Article

Action Research
11(4) 301–321
From madres to ! The Author(s) 2013
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DOI: 10.1177/1476750313502553

change with Photovoice arj.sagepub.com

Angie Pamela Mejia

Syracuse University, USA

Olivia Quiroz
Multnomah County Health Department, USA

Yolanda Morales and Ruth Ponce

Cesar Chavez K-8 School, USA

Graciela Limon Chavez and Elizabeth Olivera y Torre

North Portland Community Leader, USA

Abstract
Photovoice projects operate within multiple and often contradictory social, political,
and cultural contexts. This article describes how Latina madres (mothers) participating
in a community health initiative introduced concepts of mujerismo (Latina womanism) to
fully incorporate their often marginalized voices into a conversation of minority health
inequalities. We argue that a mujerista-led Photovoice challenges dominant assumptions
about US Latinas’ roles as research collaborators. This model was shown to nurture
politicized identities that seek to question issues of power embedded in health promo-
tion initiatives.

Keywords
Latinas, mujerismo, mujerista, participatory action research (PAR), Photovoice

Introduction
Research methodologies have the power to (re)create and sustain forms of
domination affecting marginalized communities (Gatenby & Humphries, 2000;
Minh-Ha, 1989). They also have the potential to fissure this very same system by
exploring ways to place community knowledge and leadership as the central

Corresponding author:
Angie Pamela Mejia, Syracuse University, 302 Maxwell Hall, Syracuse, NY 13244-1090, USA.
Email: amejia@syr.edu

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302 Action Research 11(4)

components of social change movements. Participatory action research (PAR)

might advance this work by integrating communities as equal research partners
and making research relevant to their needs. In attempting to break the research/
researched dichotomy, however, we encounter a complex knot consisting of ques-
tions regarding community representation and consent, levels of community
involvement, knowledge, power, and meanings of community change
(Wallerstein & Duran, 2006). Thus, the division between research/researcher is
never eliminated.
Latinas remain underrepresented in PAR projects aimed at collectively
empowering them. We illustrate how concepts of mujerismo/mujerista (Latina
womanism/womanist) informed the Photovoice component of a community-
based initiative, which investigated issues of nutrition and childhood obesity in
North Portland. Our attempt here is not to provide the blueprint that will eliminate
all of the problems inherent in PAR; instead, we share a model that arose from
working together and making some changes to fit our experiences as Latinas. We
argue that employing a mujerista-led Photovoice approach can provide opportu-
nities for not only US Latinos, but also other communities to critically assess
needs and to genuinely forge politicized identities. Although the project helped
community-researchers become mujeres politizadas (politicized women), we reflect
how interactions with other North Portland non-Latinos also raise awareness of
the issues that were photographed.

Photovoice
Photovoice can incorporate voices often left out of academic and policy dialogues:
members of disadvantaged and socially marginalized communities.
Photovoice allows groups to think over their collective experiences by reflecting
upon community needs, to examine current issues of concern by encouraging reflec-
tion, and to reach policy-makers efficiently by the collaborative efforts of institu-
tional representatives. As a participatory action research (PAR) approach, it gives
participants the opportunity to use photography to create knowledge and raise
questions about relevant community concerns. Initially developed to understand
Yunnan Chinese women’s experiences (Wang, Burris, & Ping, 1996), researchers
have used Photovoice to investigate social inequities in collaboration with margin-
alized communities (Jurkowski, Rivera, & Hammel, 2009; Lopez, Eng, Randall-
David, & Robinson, 2005; Wilson et al., 2007).
Photovoice projects usually begin when institutional representatives meet with
community members to talk about the use of PAR to learn about community
concerns and communicate these concerns to those who can influence community
change via policy. Participants learn how to operate cameras to photograph their
communities’ strengths, weaknesses, and needs. Participants then use the images to
engage in dialogue and reflect upon the pictures they have taken. These conversa-
tions allow participants to narrow down on those specific issues they want policy
makers to take action upon. Finally, community issues are brought to policy–

