Podcast Summary

Episode Overview

Podcast: New Books Network – New Books in Latino Studies
Host: Jonathan Cortez
Guest: Dr. Andrea Flores, Assistant Professor of Education, Brown University
Episode Focus: Dr. Flores discusses her book, The Succeeders: How Immigrant Youth Are Transforming What It Means to Belong in America (UC Press, 2021), exploring how Latino immigrant youth in Nashville, TN, navigate belonging, success, and societal expectations through educational pathways.

1. Introduction & Author Background

[01:32 – 06:20]

• Dr. Flores traces her academic and personal background:
  • Raised in Boston by a first-generation college-educated mother (Irish and Canadian descent) and a father from Guatemala.
  • Personal and family experiences shaped her lens on immigration, education, and belonging.
  • Graduate studies at Brown in anthropology, previous work at Harvard's Project Zero.
  • Keen interest in how education becomes the crucible for integration and belonging, especially in areas without longstanding Latino communities.

Quote:

"Education becomes this kind of crucible through which each successive wave of immigrants makes their way in the United States." — Dr. Andrea Flores [04:12]

2. Belonging, Education, and National Identity

[06:25 – 08:34]

• Flores discusses the multi-layered nature of belonging:
  • Schools as both sites of inclusion and exclusion—central institutions where immigrants first encounter national values and boundaries.
  • Belonging is lived and constructed daily, not just a legal category.

Quote:

"Belonging is this fundamental part of what makes us human... schools are often the first institutions that migrant families have sustained contact with in their new national home." — Dr. Andrea Flores [07:00]

• Jonathan notes:

  “Belonging isn’t limited to a legal category, but is reckoned in daily life through our contact with others and places like neighborhoods and schools.” [08:34]

3. Defining “The Succeeders” and Research Context

[09:13 – 12:09]

• The Succeeders: A nonprofit college-access program in Nashville serving Latino youth—half of whom were undocumented or from mixed-status families.
• A diverse group—not just the “extraordinary” narratives often told (e.g., the undocumented student at Harvard), but also ordinary, striving students whose stories are typically overlooked.

Quote:

"Here were kids... quietly transforming their communities and grasping at education... a story we don't often see because it's not the exceptional case." — Dr. Andrea Flores [11:22]

4. Conceptual Frameworks: Latino Threat, American Dream, and Respectability Politics

[12:40 – 17:12]

• Latino Threat (after Leo Chavez):

  • Media and politics cast Latino youth as demographic “threats” (delinquency, dropouts) and outsiders to "imagined" white America.
  • Succeeders are “constructed as this threat,” facing daily microaggressions and low expectations in school.

• American Dream:

  • Prevalent belief in individual triumph through hard work; success equated with deserved belonging.

• Respectability Politics:

  • Succeeders perform “respectable” Latinidad, seeking to counteract negative images but sometimes reinforcing limiting norms.

Quote:

"...sometimes that collides with having to degrade what it is to be Latino for these young people." — Dr. Andrea Flores [16:44]

5. Case Study: Nashville’s Changing Demographics

[18:01 – 22:38]

• Why Nashville?
  • 1990s economic boom led to rapid Latino migration (from 0% to 10% of city population in a decade).
  • Initial hostilities and anti-immigrant activism; local activism gradually shifted the climate towards greater inclusion.
  • Ongoing tension between touted economic success and failing support for vulnerable populations (e.g., low Latino graduation rates).

Quote:

"What does it mean to be a city of success? Do we measure it through tourist dollars... or the fact that Latino high school students aren’t graduating?" — Dr. Andrea Flores [22:25]

6. Negotiating Latinidad and Belonging

[24:23 – 28:41]

• Succeeders frequently define their Latino identity in opposition to stereotypes (“I’m not that kind of Latino”).
• School-sanctioned multiculturalism (e.g., International Day) offers “permitted difference” — food, music, but not deeper or more politicized forms of cultural recognition.
• Familial pride and intergenerational connections are central to their sense of identity—a subtle but crucial resistance to nativist demands.

Quote:

"Asserting your connection to another country is a radical act." — Dr. Andrea Flores [28:08]

7. Moral Boundaries: Good/Bad Latino & Everyday Stigma

[29:02 – 36:58]

• Duck, Duck, Goose Incident ([29:36 – 32:16]):
  • Game reveals stigmatization of undocumented status; “if you’re illegal, get up”—awkwardness and social tension.
  • Program staff redirect toward education as a unifier (“who wants to go to college?”).
• Respectability performed against stereotypes (e.g., not being a teen mother, not a dropout, not undocumented).
• Tensions arise when students confront stereotypes within their own families (e.g., young mothers), leading to moral dilemmas about kin.

