Mexican Immigrant Parents Advocating for School Reform »

Reyes Cruz describes the experiences of Mexican immigrant parents working to make public schools responsive and accountable to Latino American children and their families in a small Midwestern town. The town is a racially divided city where a community of working-poor Latino American immigrants is forming. The parents do not believe schools are preparing their children for academic success and publicly advocate reforms. In the process, power struggles, knowledge-claim battles, and a generalized colonial mentality conspire to silence the parents' basic claims for respect, dignity, and their children's rights. Reyes Cruz tells the story from a critical perspective with an eye for understanding how power is played out in the daily reproduction and contestation of social inequalities.