Boricua Female Scholars en la Diáspora y en la Brega : A Puerto Rican Feminist Community Cultural Wealth Framework

In this article, Nidza V. Marichal conceptualizes a Riqueza Cultural Puertorriqueña Feminista (RCPF; Puerto Rican Feminist Cultural Wealth) framework, a community cultural wealth (CCW) framework that underscores the wisdom, saberes (knowledges), and practices unique to Boricua (Puerto Rican) female scholars who must constantly bregar (navigate / grapple with) U.S. social, political, racial, and cultural norms to resist oppressive injustices and succeed in their educational journeys. She argues that Puerto Rico's complex colonial relationship with the United States has profoundly shaped the lived trajectories of Boricua female educators in the U.S. diaspora, positioning them as colonial subjects within a system that reifies their oppression and their second-class citizenship. Through an asset-based lens, Marichal theorizes the lived experiences of Boricua female scholars as always in a constant dance among cultures, languages, and two bounded territories: the archipelago and the U.S. mainland. Guided by la brega as a Puerto Rican epistemology (Díaz Quiñones, 2000), Yosso's (2005) CCW, Greenwood's (2019) place-conscious theory frameworks, and the empirical work of female Puerto Rican scholars, the RCPF framework is proposed as an act of resistance aimed to disrupt the reproduction of educational inequities by reclaiming Boricua histories and a valued herencia Boricua (Boricua heritage).