Abstract
Background or Context:
Middle-school Girls of Color experience complex systems of relationships, structures, and situations in and out of school spaces. Their experiences, however, are often at the margins or excluded from middle school curricula and after-school programming. In this article, we focus on how young women engage with chisme to liberate themselves from social and academic pressures placed upon them.
Purpose and Research Questions:
Our study seeks to center and explore the ways of knowing and being of Latina/x middle school girls with particular attention to the role of chisme. We draw on Chicana/Latina feminist perspectives to address the following research questions: (1) How do middle school Latina/x girls define chisme? (2) How and why was chisme enacted or leveraged to co-create a trusting space in an after-school program for middle school Latina/x girls?
Research Design:
We employed a practitioner research inquiry design to explore chisme as a literacy practice of Latina/x middle-school girls in an after-school program. The after-school program, Latina/x Girlhood Narratives, was implemented in a middle school in a mid-sized, urban city in the Midwest region of the United States. Analytically, we engaged in video data analysis and qualitative coding analysis to examine the data.
Results and Conclusions:
Three main findings emerged from the study: (1) shared understandings: chismes, rumors, and snitching; (2) todo or la mitad del chisme: a process and product of confianza; and (3) from chismes to liberatory literacy practices of desahogamiento. Our study demonstrates how chisme, in particular, not only was vital to building and deepening confianza, but also allowed access to the girls’ ideas for activities and pedagogies. The field of education must continue to work to make visible the ways in which Latina/x girls engage with themselves and the world in order to sustain better relationships with and for them, and to build pathways for Latina/x girls to see themselves as successful in schools and in society.
Introduction
Girls of Color experience complex systems of relationships, structures, and situations in and out of school spaces (Flores, 2022; González Ybarra, 2020; Player, 2022). Their experiences, however, are often at the margins or excluded from middle school curricula and after-school programming (Salazar et al., 2016). In fact, rather than relying on school learning and structures to acquire the tools and knowledge they need to deal with social and institutional situations, problem-solve, or engage in critical discussions, Girls of Color instead often find themselves doing this work in isolation (García, 2012). Schools’ shortcomings in attending to the needs of Girls of Color, along with school deficit- and trauma-based discourses of low academic performance and lack of interest in education, make it nearly impossible for Latina/x 1 girls, in this case, to experience academic well-being, empowerment, and support.
Scholars have noted, however, that Latina/x girls tap into the knowledge and practices that they have acquired from other women in their lives, families, friends, and lived experiences to make sense of and be in the world (González Ybarra & Saavedra, 2021; Grosso Richins et al., 2021; Kasun, 2015; Rusoja, 2022). This sobrevivencia (Galván, 2006; Villenas, 2005), meaning “beyond survival,” “improvised and innovated tools (and literacies) to deal with often insensitive institutions (i.e., schools)” (Villenas, 2005, p. 275), manifests itself in the practices, knowledge, and relationships that these girls enact daily, learning from their immediate and extended families how to live within U.S. society. Such cultural practices include consejos (advice) (Elenes et al., 2001, p. 280), conviviendo (being in community) within extended family and community networks (Yrigollen-Robbins, 2022), acting as linguistic and social interpreters for family and relatives (Grosso Richins et al., 2021), and engaging in chisme together. Chisme is a cultural and gendered literacy practice of sharing and receiving information that is pertinent to navigating social contexts. Although chisme can be translated as “gossip,” the translation overlooks the nuances of chisme and the social, cultural, and political implications it has for Girls of Color. In this article, we focus on how young women engage with chisme to liberate themselves from social and academic pressures placed upon them.
Our study seeks to center and explore the ways of knowing and being of Latina/x middle school girls with particular attention to the role of chisme. Our interest in chisme emerged as it became an apparent and relevant literacy practice that Latina/x girls engaged in throughout the progression of the after-school program called “Latina/x Girlhood Narratives.” We draw on Chicana/Latina feminist perspectives to address the following research questions: (1) How do middle school Latina/x girls define chisme? (2) How and why was chisme enacted or leveraged to co-create a trusting space in an after-school program for middle school Latina/x girls?
We begin with discussing the literature that explores the research about the complex language and literacy knowledge produced and embodied by Latina/x girls. Then, we explain the concept of chisme, drawing from Chicana/Latina feminist perspectives (Delgado Bernal, 2001; Elenes et al., 2001). We follow this with a detailed description of our methodological and analytical design of the study, leading to the findings. Using data excerpts, we present the three main findings of the study: (1) shared understandings: chismes, rumors, and snitching; (2) todo or la mitad del chisme: a process and product of confianza; and (3) from chismes to liberatory literacy practices of desahogamiento. We then conclude our article by expanding on the significance of the findings, with important implications for teaching and research for both in- and out-of-school spaces.
Review of the Literature
Pathologizing Discourses of Latina/x Girls and Resistance
Feminists of Color (Anzaldúa, 1987; Crenshaw, 1991; Delgado Bernal, 1998; hooks, 2000) recognize that gender alone does not determine the oppression they face in society. Like other Girls of Color, Latinas “are channeled onto pathways that lead to underachievement and criminalization” (Crenshaw et al., 2015, p. 5), and their identities are filtered through factors such as gender, race, class, and sexual orientation (Cruz, 2012; García, 2012). With the rise of racially charged political rhetoric and policies across the United States (Martinez et al., 2018), Latina/x girls find themselves under a variety of different stressors—pressures from home to conform to traditional “virgen” (i.e., virgin) conceptions of femininity (Lopez, 2023), being stereotyped at school and society at large (Niemann, 2001), and systemic oppression as young Women of Color (Crenshaw et al., 2015)—that deny them their full identity whether at home (Flores, 2022), at school (Huber & Cueva, 2012), in public (Martinez et al., 2018), or even amongst themselves (Niemann, 2001). As young Women of Color, Latina/x girls face many barriers in the classroom “rooted in ethnically gendered stereotypes,” such as being loud, fiery, at-risk, lazy, unambiguously family-oriented, expected to know Spanish and not know English, and outsiders unable to contribute to society (Lopez, 2023, p. 1). These barriers often make schools an unwelcome place for Latinx youths (McWhirter et al., 2017), as evidenced by increased high school dropout rates among this population (14%) in comparison to White (5%) and Black (7%) students (p. 331). As such, Latina/x girls face intersectional barriers that often try to criminalize their presence in and out of schools. These social discourses amount to a pathologization of Latina/x girls as inherently deficit, a paradigm that robs them of their voice and agency.
