Mi Voz, Mi Vida: Latino College Students Tell Their Stories (review)

The interest in understanding the college experiences of Latino/a college students has generated much attention recently in the literature. Mi Voz, Mi Vida consists of 15 stories of self-identified Latino/a college students from Dartmouth College. The students were drawn from a sociology course taught by Andrew Gómez or an education course taught by Christina Garrod, two of the three editors. In both courses, students were expected to focus on some issue of race or ethnicity.

To understand the contribution this book has within higher education as well as the positionality of the editors, it is important to note that the same primary editor has also published similar books with stories of Asian Americans (Garrod & Kilkenny, 2007), Native Americans (Erdich, Garrod, & Larimore, 1997), and African Americans (Garrod, 1999).

The structure of the book groups the stories by four themes: (a) resilience: the struggle to be strong, (b) biculturalism: on both sides of the border, (d) mentoring: the “someone in my life,” and (d) Latino identities: becoming and unbecoming Latino. Each of these themes represents the “challenges of growing up Latino” (p. 2).

In their introduction, the editors provide some insight into how the stories were written and some vague information about how they were selected for inclusion. The editors describe the need for these stories to be told as being linked to a shared “identity as Latinos in a time and place where little is expected from them” (p. 2).

Of the 15 stories, men wrote 10 and five were by women. They all share the personal experiences and challenges that eventually brought them to their Ivy League college. While the stories are interesting to read, the depth and richness varies greatly. One of particular interest that would lend itself well to the classroom was José García’s “The Hatred Within.” It’s a good example of what many theorists and researchers posit about the identity of an individual from a marginalized group. García writes with great passion of the conflicts that emerge during this identity development process.

Other stories focus on the college years while still others deal with pre-college years. Issues of alcoholism, abuse, and poverty come up in the stories; and at times, the experiences are those of any college student, not just Latino/a college students. Each of the stories includes descriptions of challenges the students found in their environments and, for some, the role that low socio-economic status played in their lives.

All of these students had high levels of academic achievement, which certainly influenced their potential for success. It was disappointing not to see this issue of academic success more thoroughly discussed in the context of overcoming the challenges students faced.

The editors “hope that readers of this anthology are engaged by the particularity and detail of these stories while at the same time connecting with the individual human experience” (p. ix). The term “anthology” is the best description of this book, since it only organizes the stories but does not attempt to provide any of the insights that researchers and faculty in higher education might expect. The lack of information about how the stories were selected or the positionality of the editors in choosing the stories they did represents another limitation, since such information is important to researchers and faculty, also providing insight into the editors’ intent of how these stories could be used as educational tools. Instead this volume just tells the stories.

While the stories alone may be of interest, another missing element is interpretation or guidance about how these students managed their own developmental issues or the types of things institutions could do to enhance their adjustment and academic success. Some of the stories could serve as examples of the Latino/a college student experience in classroom settings. For those enjoying personal narrative without interpretation, this book will be of great...