ABOUT US
We are a group of five mother-scholars who identify as Chicana-Indigena, Chicana, Chicana/Xicana/Latina, and Afro-Chicana.
Cecilia Caballero, Ph.D. Candidate
University of Southern California, Department of American Studies and Ethnicity
Based in Los Angeles, Cecilia Caballero is an Afro-Chicana single mother, poet, essayist, educator, and speaker. She is currently adjunct faculty at California State University, Fullerton. Cecilia also designs and facilitates poetry workshops for BIPOC folks to cultivate more spaces of healing and social justice and she is the Poet-in-Residence-y-Resistencia for Latinx Intelligentsia. Cecilia’s creative writing has been published in Dryland Magazine, Raising Mothers, Epiphany Magazine, and elsewhere, and she has received creative writing fellowships from Tin House, VONA, Macondo, and the Women’s National Book Association. She is completing her first creative nonfiction book titled Other Alive Creatures.
Yvette Martínez-Vu, Ph.D.
Independent Scholar
Dr. Yvette Martínez-Vu is a Xicana Mother-Scholar who works as an academic coach and consultant. Dr. Yvette has a Ph.D. in Theater and Performance Studies from UCLA. She is the producer and host of the Grad School Femtoring podcast, a digital course creator, and public speaker. She is also a proud mom of a seven year-old and eleven-month-old. Dr. Yvette is currently transitioning out of academia after working in higher ed for over ten years and while juggling homeschooling, caring for an infant, and managing a chronic illness during the pandemic. She will be relocating her family to Portugal soon where she looks forward to femtoring more first-gen scholars while abroad.
Judith C. Pérez-Torres, Ph.D.
University of Utah, Educational Leadership and Policy
Judith C. Pérez is a first-generation Chicana mother scholar from Bell, California. She holds a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy from the University of Utah. Her areas of interest include educational leadership, the k-20 educational pipeline, Chicana/x/o & Latina/x/o racialized experiences, Chicana feminist thought, and university-school-community engagement. Judith is an adjunct faculty teaching for the Chicana/o Studies Department, The Office of First Year Experience and the Educational Leadership Department at California State University, Fullerton. Her daily reminders of love and critical hope are her three children, Luna (10), Tino (8) and Joaquín (5) who challenge her to affirm her self-worth for their future.
Michelle Téllez, Ph.D.
University of Arizona, Mexican American Studies; Associate Professor
Michelle Téllez is a lone mother to a 15-year old daughter who loves to dance. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mexican American Studies at the University of Arizona who investigates transnational community formations, Chicana feminism, and gendered migration through her writing, public scholarship and digital humanities work. She has a long history in grassroots organizing projects and community-based arts and performance. She is the author of Border Women and the Community of Maclovio Rojas: Autonomy in the Spaces of Neoliberal Neglect published in October 2021 by the University of Arizona Press.
Christine Vega, Ph.D.
San Jose State University, Assistant Professor
Christine Vega is a first-generation, Chicana-Indigena Feminista from Pacoima, California. She earned her Ph.D. from UCLA, in Race & Ethnic Studies of education. She is a proud transfer student from Los Angeles Mission College, with B.A.’s in Chicana/o & Women Gender Studies from UCLA, and an M.Ed. from the University of Utah. Her research centers Mothers of Color and the everyday movidas (hustles) in education. She is co-founder of Mothers of Color in Academia de UCLA and this collective, Chicana M(other)work. Christine is a new junior faculty at San Jose State University in the Chicana/o/x Studies Department. She is the proud momma to seven-year-old Janitzio, a little leaguer, while nesting a new home and community in San Jose, California.
