Challenging Racist Nativist Framing:

Using the critical race testimonios of ten Chicana undergraduate students at a toptier research university, Lindsay Pérez Huber interrogates and challenges the racist nativist framing of undocumented Latina/o immigrants as problematic, burdensome, and “illegal.” Specifically, a community cultural wealth framework (Yosso, 2005) is utilized and expanded to highlight the rich forms of capital existing within the families and communities of these young women that have allowed them to survive, resist, and navigate higher education while simultaneously challenging racist nativist discourses. Reflecting on her data and analysis, Pérez Huber ends with a call for a human rights framework that demands the right of all students—and particularly Latinas/os—to live full and free lives.

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Lindsay Pérez Huber is a doctoral candidate in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her dissertation project examines how discourses of racist nativism emerge in the educational trajectories of undocumented and U.S.-born Chicana college students in California. Her research specializations are in the areas of race, ethnicity, immigration, and critical race theory in education. Her work can be found in journals such as the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, Contemporary Justice Review, and various law reviews, including Nevada Law Review and UCLA Chicana/o-Latina/o Law Review. She is currently a research associate for UC/ACCORD (All Campus Consortium on Research for Diversity) at UCLA and a Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellow.