Identity Production in Figured Worlds: How some Mexican Americans become Chicana/o Activist Educators

of figured worlds, this article provides an overview of how twenty-four Mexican Americans came to produce Chicana/o Activist Educator identities. The desire to raise conscious-ness (teach for social justice pero con ganas) and ‘‘give back to the [their] community’’ became a very important part of this identity. Using an ethnographic interview as well as a life history interview methodology, this article specifically focuses on the participants conceptual and procedural identity production in local Chicana/o activist figured worlds (usually in colleges and universities). In these local figured worlds, the participants pro-duced a more complex process of identity production that was both conceptual and procedural. The article concludes with broad implications for urban teacher education. KEY WORDS: identity; figured worlds; Chicana/o. ‘‘The name Chicana is not a name that women (or men) are born to or with, as is often the case with ‘Mexican, but rather it is consciously and critically assumed and serves as point of redeparture for dismantling historical conjunc-tures of crisis, confusion, political and ideological conflict and contradictions... (Alarcón, 1990: 250). Alarcón aptly points out that Chicana and Chicano are not identities that people are born with, but that they come to consciously assume. Assuming Luis Urrieta, Jr. is assistant professor of cultural studies and education and Fellow in the Lee Hage Jamail Regents Chair in Education at the University of Texas at Austin. His research interests are in identity, agency, and social movements in education with a focus on Chicana/o and Indı́gena (Purhépecha) education, citizenship and social studies education. 1 Universit