UC San Diego

Through testimonio methodology (Pérez Huber, 2009) rooted in Chicana feminist epistemologies and situated within Latinx critical race theory (LatCrit) (Delgado Bernal, Pérez Huber, Malagón, 2019) this three-article dissertation reframes the college transition experiences of Chicana/Latina undergraduates at a Research 1 (R1) public university by taking a race, gender, class, immigration, and intersectional centered understanding of the Chicana/Latina college transition. 15 second-year Chicana/Latina undergraduate testimonios at this Emerging Hispanic Serving Institution (eHSI) were explored through Chicana/Latina /o critical race theory (LatCrit) and Chicana feminist methodologies and frameworks. This dissertation centers the Chicana/Latina undergraduate transition testimonios to uncover the systems and structures of marginality Chicana/Latina undergraduates navigate as they experience the transition to college through their embodied identities. The central data collection method in this dissertation are pláticas, a Chicana feminist method that is rooted in Chicana/Latina ways of knowing and everyday talk within Latinx communities (Fierros & Delgado Bernal, 2016). Testimonios are crafted in this dissertation through the braiding of a series of individual pláticas, a set of group pláticas, journaling, and visual representations of the transition. The testimonios will contribute to capturing the complexity and intricacies in the Chicana/Latina transition experience, through a race and gender centered exploration of the Chicana/Latina R1 college transition situated within the systems of marginality that underlie the lives of Chicanas/Latinas in the United States. Therefore, this dissertation contributes to one of the first explorations of a mujer centered theorization of the transition to college that draws from the braiding of LatCrit and Chicana feminist epistemologies and frameworks to theorize about college processes.