However, recent research highlights that Latina/x girls resist attempts to silence them or reduce their identities (Flores, 2022; García, 2012; González Ybarra, 2020). In conversations with Latina/x girls, Lopez (2023) found that the girls were well aware of stereotypes and deficit framings that surrounded their girlhood and would actively “talk back” to these false notions. Utilizing Chicana/Latina feminist pedagogies and practices developed amongst themselves or passed down from trusted family members, Latina/x girls resisted and countered the deficit narratives imposed on them, and constructed alternative forms of identity and self.
Latina/x Girl Literacies
In this article we recognize literacies as social practices informed by and deeply connected to the culture, identity, and sociopolitical contexts (Gutiérrez, 2008); that is, literacy is a reflection of lived experiences and social positionings of race, gender, sexuality, and immigration status (Alvarez, 2017; Cruz, 2012; Nuñez & Urrieta, 2021). To better understand the literacy practices of Latina/x girls, we specifically draw on the scholarship around Girl of Color literacies broadly. Work in this area has documented the meaning-making practices of Girls of Color as they exist across formal and informal education spaces (Cisneros, 2022; Player, 2022; Smith, 2022; Turner & Griffin, 2020). These studies highlight how the lived experiences of girls, especially at the intersections of race, gender, and sexuality, shape their literacies and how they engage them in their everyday lives. Grounded in Women of Color feminisms, the work on Girls of Color literacies demonstrates their unique epistemological genealogies and how they are imprinted by generational practices of resistance, survival, joy, and love (Muhammad & Haddix, 2016).
Although research in this area has worked to humanize the literacy narratives of Girls of Color, scholars emphasize that the literacies engaged in and created by Girls of Color go largely unrecognized and silenced, especially in classrooms. Too often, the language and literacy practices of Girls of Color are viewed as disruptive and excessive and, thus, surveilled and punished (Hernandez, 2020; Lopez, 2023; Player & González Ybarra, 2022). To counter these perspectives, the research around the language and literacy practices of Latina/x girls has highlighted how the meaning-making practices of girls are also uniquely informed by multilingualism, histories of migration, and relationships between mothers and daughters (Flores, 2022). Scholarship has pointed to the ways in which home and community knowledge are central to literacies (González Ybarra, 2020; Nuñez, 2023; Nuñez & García-Mateus, 2021; Villenas, 2005). Pedagogical practices of the home, including pláticas (knowledge shared through dialogue), testimonio (narratives of marginalization and survival), cuentos (stories from lived experience), and dichos (sayings), for example, are powerful oral literacy practices that hold important knowledge and lessons for Latina/x girls about history, oppression, resistance, and survival (Delgado-Gaitan, 1994; Espinoza-Herold, 2007; Villenas & Foley, 2002). Research also demonstrates that Latina/x girls draw on those literacy practices to think about and actively engage in contemporary social justice discourses and projects that are important to them (González Ybarra, 2020). In doing so, they work toward building new possibilities for solidarity, building coalitions, and extending alternative realities for Girls of Color broadly.
Building Confianza in Schools and After-School Programs
Latinx youth face ongoing deficit thinking from school staff; yet school staff and peers who work to build confianza (i.e., mutual trust) with Latinx youth can help them to feel welcomed and stay engaged in school (Harris & Kiyama, 2015; Robles Vasquez, 2018). Robles Vasquez (2018) described how school cultures that promote “confianza, auténtico cariño, and respeto” (i.e., mutual trust, authentic caring, and respect) help Latino students to feel safety and belonging in schools. More specifically, students who had confianza with an adult at school felt more comfortable seeking help, asking questions, engaging in school activities, and attending community events (Robles Vasquez, 2018). Similarly, in their investigation of school and community-based programs for Latina/o youth, Harris and Kiyama (2015) noted that having a caring adult who provided confianza and social support, especially cultural and linguistic freedom, promoted school engagement. Furthermore, Jaime-Diaz and Méndez-Negrete (2020) also illustrate how a teacher’s enactment of cariño, confianza, and respeto with her students allowed students to fully participate in classroom dialogues, including those about difficult social issues.
After-school programs can also promote building of community and confianza, often through discussions of day-to-day concerns (Cole, 2004; Hall et al., 2010; Teeters et al., 2023). For example, after-school programs offer space for students to voice unjust situations in schools, such as being silenced or disrespected by teachers (Casanova, 2024; Cole, 2004). In describing an after-school program that created space for sharing negative experiences from the school day, Cole (2004) noted that talking about difficult experiences appeared to be therapeutic for students. Relatedly, Casanova (2024) described how an after-school program offered space for students to express and address educational injustice experienced in schools. By engaging in critical consciousness as reflection and action, Latinx students could “turn personal challenges into political action” (Carey et al., 2021, as cited in Casanova, 2024).
For after-school programs to promote confianza, they must be grounded in the cultural experiences and lived realities of youth. Rivera (2020) argues that co-created spaces with youth must reckon with social, political, and historical injustices faced by them and their communities in order to authentically serve them. In practice, this can mean a safe environment, personal conversations, welcoming of multiple perspectives, and connecting to real-life experiences (Hall et al., 2010; Harris & Kiyama, 2015; Yu et al., 2021). Additional critical practices include welcoming of multiple intersecting identities and bringing family into the after-school space (Lee & Hawkins, 2008). These practices help students to “feel seen” and express themselves in ways that contribute to building confianza.
