Steven Alvarez - Brokering Tareas: Mexican Immigrant Families Translanguaging Homework Literacies

Brokering Tareas

Brokering Tareas

Mexican Immigrant Families
Translanguaging Homework Literacies

Steven Alvarez

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

2017 State University of New York

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY

www.sunypress.edu

Production, Ryan Morris

Marketing, Kate R. Seburyamo

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Alvarez, Steven, 1979- author.

Title: Brokering tareas : Mexican immigrant families translanguaging homework literacies / Steven Alvarez.

Description: Albany : State University of New York Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016055587 (print) | LCCN 2017025341 (ebook) | ISBN 9781438467214 (e-book) | ISBN 9781438467191 (hardcover : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Mexican AmericansEducationNew York (State)New York. | Mexican American familiesSocial conditionsNew York (State)New York. | LiteracySocial aspectsNew York (State)New York. | Mentoring in educationNew York (State)New York. | After-school programsNew York (State)New York. | School and communityNew York (State)New York. | Home and schoolNew York (State)New York.

Classification: LCC LC2688.N48 (ebook) | LCC LC2688.N48 A 58 2017 (print) | DDC 370.8968/720747--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016055587

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

INTRODUCTION
Muchas Manos Hacen Ligero Trabajo

CHAPTER 1
Mexican New York City: Making Community at MANOS

CHAPTER 2
Translanguaging Events: Homework Literacies at MANOS

CHAPTER 3
Translanguaging in Practice: Homework, Linguistic Power, and Family Life

CHAPTER 4
Brokering the Immigrant Bargain: Negotiating Language, Power, and Identity in Mexican Immigrant Families

CHAPTER 5
Brokering Communities: Community Superacin and Local Literacy Investment

CHAPTER 6
Tareas, Community, and Brokering Care: Mentoring Local Languages and Literacies

APPENDIX A
A Note on Ethnographic Methodology

APPENDIX B
MANOS Member Contract

Illustrations

Acknowledgments

To the MANOS families I offer my deepest acknowledgment en confianza, as both friends and my community in New York City. To all of MANOS: thank you for learning with me. Me siento muy agradecido por su amistad. Gracias a ustedes, a mis amigos y a mi comunidad. My deepest thanks go to the families and mentors at MANOS. I salute ustedes, and thank you for your friendship and for being my teachers.

I thank those who read this manuscript and who have mentored my writing and research. Adam Banks, Francie Chassen-Lpez, Nelson Flores, Juan Guerra, Jaime Armin Meja, Roxanne Mountford, Leigh Patel, and R. Joseph Rodrguez gave advice about this book, as well as generous encouragement. I would also like to thank my former colleagues in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies at the University of Kentucky: Bill Endres, Jan Fernheimer, Brian McNely, Jim Ridolfo, Jenny Rice, and Jeff Rice, for advice about publishing and also about manuscript creation. I will forever be grateful to friends and colleagues who understand both sentence rhythms and fine bourbons. I want to express the utmost thanks to the friends and colleagues in New York City who supported my research, pushing me forward and offering me advice on teaching, writing, and language learning: Angelo Cabrera, Duncan Faherty, Alyshia Glvez, Francisco Laguna-Correa, Robert Courtney Smith, Amy Wan, and Ana Celia Zentella. I am also indebted to my CUNY Graduate Center English faculty mentors, Ammiel Alcalay, Rebecca Mlynarczyk, and Ira Shor. I thank you all for guiding my research, and for helping me move forward with a vision focused on committed community research and writing. Your mentorship as scholars served as an anchor in an ocean of data, pointing me toward a type of scholarship that is engaged with community from the communitys perspective, instead of from the complete insularity of the ivory tower.

I received comments on this manuscript from Sara P. Alvarez, A. Suresh Canagarajah, Tamika Carey, Ellen Cushman, David Green, Rhea Lathan, Rebecca Lorimer Leonard, Aja Martnez, Ligia Mihut, Gabriela Ros, Loukia Sarroub, Nazera Wright, and Kate Vieira. I thank you all for the words of encouragement about research and teaching. I have learned a great deal from each of you as scholars, activists, and educators.

I have presented research for this book at a number of forums, including: American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education; American Educational Research Association; College English Association; College Language Association; Conference on College Composition and Communication; City University of New York Institute of Mexican Studies; Foro Latinoamericano de Educacin Intercultural, Migracin, y Vida Escolar, Benemrita Universidad Autnoma de Puebla; International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry; International Society of Language Studies; Modern Language Association; National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies; Annual Conference for the National Council of Teachers of English; Northeast Modern Language Association; Pennsylvania State University Annual Rhetoric Conference; Rhetoric Society of America; Southern Regional Education Board; Teachers College, Columbia University Conference for the Educational Needs and Strengths of Mexican Youth and Families; University of Arizona Rhetoric and Teaching of English Border Rhetorics Symposium; University of Massachusetts, Amherst Transnational Literacies Symposium; and University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education Ethnography Forum. I am grateful for these venues and participants for provoking dialogues and furthering the development of this manuscript. Special thanks as well to the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation Career Enhancement Fellowship and the University of Kentucky for support for the writing of this book.

I thank the editors and readers of publications who shaped this research. A version of bargain: Second-generation immigrant youth negotiating transnational orientations to literacy, in Literacy in Composition Studies 3.3 (pp. 2547); copyright 2015 by Literacy in Composition Studies . All are used with permission.

This book is dedicated con todo respeto to all families in times of troubles and blisses, to my families stretching across the Americas. To my family in New York and Colombia, Jairo, Gloria, and Nico, thank you for teaching me about my own bilingual potential. To my family in Arizona and Mexico, thank you for instilling the values of caring en confianza. Thank you to my parents Roberto and Anna Alvarezmy mentors, my role models, and my strength. Thank you, as well, to mis hermanos and their children in Arizona, sisters Debbie and Nancy, and brothers Tony and Fred. Thank you to Aaron Altamirano and Sonia McGlothlin-Altamirano for your support all the way from Safford and Tucson. Finally, thank you to my wife Sara Lpez Amzquita Alvarez for your patience, your insight, and for joining me in the adventures in and out of academia. Thank you, mi vida, for being my courage, my inspiration, and my partner.