Dr. David G. García | University of California, Los Angeles (original) (raw)

I am an Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. I am one of only a handful of historians across the country documenting Chicana/o community histories of education. I earned my Ph.D. in U.S. history while developing an interdisciplinary research trajectory following three main lines of inquiry: (1) Chicana/o teatro (theater) as public revisionist history, (2) the pedagogy of Hollywood’s urban school genre, and (3) Chicana/o educational histories. Each of these areas addresses the interconnectivity of history and education in relation to Chicana/o, Latina/o communities in the United States and examines how the constructs of race, culture, and class shape educational experiences for Communities of Color across time and place. I have been awarded Ford Foundation and University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellowships, and held a faculty appointment at the University of Michigan.

My book "Strategies of Segregation: Race, Residence and The Struggle for Educational Equality" (UC Press 2018), unearths the ideological and structural architecture of enduring racial inequality within and beyond schools in Oxnard, California. Based on extensive archival research, the narrative spans 1903 to 1974, exposing a separate and unequal school system and its purposeful links with racially restrictive housing covenants. I conducted and analyzed over sixty oral history interviews with Mexican Americans and African Americans who endured disparate treatment and protested discrimination. The book’s final chapter focuses on one of the nation’s first desegregation cases filed jointly by Mexican American and Black plaintiffs.

In the short time since its publication, Strategies of Segregation has been very well-received among scholars and community members. It is garnering local, national, and a few international citations and attention. It is also being adopted in undergraduate and graduate classes in history, education and Chicana/o Studies. The book was noted on the Scholarly Book List in The Chronicle of Higher Education (February 23, 2018) and on the Legal History Blog (April 16, 2018) and has received several excellent reviews published in scholarly journals including Pacific Historical Review, Ethnic and Racial Studies Review, History of Education Quarterly, Southern California Quarterly, and American Historical Review. It received a 2019 AERA Division F New Scholars Book Award Honorable Mention and won a 2019 Critics’ Choice book award from the American Educational Studies Association.

In Oxnard and Ventura County, I conducted several professional training workshops for teachers interested in incorporating Strategies of Segregation into their curriculum. I was particularly honored to be invited to Richard B. Haydock Academy of Arts and Sciences, to speak with sixth grade students and their teacher who were so angered by Haydock’s racist Anti-Mexican and Black comments in my book that they petitioned the school board to change the name of their school. At their presentation, they quoted from my book, highlighting Haydock’s racism over 30 years as Superintendent of the district and his legacy of intentionally segregating and under-educating Mexican and Black students. The young students demonstrated courage as they presented their case. After some discussion, the board voted unanimously to begin the process of changing the name of the school. This was a powerful reminder of how history can be empowering to young students once they “see” themselves as a part of it. The video of the student presentation can be seen here,
https://oxnardsd.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view\_id=1&clip\_id=74&meta\_id=49643

My interdisciplinary research trajectory has also chronicled the evolution of the Chicano-Latino performance group Culture Clash. I argue that their theater functions as a form of public revisionist history, asserting counternarratives, cultural resilience, and community resistance. Their work broadens our understandings of the teaching and learning that takes place in commercial and popular cultural productions around the social constructs of race, gender, class, language, and immigrant status. The University of Michigan’s National Center for Institutional Diversity recognized this research with a citation as an Exemplary Diversity Scholar.

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Papers by Dr. David G. García

Journal of American Ethnic History, Apr 1, 2022

This article examines the case of Karla Galarza v. Washington, DC Board of Education. On April 3,... more This article examines the case of Karla Galarza v. Washington, DC Board of Education. On April 3, 1947, Karla Galarza refused to accept the board's directive to withdraw from the Black segregated Margaret Murray Washington Vocational School. Her father, Dr. Ernesto Galarza, supported her decision and worked to challenge the expulsion, and the system of segregation, as unconstitutional. The authors analyze materials from regional and national archives, oral accounts, legal documents, and personal collections, focusing on Dr. Galarza's voice in over one hundred pages of correspondence. Dr. Galarza brought together an interracial legal team, including Charles Hamilton Houston, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Jewish Congress, and the National Lawyers Guild. Dr. Galarza lauded the pedagogy of a Black teacher and the pluralism cultivated in a Black school community as evidence of democracy in action. The legal team proposed that Karla's expulsion constituted a violation of the Fifth Amendment, naming education as a property right. However, after extensive research and discussion across ten months, the organizations determined they should not pursue the case in court. The authors assert that this attempted legal intervention is an unnamed forerunner in the attack on Plessy v. Ferguson and complicates previous narratives of the long struggle to end school segregation.