Theory: Chisme as Chicanx/Latina/x Feminist Literacies
We understand chisme as situated and theorized through knowledges, processes, and practices that begin in the home and that have the power to influence and transform other spaces (Delgado Bernal, 2001; Elenes et al., 2001; Espinoza & Degollado, 2023). Chisme, like other home literacies, has provided Latina/xs opportunities to connect and/or be in community with others, share intergenerational knowledge, sustain identities, critically examine issues, reveal and name injustices, collectively organize, stand in solidarity with others, and build coalitions (Juárez Mendoza, 2020; Player & González Ybarra, 2022). In fact, embedding opportunities for youth to engage in chisme as part of school and out-of-school experiences can foster an authentic approach to examining the issues they are facing every day. Chisme, as scholarship has documented, is a powerful literacy practice that counters White, middle-to-upper class, patriarchal hierarchies and structures that oppress Women of Color (Juárez Mendoza, 2020). As Player and González Ybarra (2022) note, chisme is not unique to Latina/x communities; instead, it is a gendered practice across racialized communities (e.g., “spilling the tea” emerging from Black queer communities). However, for the purpose of this study we center chisme as a variation of the practice for Latina/x girls. Additionally, we draw on Chicana/Latina feminist lenses that support in understanding how Latina/x middle school girls define and enact chisme, and to understand why they engage in this literacy practice.
Trujillo (2020) writes that chisme, or “sitting down to spill the tea . . . a time to discuss, deconstruct, challenge, criticize, and dissect ideas, issues, traumas, and histories,” goes beyond gossip. Instead, chisme is an embodied practice and a pedagogy of the home (Delgado Bernal, 2001)—a Chicana feminist manner “of organizing teaching and learning in informal sites such as the home—[in] ways that embrace Chicana and Mexicana ways of knowing and extend beyond formal schooling” (p. 264). Chisme develops confianza—a sense of mutual trust (Vélez-Ibáñez & Greenberg, 1994)—and knowledge between individuals, groups, and communities. Given the situated and informal nature of chisme within Latinx communities, we draw on this concept to examine how chisme was utilized as a literacy practice within the context of an after-school program among middle school Latina/x girls of a mid-sized urban city in the Midwest.
Method of Inquiry
This study was part of a larger research project aimed at investigating how Latina/x girls narrated their identities and stories through the creation of a museum exhibit. The larger project engages a participatory design research (PDR) framework that centers the knowledge of communities, relationships and relationality, and social change and dismantles researcher–participant hierarchies by elevating the role of participants (Bang & Vossoughi, 2016; de los Rios & Molina, 2020). We chose PDR for three reasons: (1) PDR asks participants to be full co-designers of the after-school program and the culminating museum exhibit, which allowed their interpretation of the Latina/x girlhood to be genuinely realized; (2) PDR allowed us (as co-designers) to alter the structure, topics, and activities of the after-school program in response to participants’ input; and (3) PDR draws our lens as researchers to topics that were important to participants, including chisme. This combination of top-down and bottom-up planning is recommended from other after-school programs (e.g., Cole, 2004). Additionally, we draw on critical ethnographic methods (Villenas & Foley, 2002) to explore the literacy knowledge and practices of Latina/x middle school girls participating in an after-school program that was flexibly designed with PDR in mind. The research questions that guided our inquiry included: (1) How do middle school Latina/x girls define chisme? (2) How and why was chisme enacted or leveraged to co-create a trusting space in an after-school program for middle school Latina/x girls?
Research Context
“Latina/x Girlhood Narratives” was implemented in a middle school in a mid-sized, urban city in the Midwest region of the United States. The middle school is 18.4% Hispanic/Latinx students. The after-school program took place once a week, from September 2021 to December 2021. Over the 10 sessions, eight Latina/x girls worked on the creation of a museum exhibit that centered on their stories and identities. The focus of this article is on the conversations that emerged in the program space as girls built community and worked collaboratively on creating artifacts for the museum exhibit. At times, these conversations had nothing to do with artifacts and planning for the museum exhibit and instead reflected the more pressing issues, from the standpoint of the girls, that emerged in their school days or home life. Overall, the topics that were central to the after-school program were related to identity, culture, family, and everyday youth topics and literacies.
Recruitment
The research team advertised Latina/x Girlhood Narratives via flyers and the after-school program catalog that was available to parents/guardians. Also, a dual language teacher, Ms. Cavazos (pseudonym), supported recruitment by mentioning the program to Latina/x girls who might have been interested in participating. Idalia, one of the authors, made herself available to parents/guardians via phone and text message in case they had questions or concerns based on the information in the flyer.
Latina/x Girlhood Narratives was offered alongside other options as part of a larger grant-funded “After-School Time” (pseudonym) program that provided snacks and transportation. Because of the stipulations of this grant funding, male students and/or non-Latina/x youth could not be excluded from participating (i.e., no exclusion criteria), but the flyer advertising the program stated that the program would be centered on Latina/x identities and experiences (i.e., inclusion criteria). Students interested in After-School Time needed to sign up for a specific program, which supported retention. However, we noted that students missed program sessions when they had schedule conflicts or other responsibilities.
Participants: Latina/x Middle School Girls
The after-school program consisted of eight Latina/x middle school girls who participated during the fall semester of 2021. At the time of the study, six of the girls (all names are pseudonyms; Daniela, Raya, Marla, Julia, Xandra, and Kyara) were in sixth grade; Anabel was in seventh grade; and Mireya was in eighth grade. Four of the girls attended half or over half of the sessions, while four girls attended with less frequency and discontinued participation over time. Not all the girls knew each other, but those who did were in the same grade level but were not necessarily friends. Identity was a focal point of the program, so we learned that the girls used the term “Latina/x” to identify their ethnic and complex gendered identities. We also learned that all the girls came from immigrant families from Mexico or Guatemala. Their experiences as Latina/x girls as well as being children of immigrants or immigrants themselves were often the base of conversations, activities, and creative productions.
After-School Program Sessions
The themes and topics of the after-school program sessions were initially based on an after-school program curriculum shared by a partner organization interested in supporting girls’ career interests. That initial curriculum focused on career goals, entrepreneurship, identity, and bullying. In summer 2021, three of this article’s authors—Idalia, Mónica, and Catherine—met to revise the curriculum with two goals in mind: (1) to rewrite it as a bilingual curriculum that was Spanish-first, and (2) to center the topic of identity. When revising, we emphasized reflective activities that were framed as journal writing; in practice, these became questions we posed to students on large Post-Its. We also altered the program in response to participants’ suggestions. The planned versus emergent program activities are listed in Table 1.
Planned vs. Actual Activities.
