In Episode 113, Michael and Dan talk with Dr. Lilliana Saldaña and Vanessa Sandoval about their (and the larger efforts) to create a Mexican American Studies course approved by the Texas State Board of Education.

Books, Articles and Other Amazing Resources

1. Books, Articles and Other Amazing Resources
   1. More on the ‘Reject the Text’ movement The Scholarly Reviews are in on that ‘Deeply Offensive’ Mex-Am Studies Text from The Texas Observer
   2. Interested in learning more about about attending professional development this summer? Check out MAS Social Studies Teachers’ Academy!
   3. Some mentioned resources from the episode
      1. http://education.utsa.edu/mas/social_studies_teachers_academy/
      2.  https://mastxeducation.com/
   4. Here are flyers and images from the MAS Teachers’ Academy and the movement that Dr. Saldaña and Vanessa shared with us!
   5. Stolen Education film
      1. Dan talked about Stolen Education which documents the untold story of Mexican-American school children who challenged discrimination in Texas schools in the 1950’s and changed the face of education in the Southwest.

    

Biographies

Vanessa Sandoval is a UTSA undergraduate and a first generation student with a concentration in Education and Human Development. Her research interest focuses on cross- disciplinary and interdisciplinary understandings of K-12 schooling experiences for Mexican American students, especially as these relate to curriculum.

Lilliana Patricia Saldaña is a Chicana activist scholar raised in San Antonio’s Southside. Saldaña attended Boston University where she earned her bachelor’s degree in English and International Relations, with a concentration in Latin American Studies and a minor in Journalism in 1998. Shortly after completing her studies, Saldaña worked at a dual-language school in San Antonio’s Westside and earned a master’s degree in Bicultural-Bilingual Studies from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2002. During her undergraduate and graduate studies, she was involved in numerous campus-activist projects and worked in community settings, synthesizing her passion for research and social change. As a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Saldaña worked with Latina/o families to establish Nuestro Mundo, the first dual-language school in the city, and Formando Lazos, community development project with Latina immigrant mothers. She earned a doctoral degree in Human Development and Family Studies, with a minor in Chicana/o families, schools, and communities, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2010. Her dissertation—“¡De mi barrio no me voy!: The identity and consciousness of Mexican American teachers at a dual-language school—examines the life histories of Raza teachers and the ways in which they transform, negotiate and reproduce the culture of schooling in San Antonio, Texas.