In the words of angela ginorio, chair of Dr. Ramirez Arreola's dissertation committee:
"Congratulations to Elizabeth Ramírez- Arreola who passed her dissertation examination earlier today with a compelling public presentation and an in-depth discussion of the big questions that inform Elizabeth's work.
Quieren Mi Labor Más No Mi Intelecto - They Want My Hands Not My Brains: Mapping the Gendered and Racialized Journeys of Adult "English Learner" Immigrant Latin American Women in the US Higher Education System is the first published study on this population's experiences in higher education. Based on testimonios of eight women, as well as her own, Elizabeth's dissertation argues for the importance of understanding these women's educational ambitions and experiences in the changed context of migration post-NAFTA and post-war-on-drugs. Framed as laborers rather than potential students, these women managed to create a path to higher education in the face of gender, racial, ethnic, and class discrimination and institutional structural barriers. The use of testimonio provided both a method of research and of action to claim a space in higher education that acknowledged the wholeness and richness of who they are and what they bring.
Mil felicitaciones a la Doctora Elizabeth y a su familia de aquí y de allá."