“That’s When We Became a Nation”

This study investigates how high-achieving Latino adolescents at an urban high school designate significance to events, people, and documents in American history. Survey and interview data of 70 high school students and their advanced placement history teacher document how students attach their own meanings to the history of the nation and employ concepts of freedom and unity as criteria for attributing significance. Unlike other ethnic minority students, however, these almost exclusively Cuban American students complemented and reinforced the official narrative of national uniqueness and progress.