Qualitative Inquiry, 2008

Using a critical race theory (CRT) framework, this article compares the play-writing methods of t... more Using a critical race theory (CRT) framework, this article compares the play-writing methods of the Chicano–Latino theater trio, Culture Clash, to a coun-terstorytelling methodology. The author uncovers the tenets of a critical race theater in the trio's site-specific ethnographic ...

Hollywood’s Exploited, 2010

Hollywood depictions of Latinas/os reflect troubling racial myths that have changed very little o... more Hollywood depictions of Latinas/os reflect troubling racial myths that have changed very little over the last century of filmmaking (e.g., Keller, 1985, 1994; Noriega, 1992; Pettit, 1980; Ramirez Berg, 2002; Woll, 1977, 1980). The treacherous bandido of old Hollywood films has evolved into a violent cholo in contemporary mainstream cinema, while the modernized version of the Latina spitfire and harlot remains hot tempered and sexually promiscuous. Disguised as entertainment media, this imagery projects racially charged messages about Latinas/os being biologically inferior and culturally deficient. Carlos Cortes (1995) notes that as part of the “societal curriculum,” films “have a major impact in shaping beliefs, attitudes, values, perceptions, and ‘knowledge’ and influencing decisions and action. In short, movies teach” (p. 75). In this chapter, we examine two Hollywood films that carry this teaching potential to the realm of public education (e.g., Bender, 2003; Delgado & Stefancic, 1992; Romero, 2001). Produced over a decade apart, Dangerous Minds (1995) and Freedom Writers (2007) each claim to present a realistic depiction of a mid-1990s public high school classroom in California. As we explore these ostensibly inspirational stories about a White female teacher who challenges cynicism and bureaucracy, we find similar narratives about what is and how to fix “the problem” for urban Youth of Color in schools.

Radical History Review, 2008

History of Education Quarterly, 2013

About two years ago, Haydock Grammar School was taken away from the use of the American children ... more About two years ago, Haydock Grammar School was taken away from the use of the American children and given bodily over to the use of Mexicans… This leaves all of Oxnard, from fourth Street… to Hill Street, without a school for American children; and the children from the south part of town have to pass the Mexicans coming from the northerly parts of town on their ways to school… We resent the implication that the Acre Tract is a Mexican district… If there is an urgent need to care for the Mexican Children, a school should be built in Colonia Gardens, or somewhere else in close proximity to their homes.

Harvard Educational Review, 2012

In this article, David G. García, Tara J. Yosso, and Frank P. Barajas examine the early twentieth... more In this article, David G. García, Tara J. Yosso, and Frank P. Barajas examine the early twentieth-century origins of a dual schooling system that facilitated the reproduction of a cheap labor force and the marginalization of Mexicans in Oxnard, California. In their analysis of the 1930s Oxnard Elementary School District board minutes, alongside newspapers, maps, scholarly accounts, and oral history interviews, they argue that school segregation privileged Whites and discriminated against Mexicans as a form of mundane racism. The authors build on previous scholarship documenting the pervasiveness of racism in U.S. society to define mundane racism as the systematic subordination of Mexicans that occurred as a commonplace, ordinary way of conducting business within and beyond schools. Their findings complicate narratives that emphasize complete segregation in “Mexican schools,” while acknowledging the resistance of parents and the resilience of their children.

History of Education Quarterly, 2020

What process of change can come from a people who do not know who they are, or where they come fr... more What process of change can come from a people who do not know who they are, or where they come from? If they do not know who they are, how can they know what they deserve to be?In 1976, after being imprisoned and forced into exile from his home country, Uruguay, Eduardo Galeano defiantly wrote “Defensa De La Palabra” (In Defense of the Word). In it, he argued that denying people access to their histories obstructs their vision of themselves as a people connected across time, and therefore restricts their ability to envision change for their future. He believed contributions to the revelation of the past depended on “the intensity level of the writer's responsiveness to his or her people—their roots, their vicissitudes, their destiny.” Forty-four years later, Galeano's reflections remain timely and methodologically instructive for those working at the nexus of history and education: Our authentic collective identity is born out of the past and nourished by it—our feet tread w...