Program sessions were held immediately after school from approximately 3:35 P.M. until 5:15 P.M. Each session opened with time for decompressing or venting, which eventually evolved into “chisme time” from the school day. We did not initially plan for participants to share chisme specifically, but this activity emerged from the participants’ organic contributions. The topic of chisme emerged from a planned discussion about bullying in Session 3 and evolved into a shared practice in subsequent weeks. We continued this practice because it supported rapport-building among the girls and facilitators. This was a demonstration of how we altered the program based on participants’ suggestions, especially if the planned activity did not appear to resonate with participants after additional prompting or modeling.
Positionality Statement
Idalia identifies as Chicana/Latina from the U.S.–Mexico borderlands whose bilingual, bicultural, and border-crossing experiences provide a critical lens to the work with Latina/x girls. Mónica identifies as a Mexican American woman who was raised in a bilingual, multigenerational immigrant family and who draws on these experiences to inform work with Latinx communities. Catherine identifies as a White American woman who was raised by parents who visited and worked in museums, libraries, and similar cultural institutions; she uses critical lenses in her research about informal learning environments. Collectively, we used our university connections and privileges to build a partnership with the local middle school. Our goal as a team was to create an after-school program that amplified the voices and identities of Latina/x middle school girls.
For this project, Idalia, Mónica, and Catherine designed the program. Idalia and Mónica drew on their linguistic and cultural knowledge to co-facilitate the sessions with the Latina/x middle-school girls. Catherine collaborated on curriculum design and program documentation. Parents/guardians were not involved directly in facilitating the program.
Brian is a Chicago-born Mexican American graduate student with experience in Latinx community organizations and informal educational spaces. His role was to support the research team with data analysis and reporting.
Data Sources and Analytic Process
The larger data set of the study included audio-video recordings with supporting audio recordings, semistructured interviews, fieldnotes, and artifacts such as photos of the museum exhibit, products created by the girls, pieces of writing, and drafts of the curation process the girls engaged in. However, for the focus of this study, the data sources we drew from were audio-video recordings, supporting audio recordings, video logs, and field notes.
We engaged in video data analysis (Erickson, 2012) and qualitative coding analysis (Saldaña, 2013) to examine the data. Video data analysis consisted of a three-step process adapted from Erickson’s (2012) six-step video analysis process: (1) familiarizing ourselves with the data by reviewing all video recordings, (2) revisiting all videos and logging critical events in each video by including a short description of the event and the time stamp, and (3) revisiting all videos to transcribe key video moments that were identified to have chisme as a topic of discussion or as a practice. After this, we also reviewed fieldnotes with any discussion or supplemental data on the chisme events.
We initiated our understanding of the data by centering on Session 3, in which the Latina/x girls defined the terms “chisme,” “rumors,” and “snitching” in the context of a planned discussion about bullying. We analyzed this transcript focused on identifying the definition, examples, or descriptions of each term. Here, the girls’ discussion included how chisme, rumores (rumors), and snitching were different from one another. We frame this as our first finding to center their voices and their literacy practices, and we used their explanation of chisme to guide our data analysis. For example, chisme, as defined by the girls, was a practice that happened in confianza to share personal or social situations, events, or important information. We used the girls’ definitions and descriptions to identify all the moments in the sessions where they engaged in chisme as part of their interactions in the after-school space. Having the girls’ explanations, definitions, and descriptions guide our research reflects their elevated role in a participatory design research project.
Drawing from the definitions of the girls about chisme, we revisited all audio-video recordings, field notes, video logs, and supporting video recordings. For each session data set, we used descriptive codes and an inductive (Saldaña, 2013) approach to (1) identify the chisme moments and (2) code for what the chisme was about. Some of these codes included issues with girls, issues with youth, issues with teachers, issues with family, institutional consequences, just let it out, write it, and share it, among others. As we moved through analyzing the sessions, we noticed how earlier chismes did not include people’s names, and then in later sessions people being discussed in the chismes were identified. We revisited the sessions to code for whether the chismes identified (or not) the people involved. (All names used in this article are pseudonyms.) This allowed us to see how the girls gradually began to trust the team and include them in the chisme practice. This became the second finding from data: girls gradually were naming a variety of issues they were facing with friends, family, and teachers.
In the latter sessions of the program, a third finding emerged in the chisme moments—pedagogy for desahogamiento (i.e., venting to relieve personal and emotional burdens). Our descriptive codes reflected that after the girls discussed the issues, they then discussed pedagogical moves (e.g., write a letter to a teacher, share with a friend, etc.) and desahogamiento practices (e.g., “just let it go,” “this is just for you,” etc.). As we revisited the codes, we noticed how these were overlapping, becoming the third finding. Each of these patterns was verified through iterative readings of the data.
Unanticipated Realities
Throughout data collection, analysis, and the writing of this article, many tensions emerged around the realities of working with young people and the positionalities of being mandated reporters while trying to build trust or confianza in an after-school space. As researchers, we struggled with what the meaning of confianza was for us under the responsibility of having to report concerning issues that took place during the school day or in the past but trickled into our space during conversations with the girls. The issues the girls brought to discussion were sometimes related to physical and emotional violence, bullying, and self-harm, among other important topics. We would like to emphasize here that the information they shared was in the context of confianza. Both Idalia and Mónica, who led the sessions, offered statements in the space such as “what we share here es en confianza, we will not share with others” or “these will only be shared here, will not leave the space” in order to build trust. The girls often shared stories or issues as past events without offering names or by replacing them with “un niño/a” [a boy/girl] or “a friend.” Their privacy was respected, and what they shared was respected and kept private within the after-school program.
We wanted to create a space where the girls in the group could feel like they had a place to make sense of their lives in authentic ways. To create this space while also recognizing and being honest about our positioning, we created activities where the girls could share their vulnerabilities without the risk of us having to report them. For example, in one session, we asked the girls to write a letter to someone (a teacher, a friend, a bully, or a family member) to get their feelings out on paper, and we promised them that we would not read them. After the girls wrote these letters, we talked about them without the use of names or specifics but instead focused the conversation on their feelings and ways to go about problem-solving or addressing issues with someone who has hurt them. Although we remained concerned, our approach was to have discussions that allowed the girls to critically examine the realities they were facing and the ways they could respond to these situations, and offer resources and suggestions for people they could reach out to (e.g., family, middle school teachers/administrators).
