“There She Is”: Hispanic Identity, Academic Success, and Class Mobility in a Collegiate Beauty Pageant

Widely accepted definitions of academic success are neither adequate nor meaningful for many ethnic minority students. Using ethnographic research with high-achieving Latina college students in Oklahoma, student experiences in a collegiate Hispanic beauty pageant were analyzed. These successful Latina students negotiated academic achievement through pageant performances of gender and ethnicity. Student understandings of “making it,” shaped by familial approval, adherence to gender norms, and ethnic identity, suggest that a rethinking of “academic success” is necessary