Drawing on a critical race theory framework, this article weaves together sociology, education, h... more Drawing on a critical race theory framework, this article weaves together sociology, education, history, and performance studies to challenge deficit interpretations of Pierre Bourdieu’s cultural capital theory and to analyze Culture Clash’s play Chavez Ravine. The play recounts a decade of Los Angeles history through the perspectives of displaced Mexican American families from three former neighborhoods of Chavez Ravine. Culture Clash’s performance recovers and personifies the community cultural wealth cultivated by these families. This multifaceted portfolio of cultural assets and resources includes aspirational, linguistic, social, navigational, familial, and resistant capital. Chavez Ravine affirms the continuity of Chicana/o communities, utilizing culture as a source of strength that facilitates survival and nurtures resistance. Manazar: I want to talk about this photograph right here. (Manazar points to the photo hovering above him.) I see uncles, primas, I see my sister, mira...

Chicano-Latino L. Rev., 2006

Radical History Review, 2008

... Hollywood's Urban School Formula Tara J. Yosso and David G. García ... Instead of te... more ... Hollywood's Urban School Formula Tara J. Yosso and David G. García ... Instead of telling his own story, the only White student in the class, Ben (Hunter Parrish), describes how a class film about the Freedom Riders of the 1960s influenced him personally. ...

International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 2021

In this article, the authors reflect on the methodological tools they used to recover hidden pers... more In this article, the authors reflect on the methodological tools they used to recover hidden perspectives within two desegregation cases, Karla Galarza v. The Board of Education of Washington D.C., 1947 and Debbie and Doreen Soria, et al. v. Oxnard School Board of Trustees, 1974. Placing these two narratives in conversation and excavating the stories behind their creation, they add depth and dimension to our understanding of the long struggle for educational equality. They renew calls for educational researchers to consider the utility of a critical historical lens to more fully account for the complexities of race across time and place.

Hollywood's Exploited, 2010

Hollywood depictions of Latinas/os reflect troubling racial myths that have changed very little o... more Hollywood depictions of Latinas/os reflect troubling racial myths that have changed very little over the last century of filmmaking (e.g., Keller, 1985, 1994; Noriega, 1992; Pettit, 1980; Ramírez Berg, 2002; Woll, 1977, 1980). The treacherous bandido of old Hollywood films has evolved into a violent cholo in contemporary mainstream cinema, while the modernized version of the Latina spitfire and harlot remains hot tempered and sexually promiscuous. Disguised as entertainment media, this imagery projects racially charged messages about Latinas/os being biologically inferior and culturally deficient. Carlos Cortés (1995) notes that as part of the “societal curriculum,” films “have a major impact in shaping beliefs, attitudes, values, perceptions, and ‘knowledge’ and influencing decisions and action. In short, movies teach” (p. 75). In this chapter, we examine two Hollywood films that carry this teaching potential to the realm of public education (e.g., Bender, 2003; Delgado & Stefancic, 1992; Romero, 2001). Produced over a decade apart, Dangerous Minds (1995) and Freedom Writers (2007) each claim to present a realistic depiction of a mid-1990s public high school classroom in California. As we explore these ostensibly inspirational stories about a White female teacher who challenges cynicism and bureaucracy, we find similar narratives about what is and how to fix “the problem” for urban Youth of Color in schools.

History of Education Quarterly, 2020

"In this article, David G. García, Tara J. Yosso, and Frank P. Barajas examine the early twentiet... more "In this article, David G. García, Tara J. Yosso, and Frank P. Barajas examine the early twentieth-century origins of a dual schooling system that facilitated the reproduction of a cheap labor force and the marginalization of Mexicans in Oxnard, Cali-
fornia. In their analysis of the 1930s Oxnard Elementary School District board minutes, alongside newspapers, maps, scholarly accounts, and oral history interviews, they argue that school segregation privileged Whites and discriminated against Mexi-
cans as a form of mundane racism. The authors build on previous scholarship documenting the pervasiveness of racism in U.S. society to define mundane racism as the
systematic subordination of Mexicans that occurred as a commonplace, ordinary way of conducting business within and beyond schools. Their findings complicate narratives that emphasize complete segregation in “Mexican schools,” while acknowledging the resistance of parents and the resilience of their children."