Findings
On centering the voices and literacy practices of Latina/x middle school girls, our study noticed three main findings that emerged from the data: (1) shared understandings: chismes, rumors, and snitching; (2) todo or la mitad del chisme: a process and product of confianza; and (3) from chismes to liberatory pedagogies of desahogamiento. In this section, we use transcript excerpts from the data to present and illustrate each of the findings.
Shared Understandings: Chismes, Rumors, and Snitching
The Latina/x girls in the program often shared with one another things that happened at school, at home, and in local community spaces (e.g., grocery store, restaurant). As such, in the after-school space, practices of chismeando (the practice of sharing and receiving chisme) became relevant not only to connect, foster friendships, and build community but also as a meaningful topic of discussion. Because chisme was a common practice and a term that was frequently used in the space, Idalia asked the girls how they defined chisme (in Session 3). As the girls tried to respond, naturally the conversation led to ideas and experiences about chismes, rumors, and snitching. These were everyday youth literacy practices that the Latina/x girls were familiar with and wanted to talk about. The following is a description of the context of Session 3, and the discussion that emerged among the girls and researchers.
For Session 3, the topic was focused on identity, empathy, and solidarity as a way to discuss bullying prevention. The session started by asking the girls to reflect on some questions and write their thoughts in their journal. The initial questions that researchers asked the girls to reflect on were: Do you ever hide parts of your identity? Do others shame you for aspects of your identity? Do you ever shame yourself for pieces of your identity? Why? After the girls had time to reflect and write, the conversation began by Idalia explaining to the girls that what they share in the space is safe with them and it stays in the space—“quiero que se sientan en confianza,” which roughly translates to “I want you to feel that you can trust the space and people”—and then she asked the girls if they were willing to share about what they understood identity to be. As the girls shared, Idalia wrote their points on a chart paper. Idalia then explained that they were going to watch the video Afro-Latina by Elizabeth Acevedo to add to the discussion about identity. Once the girls listened to the video, Idalia invited the girls to share their thoughts on identity. It was in this moment that the girls began to share more deeply about their experiences and the issues they navigate because of their identities, and the conversation of youth practices like chisme, rumores, and snitching emerged:
There is a difference in saying all the drama and snitching. First of all, telling all the chisme-
Yo, chisme is good!
Your friends tell you yeah, yeah, for you to say more. And, then if you tell, you can’t do that anymore.
Yeah, they can figure it out if you spread it more. If it’s a rumor they can figure it out by themselves, but if it’s not, it’s just a few people.
What’s the difference between chismes and a rumor?
(stands up) Chisme, is like you make it up with your friends, rumor is something that they make up to spread around the school.
Yeah, that everyone finds out.
Julia and Raya led the discussion while other girls laughed, smiled, and nodded in agreement about their distinction between these social literacy practices. In this interaction, Julia and Raya agreed that chismes were not the same as a rumor, and they expanded by saying that chismes were more of an intimate practice of sharing among friends. In other words, chismes did not spread to those outside entrusted with such knowledge, and Julia pointed out that once it was shared it should not be repeated beyond the small network of close friends.
The practice of rumors, on the other hand, was contrasted by the magnitude in which it was shared, the content, and intentionality. According to Julia’s and Raya’s explanation, rumors were typically spread to everyone in the school community, and it was done to intentionally share and inflict public shame or harm on a person. This was not a well-intended social practice, but it was a powerful practice for the person who started the rumor about someone else. In their process of explaining, Julia offered an example in the following excerpt:
This is an example, my boyfriend, he told me that he slapped Dulce, which was the girl that was bullying me.
No, that’s not a rumor, that’s not a rumor.
I know, that’s what he told me, and then somebody heard about it. And, I don't think they told someone else that. Something is going on, I don’t think you heard but -
Girl, . . . [inaudible]
Yes, they be telling me everything.
Listen -
Is that a chisme or a rumor?
It’s kinda turning into a rumor right now. But I believed it yesterday, but I don’t believe it anymore.
Yes ‘cause Candy just, like, told me.
Here, Julia shared that her boyfriend told her that he slapped Dulce, and that it was being spread like a rumor because a couple of people told her about it. At that moment, Raya clarified to Julia that the information she had shared was not a rumor. Julia realized what she had just shared was not a rumor but more of private information. In other words, it was knowledge shared that was reflective of a chisme rather than a rumor. Potentially to protect her boyfriend and the parties involved, Julia clarified that what she said might be turning into a rumor and negated its trustworthiness by saying she no longer believes that information. Because Raya pointed out that it was not a rumor but rather a chisme that needed to remain among their small group of friends, questioning its credibility was a strategic move from Julia to keep it from spreading as a rumor. Responding to the moment, Raya also intentionally translated Dulce’s name from Spanish to English (i.e., Candy), possibly to further protect her friend’s identity within the chisme that had been shared.
It was evident that Raya and Julia did not trust everyone in the after-school program because this was only their third time attending, and they used different methods to protect themselves and other students in social spaces such as this one. The girls also were keenly aware of how social literacies among youth happened and were careful about things they shared with others, such as through chismes as a literacy practice enacted to share and produce knowledge only among girls whom they trusted with their close friendship.
Although chismes and rumors were defined as distinct but related practices, snitching was perceived completely in opposition to these literacies. To support Julia and Raya, Mireya joined the discussion. She offered a definition of snitching by stating, “A snitch is someone who tells an adult, about everything. Even the smallest thing. Always, always, always.” Here, Mireya explained that snitching was different from chismes and rumors because it was no longer just youth social literacies. Once someone snitched, adults were involved.
According to the girls, this practice creates an inequitable and hierarchical problem for youth. Once adults (e.g., teachers, administrators, parents) are involved, formal institutional processes and structures (e.g., reporting, calling parents, suspensions, etc.) also play a role in controlling the issues among youth. To provide more nuance to the concept, both Raya and Mireya agreed that the term “snitching” holds a negative connotation because when a student enacts this practice or gets identified as a snitch, it means the student reports everything, even minor unnecessary moments (e.g., nonviolent interactions). They expanded on this in the following excerpt:
For example, like if she [pointing at Mireya] pushed them like this [pretends to push Anabel], and I would tell, that’s a snitch.
