogies that have the power of improving and transforming education. Following the format of the work-life balance book series, this volume contains autoethnographical testimonios in its methodological approach. This volume addresses three very important guiding questions
(1) What are the existing structures that isolate/discriminate against Latinas/os in higher education?
(2) How can Latinas/os disrupt these to achieve work-life balance?
(3) Based on their experiences, what are the transformative ideologies regarding Latinas/os seeking work-life balance?
Table of Contents:
Foreword, Gerardo Lopez.
Introduction: Abriendo Puertas, Cerrando Heridas (Opening Doors, Closing Wounds), Frank Hernandez and Elizabeth Murakami.
Part I: Personal Identity and Ideologies.
Chapter 1. Why Did He Think I Was the Custodian or the Maintenance Person? The Challenges of Balancing Love, Life, and Work, Frank Hernandez.
Chapter 2. Maestrita, Sandra Rodriguez-Arroyo.
Chapter 3. On the Tenure Trek to Equanimity: ¡Oh, Cuán Lejos Llegarás!, Vonzell Agosto.
Chapter 4. Being a Latina in the South: Being the Other of the Others in the Academic World, Paula Guerra.
Chapter 5. Everything I Needed to Know to Succeed in Academia I Learned as a Migrant Worker: An Autoethnographic Account, Raymond V. Padilla.
Chapter 6. Of and With: Stories of Belonging and Forging Multiple Latino/a Identities in Four Voices, Mónica Byrne-Jiménez, Adriana Villavicencio, Rosa Rivera-McCutchen, and Chris Torres.
Chapter 7. Finding and Defining Yourself in the Company of Others, Israel Aguilar, Juan Nino, and Dessynie Edwards.
Chapter 8. Testimonio for Living and Learning in Academia: Caring for Mind, Body, and Soul, Susan Hernandez and Leslie Gonzales.
Part II: Higher Education Structures.
Chapter 9. Introduction to Part II: Work–Life Balance within Higher Education Structures, Gloria M. Rodriguez.
Chapter 10. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club: Latino Administrators in Higher Education, Jesse Perez Mendez.
Chapter 11. Creating Work–Life Balance in Academia: Family, Community, and Self-Care, Lilliana Patricia Saldaña, Felicia Castro-Villarreal, and Erica Sosa.
Chapter 12. Documenting the Undocumented: Sabidurías de una Chicana in Academia, Linda Prieto.
Chapter 13. Bouncing Back from a Poor Third Year Review, Sylvia Martinez.
Chapter 14. Between Two Worlds, María D. Avalos.
Chapter 15. No Soy de Aquí, Ni Soy de Allá: Making My Way Through the Tenure Process, Margarita Jimenez-Silva.
Chapter 16. Scholarship of Mind and Soul, Claudia Cervantes-Soon and Juan F. Carrillo.
Chapter 17. Nuestras Raíces Ground Us: Reflecting Comunidad and Cultura in Who We Are as Latin@ Faculty, Laura Cortez, Melissa A. Martinez, Danielle Alsandor, Aurora Chang, and Anjalé D. Welton.
Part III: Building Pedagogy and Academic/Social Capital for Latina/o Students.
Chapter 18. Introduction to Part III: Higher Education and the Void of Culturally Relevant Spaces, Elizabeth T. Murakami.
Chapter 19. Advocating for Intergenerational Leadership Among Latina/o Faculty, Staff, and Students, Antonio G. Estudillo and Amanda Flores.
Chapter 20. Retention of Latina STEM Students in Texas: Exploring the Experiences That Should Be Considered, Elsa Gonzalez, Marie Valentin, Detra Johnson, Celestino Valentin Jr., Beatriz Lopez, Ariana Gonzalez, Yvonna Lincoln, and Christine Stanley.
Chapter 21. Memory and Hunger: Feeding on Remnants of the Past in a PWI, Hilario Lomeli.
Chapter 22. Flipping the Mirror: A Xicana Researcher Negotiating With the Act of Reflection, Margarita Berta-Avila.
Chapter 23. Reclaiming My Voice and Finding a Balance in Academia: A Journey Towards Advocacy, Angelica M. Tello.
Chapter 24. Latina/o Leaders in Espacios de Confianza: Creating Spaces Where Cultural Capital and Community Wealth Permeate, Fernando Valle, Sylvia Méndez-Morse, Irma Almager, and Hortensia Meg Cota.
Epilogue, Caroline S. Turner.
About the Contributors.
About the Author :
Frank Hernandez, University of Texas of the Permian Basin, USA
Elizabeth Murakami-Ramalho, University of Texas at San Antonio, USA
Gloria M. Rodriguez, UC Davis, USA
Joanne M. Marshall, Iowa State University, USA
Jeffrey S. Brooks, University of Idaho, USA
Bonnie Fusarelli, North Carolina State University, USA
Catherine A. Lugg, Rutgers University, USA
Latish C. Reed, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, USA
George Theoharis, Syracuse University, USA
