“I Want to Give Back": Examining the Mestiza Consciousness of Multilingual Rural Latinx Students from California’s San Joaquin Valley

In 2016, California residents widely supported the passage of Proposition 58, which allowed non-English languages to be used in public education. This proposition was intended to benefit all students, especially the state’s large Latinx K–12 student population, who tend to speak Spanish and English at home and in school. Yet educational resources to support multilingual students in the state’s rural areas are scarce, and students consequently experience “English-only” learning spaces despite progressive educational policy. This article examines the educational experiences of multilingual rural Latinx students from California’s San Joaquin Valley agricultural region using Chicana/Latina feminist pláticas methodology. Drawing on Anzaldúa’s concept of mestiza consciousness, this study found that multilingual rural Latinx students are hyperaware of their linguistic marginalization within their K–12 schooling experiences and their migrant farm worker parents’ exclusion by English-only U.S. institutions. Due to the institutional harm caused by English dominance in their communities, multilingual rural Latinx students were motivated to pursue professions in which they could give back to their communities by using their linguistic strengths and resources to transform language inequities. Implications for policymakers and practitioners are provided to ensure that rural multilingual students’ linguistic and cultural backgrounds are centered and leveraged to support student learning and community well-being.