Does that mean you just put up with that [the pushing], then?
A snitch is like if you just look at them bad and they just go snitch. That’s what someone did to me, and I got so mad at them.
In this example, the girls illustrated how the act of snitching was a social practice that only a few dared to enact, because it comes with social repercussions such as being viewed or labeled as a snitch. Raya, however, changed her example to ensure that she was not saying students should allow physical violence to happen but rather that it was more minor than a push, such as just a look or a glance. She further affirmed this happens at school because she shared this as her own experience. The second example Raya gave in response to Idalia is an indicator that there is a difference between tolerating bullies and being a snitch. Her new example suggests that one should not tolerate physical violence, but that it is socially unacceptable to snitch on someone simply looking at someone else. Thus, Latina/x girls in this space did not trust those who engaged in the practice of snitching.
Todo or La Mitad del Chisme: A Process and Product of Confianza
Given that chisme was a more intimate literacy practice in the space, confianza, or a sense of mutual trust (Vélez-Ibáñez & Greenberg, 1994), was a critical aspect for the Latina/x middle school girls to feel comfortable sharing. The after-school program constantly prioritized time and space for building community and confianza among girls, and between the girls and the research team. The process of confianza was gradual, and chisme became a key indicator of whether the girls trusted those who shared the space with them. Notably, when the girls did not feel in confianza, they only shared parts of the chisme, and censored or omitted names or key identifiers that could potentially reveal the identity of the youth they were talking about. On the other hand, once the girls felt they were in confianza, they gradually began to share chisme among themselves and with the research team. The following example occurred during Session 3 of the after-school program. At that moment, Raya was sharing aloud with the whole group:
For example, they were going to jump a—a—a
Yeah, they were gonna jump me.
They weren’t gonna jump you.
They were.
They was?
They were.
I did not hear that.
You don’t have to say names.
Two people, a boy and a girl.
(Looks at Raya surprised) ¿Quién? [Who?]
(All the girls laugh)
This is how chisme starts.
This is exactly how chisme starts; nah, this is gonna form a rumor here.
At this point in our sessions, Raya did not feel confianza and held back from sharing something in confidence. As she shared information about youth who were having problems, she stopped herself from disclosing the names of others involved. Julia offered herself as being someone who was involved, but Raya clarified to her that was not what she had heard. Noting that Raya was holding back, Idalia assured Raya that she did not need to disclose or identify the youth involved. To finish sharing, Raya replaced the name with two people, a boy and a girl. It is evident here that Raya was avoiding becoming a snitch and spreading rumors. She shared just enough, “la mitad” (half), of the information to engage with others in the chisme.
Julia, who was just learning this new information from Raya, immediately looked away from the whole group of girls to stare at Raya, and she moved from linguistic features of English to Spanish to engage in the chisme and ask for more details, saying, “¿Quién?/Who?” Raya, having the option to share or not, did not answer her question. Anabel, who was listening to the interactions, quickly pointed out that this was how chisme starts. And Raya at first agreed, then changed “chisme” to “rumor.” Here, Raya’s response demonstrated that she did not trust everyone in the group and believed the information would spread like a rumor instead.
As the sessions continued, the girls began to feel in confianza among themselves and with the research team. They began to share more details and with more frequency. Some of the girls were more comfortable sharing in a smaller group dynamic, while the others did not mind sharing with the whole group. For example, Marla and Daniela indicated that they felt more in confianza when not all the girls were present. During Session 4, some of the girls did not attend the after-school program, and Marla and Daniela began to share issues related to physical hurt/harm:
Algunas veces las niñas se están cortando. [Sometimes girls cut themselves.]
A mí me han sacado la sangre una vez. [I got my blood drawn once.]
¿Quién? ¿Se cortaron las venas? [Who? They cut their veins?]
Sí. [Yes.]
Yo no. [Not me.]
Vi a una niña cortándose, y sí vi que se estaba cortando. [I saw a girl cutting herself and I did see that she was cutting herself.]
¿Aquí en la escuela? [Here in the school?]
Mi abuelo se cortó la pierna. [My grandpa cut his leg.]
¿Por qué? ¿Por accidente? [Why? By accident?]
Sí, él estaba trabajando, estaba construyendo una casa para mi abuela, él estaba usando uno de esos, ¿como se llama serrucho electrónicos? [Yes, he was working, he was building a house for my grandma. He was using one of those, what do you call it, electric saws?]
Ah, ¿un serrucho eléctrico? [Ah, an electric saw?]
Yeah, estaba usando eso y se le pasó la mano, y se cortó todo el pie. [Yeah, he was using that and his hand slipped, and he cut his entire foot.]
In this excerpt, Daniela explained that she had seen girls intentionally trying to hurt themselves at school. She described this harm as cutting their veins. Her explanation suggests this was not the only time she had seen that happen, but on that specific day, she had witnessed a middle school girl attempting to self-harm. The chisme that Daniela brought into the conversation was something she was trying to grapple with. At the same time, she also revealed the realities of girls at her school that often go unnoticed and unattended by school educators and administrators. Connecting to the topic of physical hurt/harm, Marla shared how her abuelo (grandfather) hurt himself, but as an accident. Although the hurt was different because it was unintentional in her story, Marla was able to share in confianza with Daniela offering a different perspective on a similar issue. Their chismes were expanding important discussions related to physical hurt/harm and offered a space to process and make sense of a similar situation with differing intentionalities.
Like Daniela and Marla, other girls also shared their experiences more openly as the sessions progressed. Through chisme, they discussed and thought through problems that youth at their school, in general, were facing among themselves and issues with teachers and family. The problems were often related to health, girlhood, practices, school policies, authority relations, friendships/relationships, and identity. Naturally, there was an unwritten but established rule among the group that the chismes shared in the space required a level of privacy and, more importantly, confianza. For example, in Session 5, Julia shared a chisme related to her experiences with friends breaking her trust:
Sometimes people make fun of me because I have the courage enough to like to tell my friends my secrets and sometimes I don’t really tell all my friends, but y’all are my friends whatever [. . .] I normally don’t ever tell anyone and [. . .] when I tell somebody my secret they’re always gonna go ahead and start ending up telling another person that I don’t even know and sometimes it’s someone that I hate, and then they’re always like bringing it up to me. I told one of my best friends I came out to, I was like I’m bisexual, right, and then she was like, “Oh my God, I support you,” right so then I was like thank you, and then she goes ahead and goes tells her best friend like saying “Oh my god, Julia is bi” and I was like, you see this is why I can’t trust anybody and then when I end up trying.
