The students we work with become part of the Chicana Latina Foundation family for life. The Foundation has built a network of over 600 Alumnae who are now powerful leaders thriving in their careers, their families and their communities and continuing to share their gifts through mentorship with other women. The Chicana Latina Foundation Alumnae Network offers ongoing:

  • Career development and advancement coaching
  • Opportunities to engage in civic and political education
  • Community wellness resources
  • Peer support and networking opportunities

We are tapping this powerful network of Latinas to continue building our political power and advance lasting policy change.

CLF Alumnae Mission & Vision Statements

Vision- Our work is done when Latinas:

Are grounded in ancestral knowledge and root our actions in love and respect for older and younger generations. 
Have the confidence and tools to create systemic and social change in ourselves and our communities.
Have access to supportive and sustainable community networks, an equitable education, and positions of leadership to create innovative opportunities

Mission Statement: 

“Let us come together and move forward with hope as we defend and care for the Earth and its spirits.” Berta Cáceres

The Alumnae Association exists to support the mission of Chicana Latina Foundation: To empower Chicanas/Latinas through personal, educational, and professional advancement. Alumnae decided to form an association out of our duty and desire to pay it forward to the generations that come after us. We have gained self-confidence, self-love, courage and we hope to keep our passions strong and carve creative spaces for new generations to blossom. 

CLF’s Alumnae Association cultivates individuals and collective Xingona power of CLF alumnae. We support each other in both formal and informal ways to bring our full authentic selves to all areas of our lives. We embrace our complex identities including nationality, ability, sexuality, religion, legal status, class, etc. We strategically advance social justice by increasing the representation of Chicanas/Latinas in all fields, with Afro-Latinas and Indigenas in particular.  We strive for structural change and the challenging of sexism, racism, colorism and by refusing to stay silent in the face of all social injustices.

The CLF alumnae will carry out its purpose in the following ways…

COMUNIDAD/COMMUNITY: Engage alumnae from the various cohorts to participate in the CLF community (e.g. as volunteers, donors, mentors, and social justice warriors, etc.)
SUSTAINABILITY: Formalize and support the ongoing function of the Alumnae Association by setting up governing structure, operations 
CRECIMIENTO/GROWTH: Support alumnae by offering networking, career development and professional development opportunities
SOLIDARITY + REFUSING TO STAY SILENT: Support continued development of Chicana/Latina leadership, including our civic engagement and political education and awareness 
REINVIGORATE: Promote self-care as a part of our commitment to both personal and professional growth, as well as a key element to supporting each other as compañeras and cultivating community wellness grounded in love.

“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation and that is an act of political warfare” – Audre Lorde  

“I think us bad b*****s is a gift from God.” – Cardi B

Glossary

Xingona:  To aspire. A maker of her own camino, this is her path and she is going to follow it, regardless of what society and culture says. / The “x” makes a connection with indigenous ancestry back to los Aztecas, the Aztecs, who used the “x” which is pronounced like the “c-h.”

Social Justice: Justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. A belief that a better world is possible, and that it is organized differently and run with people’s needs and cariño/love at the center. 

Social Injustices: An awareness of Institutional Oppression- the systematic mistreatment of people within a social identity group, supported and enforced by the society and its institutions, solely based on the person’s membership in the social identity group. 

12 Types of social oppression:

Heterosexism: A subcategory of sexism, heterosexism describes the pattern in which people with clearly defined genders are assumed to want to have sexual relationships exclusively with members of the opposite gender. Since not everybody does, the outliers can be punished with ridicule, restriction of partnership rights, discrimination, arrest, and even possibly death.

Cisgenderism: Cisgenderism is a social pattern in which people who do not identify with their assigned gender roles or do not have clearly-assigned gender roles, are forced to either choose gender roles that do not suit them or suffer the social consequences.

Classism: Classism is a social pattern in which wealthy or influential people congregate with each other, and oppress those who are less wealthy or less influential.

Racism: Racism is a social pattern in which people who are identified as members of one specific “racial” group are treated differently from people who are members of another.

Colorism: Colorism is a social pattern in which people are treated differently based on the amount of visible melanin in the skin. It is not the same thing as racism, but the two tend to go together.

Ableism: Ableism is a social pattern in which people who are disabled are treated differently, to an unnecessary degree, than those who are not.

Lookism: Lookism is a social pattern in which people whose faces and/or bodies fit social ideals are treated differently from people whose faces and/or bodies do not.

Sizeism: Sizeism is a social pattern in which people whose bodies fit social ideals are treated differently from people whose bodies do not.

Ageism: Ageism is a social pattern in which people of a certain chronological age are treated differently, to an unnecessary degree, than those who are not.

Nativism: Nativism is a social pattern in which people who are born in a given country are treated differently from those who immigrate to it, to the benefit of natives.

Colonialism: Colonialism is a social pattern in which people who are born in a given country are treated differently from those who immigrate to it, usually to the benefit of a specific identifiable group of powerful immigrants.

Structural Change:  Deep reaching change that alters the way authority, capital, information, and responsibility are arranged. Dismantling of institutional oppression. 

(Last updated 11/01/19)

Interest Form: https://forms.gle/LaYTvv5XkVQp1pjH7