ABSTRACT
The purpose of this critical self-narrative study is to understand the author’s own identity development as a Latina with the intent of furthering the research on Latina identity past the who to the how. Grounded in Latino Critical Theory and feminist epistemologies, it specifically aims to understand how the author/narrator came to identify as Latina following a period of self-exclusion. The author details three emerging findings related to her identity development: 1) The relevance of feelings of otherness across various stages of her life in response to the popular depiction of Latinx communities in the United States, as well as from the messages she received from within the Latinx community; 2) her nonlinear, though continuous, identity development highlighting the necessity of providing counterstories/narratives to the popular, homogenized understandings of Latina identity in society and in research; and 3) the author’s understanding of active resistance to marginalization as concentrated in day-to-day interactions with individuals, despite having a larger system-framing in her research and academic interests up until this point. These findings, and the use of critical narrative analysis to understand identity development, offer insights that have implications for teaching Latinx students and for research about the Latinx community moving forward.