Did you tell her to keep it a secret?
Yes!
And that’s not her, like, that’s not her place to tell anyone.
Exactly, and then she told me. . .they are telling every person, and then they [other students] start making fun of me for that.
Why would you care?
Julia openly shared her sexual identity with the group, for the first time, to discuss the issues she faced with her friends at school. In her chisme, she explained that she trusted her friends with personal and important secrets, and, in turn, her friends broke her trust by sharing those secrets with others. Julia, like many other girls still learning and making sense of their dynamic and changing identities, needed people and spaces to express who they are in confianza. The whole group served as critical listeners and witnesses to Julia’s experiences reflective of the violence often experienced by LGBTQ+ youth (Cruz, 2012). To support her, Raya carefully crafted a question to understand Julia’s situation, and Mónica also offered a supportive follow-up comment that validated her feelings. Unlike her previous experiences, Julia felt understood in the space and by the group. The chisme ended with Raya’s rhetorical question, “Why would you care?” This question was important; it signaled solidarity toward Julia by subtly suggesting to ignore the bullies and the friends who have broken her trust and giving her permission not to care about what others say or think. This is not just solidarity, but also showing acceptance and love and cultivating a space of healing for Julia.
As we moved through the sessions over time, the girls and the research team were able to build community and cultivate a sense of confianza where everyone was welcome to share openly about things that were important to them. Chismes, here, were a central and important literacy practice for the Latina/x girls and their relationships with one another and the space.
From Chismes to Liberatory Pedagogies of Desahogamiento
As mentioned in the previous finding, Latina/x girls did not openly trust everyone, and, as such, they protected themselves and close friends by selectively keeping some information private. However, as the girls continued to experience the space and establish friendships, they also took risks. The process typically began with the girls sharing chisme to talk about specific situations and “desahogarse” (venting to relieve personal and emotional burdens). According to Rivera (2020) desahogarse is a “cathartic act. . .[that vents out] distressful sentiment that keeps a person on the brink of not being able to breathe” (p. 63). As the practice continued to be naturally centered by the girls, it led us to co-constructing pedagogical activities that embraced their literacy practices, in alignment with our PDR goals. In this finding, we present an illustrative example of the co-construction of liberatory pedagogies of desahogamiento.
In Session 6, Julia shared how she was unhappy with her German class after getting in trouble for not paying attention due to a headache. Anabel joined her desahogamiento by explaining how she disliked her third-period class. As they talk about this, Mónica mentioned, “Oh, ustedes [you all], you have a lot of things that are, like, not cool with school.” This statement prompted Raya to also share chisme with everyone. She explained how a teacher, Mrs. Martin (pseudonym), was being unfair to her by separating her from the class for laughing too loud. As she shared the chisme, everyone listened and also contributed by asking questions about who the teacher was and where the teacher had sent her. Raya’s frustration was clear to the group. In that moment, Mónica asked the girls to think about what could be done in the after-school space regarding these experiences. The following is the excerpt of the interaction among the girls:
Can we write it on a piece of paper?
Yeah, I’m wondering, like, what if we do like a “Dear Teacher, this is what I want you to know. . ..”
Nooo, no.
Uh-uh, uh-uh.
No, uh-uh.
No, we wouldn’t send it, we’re not gonna send it. We are just gonna get it all out. You can say whatever you want. . . .
Can we talk with a partner of what happened and then, like, share to the class?
Collectively, the girls and the research team imagined ways in which their chisme could become opportunities to engage in meaningful activities within the after-school program. Raya asked if it could be something they write about, which led to Mónica suggesting a letter. The girls initially rejected the idea of a letter, even as Mónica explained it would not be something they would send or share with the teacher.
As the conversation progressed, Julia moved to share a chisme about issues she was having with a group of middle school classmates. Other girls also provided their own perspectives on the issue. This extended the discussion into issues not just with teachers, but also with classmates. Once the sharing extended, the negotiation of writing a letter to express their feelings and thoughts and, ultimately, the pedagogical practice of desahogamiento began to take shape.
Maybe, it’s also writing to our friends, not just, maybe it’s not just teachers. But maybe it’s a teacher, maybe it’s a friend, we don’t have to share.
Can I tell Raya something?
Like, what would happen if you could write a letter to someone, and they would never read it? Can you imagine the things that you would say? How honest would you be?
Yes, I have done that. . .I was gonna give it to them, but then I didn’t. . ..
Maybe we should write something about what we’re not okay with, and yeah, maybe there’s things you wanna share that you’re not okay with.
You know what, I’mma write one to my dang first-period teacher.
The idea of writing a letter to a teacher changed to writing a letter to anyone who the girls felt the need to express their disagreement with or their feelings about a particular situation. In the excerpt above, Julia and Raya, who shared many of the difficulties they had with others at school, were interested in engaging in the activity but negotiated the specific conditions that they felt comfortable with for sharing their truths. Both Idalia and Mónica were flexible with the conditions and prompted them with questions and suggestions for thinking about the letter as a liberatory practice. Julia, feeling empowered by the flexibility and liberatory practice of writing a letter for the purpose of desahogarse, says, “I’mma write one to my dang first-period teacher.”
Raya, on the other hand, was still distrustful that this was genuinely a liberatory practice. Instead of immediately writing, she added:
Y’all [researchers] are gonna go in it, and see what we wrote.
No, we won’t, if you tell us not to, we won’t.
We won’t do that; it’s just to help you vent; it’s just to help you get it out.
Yeah, it’s just for you.
To let everything out. . .
Can I tirarlo para que no lo lean? [Can I throw it away so it’s not read?]
I’mma give it to her [the person I’m writing to].
