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The Mañana Complex: A Revelatory Narrative of Teachers’ White Innocence and Racial Disgust Toward Mexican–American Children

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Abstract

This paper presents selected findings from an ethnographic case study of at a public junior high school. Analysis of White teachers’ discourse implicated a perspective of Mexican–American children that we describe as a mañana complex, a perceived association between Mexican–Americans and the term “mañana” (Spanish: “tomorrow”). We outline how this mañana complex among White teachers is indicative of historical racial tropes of Mexicans in the United States while also reflecting current anti-Mexican discourse emboldened and made more fervent by the current US presidential administration. Ultimately, the mañana complex is an example of both racial disgust toward Mexican–American children (Matias and Zembylas in Crit Stud Educ 55(3):319–337, 2014) and presumptions of White innocence and neutrality (Orozco in Crit Stud Educ 1–17, 2017. http://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2017.1285335) among White teachers. Such narratives have profound implications for the education of Mexican and non-White children in US schools that are herein discussed.

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Notes

  1. Trope has to do with an agreed-upon narrative, an archetypal reading of a story or situation according to the simplest and most widely-held beliefs, a kind of narrative stereotype (Deutsch 2009).

  2. White settler work ethic is a term used to describe the pioneers as idealized heroes and heroines that endured great hardship as they moved west to “settle” the frontier.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA

    Amanda R. Morales

  2. Educational Administration, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, 129 Teachers College Hall, Lincoln, NE, 68588-0360, USA

    Elvira J. Abrica

  3. Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Center for Intercultural and Multilingual Advocacy, College of Education, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, USA

    Socorro G. Herrera

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  1. Amanda R. Morales
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Correspondence to Elvira J. Abrica.

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Morales, A.R., Abrica, E.J. & Herrera, S.G. The Mañana Complex: A Revelatory Narrative of Teachers’ White Innocence and Racial Disgust Toward Mexican–American Children. Urban Rev 51, 503–522 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-019-00499-1

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