Quote:

"Who do I value and why? And if I’m holding myself up as, look at me, I’m the student... what labor does that obscure?" — Dr. Andrea Flores [35:53]

• Parent Perspective ([34:50]):
  • Parental aspiration and internalized stigma: “Don’t be a dishwasher. I already have one. I am one.”
    — Mrs. Hinojosa, Succeeder parent

8. The “Moral Minority” & Navigating Gatekeeping

[40:03 – 47:08]

• Dr. Flores introduces the concept of the “moral minority”:
  • Youth present themselves not only as academic achievers but as models of moral perseverance.
  • In college essays/scholarship applications, students craft narratives emphasizing triumph over adversity—the “being Mexican” essay.
• Classroom skits and scholarship panels:
  • Students reinforce and perform a “good minority” identity, sometimes reproducing racialized and gendered stereotypes (e.g., accent, dropout, “bad” student).

Quote:

“...we see young people performing that notion to gatekeepers... the being Mexican skit was what schools were looking for.” — Dr. Andrea Flores [46:35]

9. Reshaping Belonging: Collective Good, Family, and SibCare

[47:58 – 61:00]

• From Individual to Collective:
  • “Succeeders can also transform what it means to belong... [by] transform[ing] their individual position as moral minorities into one of collective good.” — Dr. Andrea Flores [48:25]
  • Academic achievement is reframed: not just for self, but in honor of family’s sacrifice, especially parents and siblings.
  • Acts like caring for siblings (“SibCare”) and supporting parents are valued as much as diplomas.
  • Success includes critiquing and expanding who deserves belonging — their parents, who may be undocumented or stigmatized, are reframed as “morally good.”

Quote:

“Their name is also written on my diploma.” — Succeeder student [51:03]

• Sibling Relationships:
  • Older siblings take responsibility for helping brothers/sisters navigate school, often using knowledge their parents don’t have.
  • These caretaking acts further contest narrow, meritocratic definitions of success, fostering a communal model of belonging and advancement.

Quote:

"Care mattered not only because it produced meritocratic success, but also because it affirmed their siblings' and family's collective value." — Dr. Andrea Flores [58:52]

10. Tensions, Imperfections, and Everyday Critique

[61:00 – 64:38]

• Succeeders' critiques are uneven and sometimes internalize dominant narratives (e.g., distinguishing "good" from "bad" Mexicans).
• Youth grapple with reproducing and resisting stereotypes—acts of care and solidarity are subversive, even if not overtly political.

Quote:

“Young people who seem vulnerable aren’t just vulnerable. They have critiques of the world... They’re powerful acts of critique that deserve our attention and valuing.” — Dr. Andrea Flores [64:21]

11. Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• The Value of Small Acts:

  "These small actions matter. They are ways we can individually make our worlds better." — Dr. Andrea Flores [63:08]

• Complex Family Bonds:

  “Even if they're not conforming to the ideal narrative... young people can still attempt to make these critiques about who is valuable.” — Dr. Andrea Flores [57:49]

12. Dr. Flores’ Current Projects & Closing

[64:57 – End]

• Collaborative research on COVID-19’s impact on first-gen college students and their families (with Kate Mason & Sarah Willen).
• New project examining international graduate students' decisions about staying in the U.S. after training—focus remains the intersection of education, migration, belonging, and family.

Timestamps of Key Segments

• Dr. Flores’ Background: [02:42–06:20]
• Belonging and Education: [06:25–08:34]
• Who Are the Succeeders?: [09:13–12:09]
• Latino Threat, American Dream, Respectability: [12:40–17:12]
• Why Nashville?: [18:01–22:38]
• Defining Latinidad: [24:23–28:41]
• Duck, Duck, Goose & “Good/Bad Latino”: [29:36–32:16]
• Parental Aspirations & Stigma: [34:50–36:58]
• Moral Minority Concept: [40:03–47:08]
• From Individual to Collective Belonging: [48:25–52:54]
• Sibling Care & Collective Value: [58:52–61:00]
• Final Reflections: [63:08–64:38]

Summary Takeaways

• The Succeeders provides a nuanced, empathetic portrait of Latino immigrant youth whose everyday efforts and subtle critiques reshape what it means to belong in America.
• Dr. Flores underscores the limitations of individualistic “success” stories and amplifies acts of care, solidarity, and familial responsibility as forms of resistance and transformation.
• The book urges educators, policymakers, and scholars to recognize complex, everyday forms of agency among immigrant youth—not just extraordinary achievements, but also the quiet, collective labor that builds new meanings of American belonging.

Recommended for:
Educators, anthropologists, policymakers, students of migration and Latino/a/x studies, and anyone interested in nuanced, on-the-ground perspectives on immigration and belonging.