In this interaction, it was evident that Raya did not see the practice of desahogamiento as frivolous or without real consequences. To ensure that there would be no institutional repercussions, she tried to identify additional conditions that this activity would require her to engage in. She explained that the research team might read it and suggested throwing it away to ensure no one reads it. Idalia and Mónica reassured her that her decisions would be respected, and were also okay with her throwing the letter away. Julia and Anabel, on the other hand, were more willing to engage in the activity. The practice of desahogamiento was different for each of the girls, and it had to be done in confianza. Raya, in particular, needed to be sure this activity was not going to materialize into a negative experience or a consequence instead of a liberatory practice for desahogamiento.
The girls agentively led the process of co-constructing an activity that centered on their experiences and voices. This co-construction meant there had to be flexibility in the activity and confianza in those participating in the space. These elements were important to being able to “desahogarse en libertad” (to vent with freedom).
Discussion and Conclusion: Towards Latina/x Youth-Led Literacies and Pedagogies of Confianza
Our findings demonstrate the nuanced and complex literacies that emerge in after-school spaces, specifically the role that chisme and confianza play in creating authentic spaces for youth to engage in desahogamiento. The first findings center on the girls’ own definitions of literacy practices that reflect the gendered and social realities of middle school life (Player, 2021, 2022). These definitions were integral to our analysis and created a more authentic framework for exploring the literacies of Latina/x girls within our after-school space. In the second finding, we demonstrate how trust, or confianza, is a central condition to the practice of chismeando (i.e., sharing gossip). In many ways, this finding demonstrates how chisme is not frivolous, unstructured practice, but instead a literacy practice that has rules, common understandings, and requirements for trust (González Ybarra & Player, 2024; Trujillo, 2020). In the third finding, we further highlight how inviting chisme in an after-school space built with confianza can lead to pedagogies of desahogamiento—teaching and learning practices that foster collective release of the social pressures and frustrations youth feel from their schooling and lives (Rivera, 2020). Collectively, the findings demonstrate how the girls understand chisme as a literacy practice that is critical to their everyday lives as Latina/x middle school girls, and an ethical practice—a practice that has to adhere to norms and collective understandings about the rules and repercussions of chisme based on their lives as middle school girls. Contrary to the translated term “gossip,” which is often dismissed as frivolous “girl drama,” our findings demonstrate how chisme is a strategic, consequential, and co-constructed literacy practice that exists within the complicated social realities of Latina/x girls. Similar to what scholars have argued about literacies like dichos, consejos, testimonios, and pláticas that derive from the communities of color (Delgado-Gaitan, 1994; Elenes et al., 2001; Espinoza-Herold, 2007; Villenas, 2002), rather than simplify chisme as a stereotypical practice of racialized girls, we argue that chisme must be taken seriously as a way of meaning making and a pedagogy for teaching and learning that is grounded in the knowledge and experience of Latina/x girls.
For educators, our findings demonstrate how pedagogies with Latina/x middle school girls require honesty about youth–adult relationships, including concerns around information sharing and trust, and the positionalities that both groups occupy in education. For example, in this study, we learned that chisme and its related practices (rumors, snitching) were often entangled within middle school social ramifications and realities of bullying, physical violence, and even self-harm. To be adults in a space where these issues emerge creates tensions and requires critical and ongoing reflection on how educators maintain trust with youth while also advocating for them and their wellbeing through the institutionalized practices available (i.e., mandated reporting, seeking out resources, etc.).
Methodologically, Idalia and Mónica, who facilitated the sessions with the girls, grappled with the various and complex dimensions of what it meant to be a responsible reporter and researcher while at the same time building confianza. The unanticipated realities of the project allowed us to continuously reflect on our multiple roles during the time spent with the girls and the various topics and issues they shared. Although it was difficult for us to navigate these tensions and contradictions, we see our experiences as important to informing researchers who are working with youth in and out of school spaces. Echoing scholars who implement youth participatory action research (YPAR; Paris & Winn, 2013; Warren & Marciano, 2018; Winn & Winn, 2016), for us, confianza was central to the work we did, as well as the grounding that allowed the girls to open up and share their experiences. From the perspective of participatory design research, building confianza allowed us to privilege the girls’ senses of self, knowledge, stories, and hopes into the design of the program’s activities; these adjustments, in turn, allowed us to continue to build trust (Armstrong et al., 2023; Cumbo & Selwyn, 2022; Teeters et al., 2023). We are elaborating on the affordances of PDR in this after-school program in a subsequent paper.
As such, we ask researchers who create projects with youth, or capture and document the experiences of youth: how are you building or cultivating confianza? What approaches are necessary to support youth in confronting the social (e.g., rumors) and institutional (e.g., school-based) barriers they face? We argue that it is necessary for educational researchers to make visible the ways in which Latina/x girls engage with themselves and the world in order to sustain better relationships with and for them, and to build pathways for Latina/x girls to see themselves as successful in schools and in society. Research around Girls of Color has highlighted all the ways that these girls are positioned and perceived as excessive, loud, and deviant, and thus experience over-policing and inequitable schooling (Lopez, 2023; Morris, 2007; Smith, 2022). Our study demonstrates how Latina/x middle school girls understand each of these experiences and seek spaces and people to make sense of these realities. Latina/x Girlhood Narratives was a space where participating girls tested their peers and program educators to see if they could be trusted with their literacies and experiences. In doing so, they transformed the space into what they needed.
The after-school program, like many out-of-school educational spaces, became a marginal and liminal space that existed between school and home and served as a site where Latina/x girls could show up and create community in authentic ways, including through literacy practices that represented their cultural knowledge and understandings. Chisme, in particular, not only was vital to building and deepening confianza, but also allowed access to the girls’ ideas for activities and pedagogies. Although schools and traditional classrooms might never serve this purpose for Latina/x girls and Girls of Color broadly, we call on the educators, after-school coordinators, researchers, and community partners who create these alternative spaces to center literacy practices of chisme, confianza, and pedagogies of deshogamiento to support Latina/x girls.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The research from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s “Call to Action to Address Racism and Social Injustice Research Program” (2021-2022). The research reported in the article was made possible in part by a grant from the Spencer Foundation (10034604). The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Spencer Foundation.