This article describes the creation and implementation of a unique undergraduate history seminar ... more This article describes the creation and implementation of a unique undergraduate history seminar dedicated to examining and engaging the work of the Chicano-Latino theater trio Culture Clash. My previous research identified similarities between Culture Clash's playwriting methods and scholarly approaches to oral history and ethnography. The course engaged these methods, requiring students to conduct oral histories and transform those interviews into performance monologues. Informed by the role of Chicana/o teatro in the social protest movements of the 1960s and 1970s, the course challenged students to follow Culture Clash's methods of using teatro to tell the stories of those on society's margins. Culture Clash members joined the class in facilitating students' efforts to bridge historical scholarship with oral histories of everyday people. I examined excerpts of students' monologues and a spoken word piece performed as part of the course culminating public "Reader's Theater" event. Reflecting on some of the students' remarks, I discuss the seminar as contributing to a tradition of transformative history pedagogy.

Critical Film Review Essay of Half Nelson (2007), Freedom Writers (2007), & Walkout (2006)

Drawing on a critical race theory framework, this article weaves together sociology, education, h... more Drawing on a critical race theory framework, this article weaves together sociology, education, history, and performance studies to challenge deficit interpretations
of Pierre Bourdieu’s cultural capital theory and to analyze Culture Clash’s play Chavez Ravine. The play recounts a decade of Los Angeles history through the perspectives of displaced Mexican American families from three former neighborhoods of Chavez Ravine. Culture Clash’s performance recovers and personifies the community cultural wealth cultivated by these families. This multifaceted portfolio of cultural assets and resources includes aspirational, linguistic, social, navigational, familial, and resistant capital. Chavez Ravine affirms the continuity of Chicana/o communities, utilizing culture as a source of strength that facilitates survival and nurtures resistance.

Journal of American Ethnic History, Apr 1, 2022

This article examines the case of Karla Galarza v. Washington, DC Board of Education. On April 3,... more This article examines the case of Karla Galarza v. Washington, DC Board of Education. On April 3, 1947, Karla Galarza refused to accept the board's directive to withdraw from the Black segregated Margaret Murray Washington Vocational School. Her father, Dr. Ernesto Galarza, supported her decision and worked to challenge the expulsion, and the system of segregation, as unconstitutional. The authors analyze materials from regional and national archives, oral accounts, legal documents, and personal collections, focusing on Dr. Galarza's voice in over one hundred pages of correspondence. Dr. Galarza brought together an interracial legal team, including Charles Hamilton Houston, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Jewish Congress, and the National Lawyers Guild. Dr. Galarza lauded the pedagogy of a Black teacher and the pluralism cultivated in a Black school community as evidence of democracy in action. The legal team proposed that Karla's expulsion constituted a violation of the Fifth Amendment, naming education as a property right. However, after extensive research and discussion across ten months, the organizations determined they should not pursue the case in court. The authors assert that this attempted legal intervention is an unnamed forerunner in the attack on Plessy v. Ferguson and complicates previous narratives of the long struggle to end school segregation.

Qualitative Inquiry, 2008

Using a critical race theory (CRT) framework, this article compares the play-writing methods of t... more Using a critical race theory (CRT) framework, this article compares the play-writing methods of the Chicano–Latino theater trio, Culture Clash, to a coun-terstorytelling methodology. The author uncovers the tenets of a critical race theater in the trio's site-specific ethnographic ...

Hollywood’s Exploited, 2010

Hollywood depictions of Latinas/os reflect troubling racial myths that have changed very little o... more Hollywood depictions of Latinas/os reflect troubling racial myths that have changed very little over the last century of filmmaking (e.g., Keller, 1985, 1994; Noriega, 1992; Pettit, 1980; Ramirez Berg, 2002; Woll, 1977, 1980). The treacherous bandido of old Hollywood films has evolved into a violent cholo in contemporary mainstream cinema, while the modernized version of the Latina spitfire and harlot remains hot tempered and sexually promiscuous. Disguised as entertainment media, this imagery projects racially charged messages about Latinas/os being biologically inferior and culturally deficient. Carlos Cortes (1995) notes that as part of the “societal curriculum,” films “have a major impact in shaping beliefs, attitudes, values, perceptions, and ‘knowledge’ and influencing decisions and action. In short, movies teach” (p. 75). In this chapter, we examine two Hollywood films that carry this teaching potential to the realm of public education (e.g., Bender, 2003; Delgado & Stefancic, 1992; Romero, 2001). Produced over a decade apart, Dangerous Minds (1995) and Freedom Writers (2007) each claim to present a realistic depiction of a mid-1990s public high school classroom in California. As we explore these ostensibly inspirational stories about a White female teacher who challenges cynicism and bureaucracy, we find similar narratives about what is and how to fix “the problem” for urban Youth of Color in schools.

