Entre Nosotras: Latin American women’s perspectives on leadership by Bixidu Lobo-Molnar A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Graduate Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto © Copyright by Bixidu Lobo-Molnar (2012) Entre Nosotras: Latin American women’s perspectives on leadership Bixidu Lobo-Molnar Master of Arts Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education University of Toronto 2012 Abstract This thesis examines the significance of gaining an understanding of leadership that is both culturally appropriate and contextually relevant to its participants. In particular, this study takes up leadership as a process, experienced differently given one’s positionality. It also honors the work of Latin American (LA) women in Canada and interviews members of a LA women’s organization, pseudo-named Nosotras in an effort to begin to unravel the complexities of leadership and leadership training programs for young women. Interviewees contribute to the research through their knowledge on three main questions: (1) What does leadership mean? (2) What are its challenges? (3) How have you come to know leadership? My findings show that having a common vision of leadership is only the tip of the iceberg. A Latina Feminista lens that queers el liderazgo creates spaces to understand nuances, silences, and power dynamics embedded in current leadership processes and models. Key words: Latina Feminista, liderazgo, positionality theory, silence, challenges, and resistance. ii Acknowledgements I began to write this paper at the crossroads of my personal experience and conversations with other Latina women who expressed concerns and shared similar experiences inside and outside a small agency. I would like to acknowledge the six Latina women who were interviewed and who were directly involved in this storytelling of leadership, process and learning. We all shared many commonalities, but also differed in ideas and world views. I would also like to acknowledge my interactions with other women within the organization who are not directly represented in this research, but who played a key role in writing mi testimonio and in problematizing and challenging ideas of leadership within a structure and space that I held so closely for almost three years. Finally, and with equally important acknowledgement, I am very grateful to my thesis Committee. To Dr. Nancy Jackson, thank you for your time and insight. To my thesis supervisor- Dr. Christine Connelly, thank you for challenging me and for allowing me to express myself in both Spanish and English during this process. It was therapeutic. Tu apoyo, paciencia y tu dedicacion a mi trabajo- especialmente durante momentos dificiles en mi vida personal me mantuvieron escribiendo. Gracias. To my unsung superwomen- my sister Ververith and my wife and friend Karla, GRACIAS por su ayuda. Lo hicimos! iii Table of Contents Abstract..................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................iii Chapter 1: Introduction …......................................................................................................... 1 1.1. Socio-Political Contexts at a Glance ................................................................... 6 1.2. How I Came To This Work. ............................................................................ 13 1.3. Thesis Statement .................................................................................................19 1.4. The Organization of this Study ...........................................................................20 1.5. Significance of Study..........................................................................................21 Chapter 2: Theoretical Framework, Research Method & Methodology................................. 24 2.1. Theoretical Framework.......................................................................................24 2.2. Research Methods ..............................................................................................32 2.3. Research Recruitment Process ............................................................................33 2.4. Ethical Considerations ........................................................................................33 2.5. Methodology .......................................................................................................35 2.6. Situating Myself in the Study .........……………………………………………38 Chapter 3: Analysis ...........................................................................................................40 3.1. Challenges to Leadership....................................................................................48 3.2. Reading through the Silences .............................................................................54 3.3. Resistance and Points of Tension .......................................................................60 Chapter 4: Conclusion..............................................................................................................67 Reference List ..........................................................................................................................75 Appendices ..............................................................................................................................84 Appendix I: Sample Questions ................................................................................84 Appendix II: Initial E-mail ......................................................................................85 Appendix III: Consent Letter and Form for Research Participants ..........................88 Appendix IV: Follow-up with Participant on Interviews Letter ...............................94 iv Chapter 1: Introduction The strong presence of peoples from Latin America living in Canada is relatively recent (dating back only forty years or so) and there are experiences, stories and achievements worth bringing to light and documenting as part of the rich history of Canada. Unfortunately, in recent years, immigrants (first, second, and third generation) from Latin America have been depicted in ways that undermine the potential of this population. One example is the portrayal of Latin American people in the media, framing an entire peoples in monolothic and categorical ways. i.e. youth as gangsters, women as exotic and sexualized objects, following a specific phenotype- olive- to tanned skin, with a Hispanic accent with dark hair. Another example of skewed framing occurs within the immigration system where the Latino subject is almost automatically seen as suspect, with intentions of ‘illegally’ entering and/or remaining in the country, abusing social ‘welfare’ system, and/or involved in gang activity. Indeed, at a systemic level, there exist internal and external division and discrimination to and among Latin Americans, including homophobia, transphobia, racism, classism, ableism, etc. Thus, it is useful to note the complexities of this diverse community within a Canadian context since it is those complexities and the lack of historical understanding (read colonization) that causes Latin Americans living on the margins to remain misrepresented at worst and under-represented at best. Thus, this is not the perspective from which I write my thesis. I write from both the inside and the borderlands of a “Latino imaginary” (Flores, 1997). This is key to note because as Juan Flores states, “Distinguising between interior and exterior perspectives is... a necessary step, and given that in the case of Latinos the outside representation is the dominant one, any instance of cultural 1 2 expression by Latinos themselves may serve as a healthy corrective to the ceaseless barrage of stereotypes that go to define what is “Latino” in the public mind” (Flores, 1997, p. 185). In his work on the “Latino Imaginary: Dimensions of community and identity”, Flores (1997) writes about the imagined social construction of “Latino”, which must not be confused with Benedict Anderson’s comunidades imaginadas. Benedict Anderson (1983) first used the term imaginary communities as a way to explain the utility of the political project of State nationalism and as Marxism’s great historical failure (p.13). Anderson explains that, “they are imaginary because even the smallest nation will never know the majority of their compatriots, they will not see them or even hear about them, but nonetheless in the mind of each person, the image of their communion will still exist” (p.15). And finally, Benedict uses the term comunidad or community because “independent of the inequality and the exploitation that can exist in any given case, the nation is always conceived as a profound horizontal camaraderie” (p.16). Benedict explains that in the last two centuries, “it is this fraternity that has permitted millions of people to kill and most importantly, be willing to die for these limited imaginaries” (p. 16). In comparison, Flores’ “Latino imagined community” initially draws a similar conclusion to that of Anderson as Flores (1997) agrees that “the foundational exercise in ‘imagining’ communities‘ has its own limits, as it becomes evident that there is as much blurring involved as clear and meaningful bounding [where]