“I don’t want them investigating shit and taking my kids”: Controlling Images and Chicanas’ Decarceral Motherwork in Police Encounters

ABSTRACT While research has begun to document the criminalization of Latinas, few studies have examined their direct interactions with law enforcement. This study addresses that gap by analyzing the ideological discourses that shape Latina mothers’ carceral encounters and the maternal strategies they employ to protect their children from carceral state intervention and violence. Drawing on life-history interviews with 32 system-involved Mexican American (“Chicana”) mothers, this study finds that respondents’ carceral encounters are profoundly influenced by law enforcement’s perception of them as criminal gang members. The “Chicana gang banger” controlling image criminalizes Chicanas’ racialized, gendered, sexualized, and maternal identities, thereby legitimizing heightened and aggressive policing practices targeted at these women. To safeguard their children under increased surveillance and scrutiny, participants engaged in a form of mothering that Gurusami (2019) calls “decarceral motherwork.” Extending this framework, I identify two context-specific subtypes of decarceral maternal labor—anti-carceral compliance and fighting back—that respondents used to mitigate carceral threats to their mothering roles. I argue that Chicanas’ decarceral motherwork not only addresses the immediate and long-term needs of their children but also challenges prevailing stereotypes of maternal unfitness by demonstrating Chicana mothers’ radical love and unwavering commitment to protect their children no matter the cost.