Cultural authenticity and transnational Latina youth: Constructing a meta-narrative across borders

The data in this article comes from a larger 3-year ethnographic study that examines the transnational immigrant lives of second-generation Latina youth whose families reside in northern California and maintain close ties to small rural communities in western Mexico. In the course of the study, three bilingual youth and I developed a participatory research project where students became researchers of their transnational communities. Findings depict how immigrant students use different language and literacy practices to represent themselves and author a meta-narrative about the U.S.-Mexico transnational experience. Family and community narratives are not only an iterative practice in this cross-border setting but also inscribed in certain household artifacts. This work suggests that sustained transnational contact with communities in Mexico provides linguistic and cultural resources for U.S. immigrant children that schools often overlook.