Radical History Review, 2008

History of Education Quarterly, 2013

About two years ago, Haydock Grammar School was taken away from the use of the American children ... more About two years ago, Haydock Grammar School was taken away from the use of the American children and given bodily over to the use of Mexicans… This leaves all of Oxnard, from fourth Street… to Hill Street, without a school for American children; and the children from the south part of town have to pass the Mexicans coming from the northerly parts of town on their ways to school… We resent the implication that the Acre Tract is a Mexican district… If there is an urgent need to care for the Mexican Children, a school should be built in Colonia Gardens, or somewhere else in close proximity to their homes.

Harvard Educational Review, 2012

In this article, David G. García, Tara J. Yosso, and Frank P. Barajas examine the early twentieth... more In this article, David G. García, Tara J. Yosso, and Frank P. Barajas examine the early twentieth-century origins of a dual schooling system that facilitated the reproduction of a cheap labor force and the marginalization of Mexicans in Oxnard, California. In their analysis of the 1930s Oxnard Elementary School District board minutes, alongside newspapers, maps, scholarly accounts, and oral history interviews, they argue that school segregation privileged Whites and discriminated against Mexicans as a form of mundane racism. The authors build on previous scholarship documenting the pervasiveness of racism in U.S. society to define mundane racism as the systematic subordination of Mexicans that occurred as a commonplace, ordinary way of conducting business within and beyond schools. Their findings complicate narratives that emphasize complete segregation in “Mexican schools,” while acknowledging the resistance of parents and the resilience of their children.

History of Education Quarterly, 2020

What process of change can come from a people who do not know who they are, or where they come fr... more What process of change can come from a people who do not know who they are, or where they come from? If they do not know who they are, how can they know what they deserve to be?In 1976, after being imprisoned and forced into exile from his home country, Uruguay, Eduardo Galeano defiantly wrote “Defensa De La Palabra” (In Defense of the Word). In it, he argued that denying people access to their histories obstructs their vision of themselves as a people connected across time, and therefore restricts their ability to envision change for their future. He believed contributions to the revelation of the past depended on “the intensity level of the writer's responsiveness to his or her people—their roots, their vicissitudes, their destiny.” Forty-four years later, Galeano's reflections remain timely and methodologically instructive for those working at the nexus of history and education: Our authentic collective identity is born out of the past and nourished by it—our feet tread w...

Drawing on a critical race theory framework, this article weaves together sociology, education, h... more Drawing on a critical race theory framework, this article weaves together sociology, education, history, and performance studies to challenge deficit interpretations of Pierre Bourdieu’s cultural capital theory and to analyze Culture Clash’s play Chavez Ravine. The play recounts a decade of Los Angeles history through the perspectives of displaced Mexican American families from three former neighborhoods of Chavez Ravine. Culture Clash’s performance recovers and personifies the community cultural wealth cultivated by these families. This multifaceted portfolio of cultural assets and resources includes aspirational, linguistic, social, navigational, familial, and resistant capital. Chavez Ravine affirms the continuity of Chicana/o communities, utilizing culture as a source of strength that facilitates survival and nurtures resistance. Manazar: I want to talk about this photograph right here. (Manazar points to the photo hovering above him.) I see uncles, primas, I see my sister, mira...

Chicano-Latino L. Rev., 2006

Radical History Review, 2008

... Hollywood's Urban School Formula Tara J. Yosso and David G. García ... Instead of te... more ... Hollywood's Urban School Formula Tara J. Yosso and David G. García ... Instead of telling his own story, the only White student in the class, Ben (Hunter Parrish), describes how a class film about the Freedom Riders of the 1960s influenced him personally. ...

International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 2021

In this article, the authors reflect on the methodological tools they used to recover hidden pers... more In this article, the authors reflect on the methodological tools they used to recover hidden perspectives within two desegregation cases, Karla Galarza v. The Board of Education of Washington D.C., 1947 and Debbie and Doreen Soria, et al. v. Oxnard School Board of Trustees, 1974. Placing these two narratives in conversation and excavating the stories behind their creation, they add depth and dimension to our understanding of the long struggle for educational equality. They renew calls for educational researchers to consider the utility of a critical historical lens to more fully account for the complexities of race across time and place.

