Latina Leadership focuses on the narratives, scholarly lives, pedagogies, and educational activism of established and emerging Latina leaders in K-16 educational environments. As the first edited collection foregrounding the voices of Latina educators who talk back to, with, and for themselves and the student communities with whom they work, this volume highlights the ways in which these leaders shape educational practices. Contributors illustrate, through their grounded stories, how they navigate institutionalized oppression while sustaining themselves and their communities both in and outside of the academy. The collection also outlines the many identities embedded within the term ""Latina,"" showcasing how Latina scholars grapple with various experiences while seeking to remain accountable to each other and to their families and communities. This book serves as a model and a source of support for emerging Latina leaders who can learn from the stories shared in this volume.

Beginning as a grassroots organizer in the 1950s, Vicente Ximenes was at the forefront of the movement for Mexican American civil rights through three presidential administrations, joining Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society and later emerging as one of the highest-ranking appointees in Johnson's administration. One of the most influential government representatives of Mexican American issues in recent history, Ximenes succeeded largely because he could adapt his rhetoric for different audiences in his speeches and writings. In Vicente Ximenes, LBJ's Great Society, and Mexican American Civil Rights Rhetoric, Michelle Hall Kells elucidates Ximenes's achievement through a rhetorical history of his career as an activist. Kells draws on Ximenes's extensive archive of speeches, reports, articles, and oral interviews to present the activist's rhetorical history and begins each chapter with an excerpt from the collection that showcases Ximenes's ability to negotiate multiple public spheres. Exploring Ximenes's legacy against the backdrop of the Cold War era, Kells's analyses illustrate how Ximenes effectively agitated for open, inclusive, and pluralist democracy at regional and national levels. After a discussion of Ximenes's early life, the author focuses on his career as an activist, examining Ximenes's leadership in several key civil rights events, including the historic 1967 White House cabinet committee hearings on Mexican American Affairs, and highlighting his role in advancing Mexican Americans and Latinos from social marginalization to greater representation in national politics. Kells concludes by reflecting on the later years of Ximenes's life and his contributions to the post-World War II civil rights movement. Vicente Ximenes, LBJ's Great Society, and Mexican American Civil Rights Rhetoric shows us a remarkable man who dedicated the majority of his life to public service, using rhetoric to mobilize activists for change at the grassroots level as well as at the highest levels of government to secure civil rights advances for his fellow Mexican Americans.

Latina Leadership focuses on the narratives, scholarly lives, pedagogies, and educational activism of established and emerging Latina leaders in K-16 educational environments. As the first edited collection foregrounding the voices of Latina educators who talk back to, with, and for themselves and the student communities with whom they work, this volume highlights the ways in which these leaders shape educational practices. Contributors illustrate, through their grounded stories, how they navigate institutionalized oppression while sustaining themselves and their communities both in and outside of the academy. The collection also outlines the many identities embedded within the term ""Latina,"" showcasing how Latina scholars grapple with various experiences while seeking to remain accountable to each other and to their families and communities. This book serves as a model and a source of support for emerging Latina leaders who can learn from the stories shared in this volume.

"How can the immigrant of yesterday be lionized as the very foundation of the nation's character, while the immigrant of today is often demonized as a threat to the nation's safety and stability?" ask volume editor Vanessa B. Beasley in her introduction to this timely book.

As the nation's ceremonial as well as political leader, presidents through their rhetoric help to create the frame for the American public's understanding of immigration. In an overarching essay and ten case studies, Who Belongs in America? Explores select moments in U.S. immigration history, focusing on the presidential discourse that preceded, address, or otherwise corresponded to events.

These chapters, which originated as presentations at the Texas A&M University Conference on Presidential Rhetoric, share a common interest in how, when and under what circumstances U.S. presidents or their administrations have negotiated the tension that lies at the heart of the immigration issue in the United States. The various authors look at the dual views of immigrants as either scapegoats for cultural fears, especially during trying times. U.S. presidents have had to navigate between these two motifs, and they have chosen different ways to do so. Indeed, as these studies show, their words have sometimes been at odds with their deeds and policies.

Since 9/11, few issues have more public significance than how America views immigrants. The contributors to this volume provide context that will help inform the public debate, as well as the scholarship, for years to come.

Vanessa B. Beasley, an associate professor of communication at the University of Georgia, is the author of You, the People: American National Identity in Presidential Rhetoric, also published by Texas A&M University Press. Her Ph.D. is from the University of Texas at Austin.