Liderazgo con Buena Mano: Aida Barrera, Carrascolendas, and the Intersection of Race and Gender

“Liderazgo con buena mano: Aida Barrera, Carrascolendas, and the Intersection of Race and Gender,” analyzes liderazgo con buena mano, or leadership with good hand, among Mexican American women in the United States through Aida Barrera’s life and career as creator of Carrascolendas. Liderazgo con buena mano is a theoretical concept introduced in this dissertation to study women’s leadership, agency, and networks. Through its analysis and historicization of Carrascolendas, an innovative bilingual children’s educational program produced by the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in Austin, Texas during the 1970s, this dissertation examines Mexican American diasporic communities as well as race and gender representations within a regional, national, and transnational context. This dissertation, therefore, contributes to the study of Mexican American and Latina women, race, immigration, and bilingual education as well as bilingual education, children’s programming, and popular culture. This dissertation first introduces the concept of liderazgo con buena mano and analyze how Barrera, as a Mexican American woman trailblazing into new spaces and drawing on the knowledge of her foremothers, exemplifies the qualities of this leadership style. In Barrera’s case, liderazgo con buena mano refers to her desire to gauge disparities in Latino racial representation within American popular culture and her ability to resolve these inequalities through Carrascolendas. Secondly, this dissertation demonstrates how Barrera’s liderazgo con buena mano and her creation of Carrascolendas is a continuation of a long history of activism led by Mexicans and Mexican Americans in Texas and the United States during the twentieth century. In doing so, this dissertation especially looks at Mexican and Mexican American women’s roles in activism and community leadership. Lastly, this dissertation examines race and gender representation in Carrascolendas within a regional and transnational scope. Using Carrascolendas and Barrera’s own narrative, this dissertation assesses how she delivered a message of inclusion and equality through the show that varied from popular culture along the U.S.-Mexico border and in Mexico