ABSTRACT
A Latina/o Critical Race Theory (LatCrit) analysis has allowed researchers to develop the conceptual framework of racist nativism, a lens that highlights the intersection of racism and nativism. Racist nativism is a conceptual frame that helps researchers to understand how the historical racialization of Immigrants of Color has shaped the contemporary experiences of Latina/o undocumented immigrants. While many definitions of race exist, most scholars agree that race is a socially constructed category. Racist nativism has targeted various groups of immigrants throughout US history. White ethnic immigrants in the late nineteenth century were racialized as foreign because they did not fit into the current perceptions of whiteness. Testimonio is a research strategy that was initially utilized in Latin American literature as a method to document the experiences of oppressed people during times of war. A critical race grounded theory approach is developed from traditional grounded theory in qualitative research, which allows themes to emerge from data.
