Student Research Spotlight: The Continued Marginalization of Latinx Immigrants
Excerpt from paper written by Britney Guttierez (Nursing ’24, CASC minor) for CASC3405: Community Engaged Research Method
Voces del Canal is a community-group organization in the Canal in San Rafael, California that advocates for change in their community and tries to get individuals to engage in participation and encourage them to raise their voice. [H]ow, despite all the work and change that is being done in these communities, [does] low income Latinx communities still continue to face discrimination and marginalization. Therefore my research question of “In what ways do low income immigrant families continue to be marginalized?” arose. Not only this but “Are their lives changed after leaving their home countries?”
[I did some research on] how individual intersectionalities affected their lives or added on even more to the marginalization that many of them faced. This connects to my recent research question of how they continue to be marginalized right now. One of the themes researched was how being a woman affected individuals from the Latinx community. The Inter-American Commission of Humans Rights in Guatemala shows how women are looked down upon and take minimal roles in the government. It mentions how “in the executive branch of government women hold three of the 13 cabinet positions. In the legislative branch, only ten of the 113 deputies are women. Women hold only six of the 22 executive offices at the departmental level. At the local level, only three of the nation’s 330 mayors are women and none of the political parties ever have been held by women” (Inter American Commission on Humans Rights). Thus communicating that women have limited power. This is also shown in Guatemala’s brutal history of raping women and treating them as objects rather than humans in the article Violence Against Women in Central America, where it mentions “Women were raped and tortured during the 36 year long war of Guatemala. They have been viewed as men’s territory..”(Wilson, 2014). Given this we can see how women are treated inferiorly and are subordinated. Girls’ Education In Guatemala Becoming More Accessible in Rural Areas by the Borgen Project mentions how women are discouraged to get an education. It states that girl’s schools are poorly funded and don’t have proper curriculum guides and literacy materials which makes the dropout rates high for women(Borgen, 2018). Another theme I looked into were the ways that many Latin American countries are marginalized and looked specifically at Guatemala since the majority of the individuals from the Canal community are Guatemalan. In the 2017 Report of Guatemala it was found that it was one of the countries with the most unequal health, education and income and that the state’s low tax revenue makes it impossible to provide basic public services such as the right to work, and access jobs.(Guatemala 2017).
Anti-oppressive frameworks “offers a model to challenge the basic beliefs of the dominant and powerful society through the empowerment of those who are oppressed. Through the elimination of societal-imposed barriers such as race, gender, orientation, abilities, and age, we can confront and eradicate the class system in which we currently live and continue to support” (Moore, 2001). Working with Voces del Canal and members from the Canal highlighted this as barriers of gender, age, race, and abilities were broken and were able to discuss their problems to those in power. Despite many of them being Latinx, women, with insufficient English, they prepared their research and knowledge and presented it to the City of San Rafael, breaking barriers that prevented them from doing this. Therefore an anti-oppressive framework took place and members got to stand up for themselves and ask the City what they needed from them and raised their voices.
After the presentation that Voces del Canal conducted to the City Council, the city of San Rafael shared their efforts in implementing more lighting in the Canal area and discussed various ways that public safety could be increased. Some of their works are already in progress and others still would take more time to take place which they were able to share on this day with Voces del Canal. As this happened, members shared their joy and their gratitude to the city as they saw all their hard work pay off and it was truly a remarkable experience to see how members from low-class, low-income, with very little English were able to do this. Because of them real change is going to happen and individuals’ lives in the Canal will hopefully change for the better. Yet with all of this it is still important to highlight that things like this only occur rarely and the many lives still continue to be marginalized despite all the great work that has been done. That more work is still needed from those in power at a faster rate to fix the imbalance that place individuals in this position in the first place.
[W]e are able to see how individuals’ lives are very similar to what they were in their home countries before coming into the United States. That the marginalization that they flee follows them. Yet with the cultural assets that many have and implementing the frameworks of social justice, good things can arise. It is important to recognize that with small changes, communities like this can’t be satisfied as there are many other ways in which work needs to be done and change needs to occur.