Hollywood's Exploited, 2010

Hollywood depictions of Latinas/os reflect troubling racial myths that have changed very little o... more Hollywood depictions of Latinas/os reflect troubling racial myths that have changed very little over the last century of filmmaking (e.g., Keller, 1985, 1994; Noriega, 1992; Pettit, 1980; Ramírez Berg, 2002; Woll, 1977, 1980). The treacherous bandido of old Hollywood films has evolved into a violent cholo in contemporary mainstream cinema, while the modernized version of the Latina spitfire and harlot remains hot tempered and sexually promiscuous. Disguised as entertainment media, this imagery projects racially charged messages about Latinas/os being biologically inferior and culturally deficient. Carlos Cortés (1995) notes that as part of the “societal curriculum,” films “have a major impact in shaping beliefs, attitudes, values, perceptions, and ‘knowledge’ and influencing decisions and action. In short, movies teach” (p. 75). In this chapter, we examine two Hollywood films that carry this teaching potential to the realm of public education (e.g., Bender, 2003; Delgado & Stefancic, 1992; Romero, 2001). Produced over a decade apart, Dangerous Minds (1995) and Freedom Writers (2007) each claim to present a realistic depiction of a mid-1990s public high school classroom in California. As we explore these ostensibly inspirational stories about a White female teacher who challenges cynicism and bureaucracy, we find similar narratives about what is and how to fix “the problem” for urban Youth of Color in schools.

History of Education Quarterly, 2020

"In this article, David G. García, Tara J. Yosso, and Frank P. Barajas examine the early twentiet... more "In this article, David G. García, Tara J. Yosso, and Frank P. Barajas examine the early twentieth-century origins of a dual schooling system that facilitated the reproduction of a cheap labor force and the marginalization of Mexicans in Oxnard, Cali-
fornia. In their analysis of the 1930s Oxnard Elementary School District board minutes, alongside newspapers, maps, scholarly accounts, and oral history interviews, they argue that school segregation privileged Whites and discriminated against Mexi-
cans as a form of mundane racism. The authors build on previous scholarship documenting the pervasiveness of racism in U.S. society to define mundane racism as the
systematic subordination of Mexicans that occurred as a commonplace, ordinary way of conducting business within and beyond schools. Their findings complicate narratives that emphasize complete segregation in “Mexican schools,” while acknowledging the resistance of parents and the resilience of their children."

This article describes the creation and implementation of a unique undergraduate history seminar ... more This article describes the creation and implementation of a unique undergraduate history seminar dedicated to examining and engaging the work of the Chicano-Latino theater trio Culture Clash. My previous research identified similarities between Culture Clash's playwriting methods and scholarly approaches to oral history and ethnography. The course engaged these methods, requiring students to conduct oral histories and transform those interviews into performance monologues. Informed by the role of Chicana/o teatro in the social protest movements of the 1960s and 1970s, the course challenged students to follow Culture Clash's methods of using teatro to tell the stories of those on society's margins. Culture Clash members joined the class in facilitating students' efforts to bridge historical scholarship with oral histories of everyday people. I examined excerpts of students' monologues and a spoken word piece performed as part of the course culminating public "Reader's Theater" event. Reflecting on some of the students' remarks, I discuss the seminar as contributing to a tradition of transformative history pedagogy.

Critical Film Review Essay of Half Nelson (2007), Freedom Writers (2007), & Walkout (2006)

Drawing on a critical race theory framework, this article weaves together sociology, education, h... more Drawing on a critical race theory framework, this article weaves together sociology, education, history, and performance studies to challenge deficit interpretations
of Pierre Bourdieu’s cultural capital theory and to analyze Culture Clash’s play Chavez Ravine. The play recounts a decade of Los Angeles history through the perspectives of displaced Mexican American families from three former neighborhoods of Chavez Ravine. Culture Clash’s performance recovers and personifies the community cultural wealth cultivated by these families. This multifaceted portfolio of cultural assets and resources includes aspirational, linguistic, social, navigational, familial, and resistant capital. Chavez Ravine affirms the continuity of Chicana/o communities, utilizing culture as a source of strength that facilitates survival and nurtures resistance.