Changing Identities: From Troubled Youth to Educated Citizen

In this paper, I report on research about the experience of a group of English teachers who returned from the violent gang culture of Southern California to Mexico, seeking a means of changing their identities from gang members into productive, educated members of society. On returning to Mexico, the teachers had to negotiate their otherness and differences stemming from the customs and traditions they learned to perceive as normal. They learned to adapt to and blend the culture and values they had in Southern California with those of Mexico, using their English as capital to join a new community of practice, English Teaching. Through teaching they were able to gain cultural capital and bring meaning and purpose to their lives as they adapted and their identities changed through time and space. This paper offers insight into the struggle of transnational youth and how they adapt to different communities. This is especially important in a country like Mexico, where Mexican youth often grow up in the United States and have to come back to Mexico, a country they often do not feel they belong to.