Oaxaqueño/a Students' (Un)Welcoming High School Experiences

To date, research on immigrant Latino students has neglected to fully explore the school experiences of immigrants from Oaxaca, a community that has historically experienced economic, political, social, and cultural oppression in Mexico and now in the United States. Drawing from formal and informal interviews and observations, I examine the high school experiences of 4 Oaxaqueño/a students in a northern California agricultural city. Analysis of the Oaxaqueño/a students' experiences illuminates the contradictory messages of “unwelcomeness” received from the school's welcoming practices. The students' accounts also shed light on how their ethnic/linguistic identities are sources for discrimination at school.