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Mejia et al. 303

makers’ attention via a public showing of the photographs. The process is seen as
an effective way to actively engage community members in the transformation of
their communities.
Photovoice is not without its share of problems; consequently, limitations may
arise when PAR projects fail to fulfill their emancipatory goals. Researchers may
find barriers in gaining community trust, engaging community members, disse-
minating findings, and creating change. Unanticipated problems arising from the
cultural context may make Photovoice seen by communities as intrusive (Prins,
2010). Even carefully designed projects may create difficulties for community-
based organizations that initially agreed to support them (Dentith, Measor, &
O’Malley, 2009).
Despite the above, PAR projects have nurtured politicized identities that critic-
ally reflect on issues of social inequalities. One should take into account, however,
the extent of community involvement and subsequent participants’ empowerment
resulting from their involvement in PAR. Researchers (Carlson, Engebretson, &
Chamberlain, 2006) showed that Photovoice led participants through a continuum
of cognitive-emotional phases of empowerment ranging from surface-level forms of
awareness to higher, more abstract-level of participant-driven conceptualizations.
This last phase allowed participants to reflect and eventually recognize their posi-
tionalities vis-à-vis structurally imbedded social inequalities.
However, some projects may even differ in how participants engage in research.
A review of articles found that Photovoice projects differed on the extent that
community members’ participated. Low participatory projects included partici-
pants as data collectors but did not go beyond this level of incorporation; highly
participatory projects, conversely, gave participants almost complete control of the
project from the early design stages and on (Catalani & Minkler, 2010). Ultimately,
highly participatory projects created spaces that allowed participants to construct
their own understandings of social marginalization by reaching higher and more
abstracts levels of critical consciousness and engagement.

Mujerismo
The concept of womanism, as coined by Alice Walker (1983), serves as a way to
understand US Black women’s emerging political identities under economic, social,
and political oppression. As a theoretical construct, mujerismo (roughly translated
to mean Latina womanism), embodies similar processes of identity formation.
Thus, a mujerista orientation is understood as a ‘sensibility or approach to
power, knowledge, and relationships rooted in convictions for community uplift’
(Delgado Bernal, 2006, p. 7). The knowledge born out feeling unwanted in US
America, knowledge born out of marginality within our own communities, and
knowledges often rendered invisible by Eurocentric social practices results in
shared emotional states of being and feeling known as the mestiza consciousness
(Anzaldúa, 2012). This consciousness uniquely shapes US Latina lives and
everyday strategies used to resist and overcome institutional and cultural barriers

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304 Action Research 11(4)

imposed by society. Chicana scholars have built upon mujerismo to better

understand Latinas’ lives in a complex, often unwelcoming, social context
(Carrillo, 2009; Delgado Bernal, 2006; Dyrness, 2008; Godinez, 2006; Villenas &
Moreno, 2001).
An important aspect of mujerismo is the idea that all struggles and the gains
emerging from said struggles should benefit everyone in the community.
Photovoice provides tools that enable marginalized people effect change in their
worlds as active research collaborators. Consequently, we argue that mujerismo
bolsters Photovoice’s consciousness-raising goals by providing it with another the-
oretical layer, which bestows it with unique analytical and decision-making possi-
bilities to participants.

Latinas and Photovoice

Researchers attribute success of their overall objectives to Photovoice’s ability to
be modified (Killion & Wang, 2000), allowing community members to adapt it
in ways that are true to their needs. Cultural modifications, however, call for an
understanding of the processes by which community members make sense of
their experiences. Modifications in the delivery of a Photovoice project to
Indigenous Canadian community members suggested that a reiterative process
– where participant-researchers further reanalyze pictures and share findings
with other community members during the project – created a greater sense
of project ownership that would not have been possible if they had implemented
Photovoice in its typical form (Castleden, Garvin, & First Nation Huu-ay-aht,
2008).
Participants involved in participant-led projects are empowered to create new
forms of knowledge with the opportunities made possible by Photovoice (Valera,
Gallin, Schuk, & Davis, 2009). Few Photovoice projects, however, have been
implemented by and with communities of US Latinas. One such study engaged
preadolescents to understand their perceptions of health (Vaughn, Rojas-Guyler, &
Howell, 2008). In another study, Photovoice was introduced as part of a larger
project looking at identity building in young Latinas and led participants to pro-
duce a storybook depicting transnational experiences much like their own US–
Mexico border lives (Sánchez, 2009).
Photovoice projects in collaboration with Latinas, however, remain scarce.
To date, ours is the only article to examine the participation of immigrant mothers
in a Photovoice project that promotes high levels of participation. Thus, we suggest
the driving force behind mujerista Photovoice projects is the sincere desire to grant
as much power to participants by striving for the majority of the research to be
designed by participants themselves, with and in collaboration with researchers
who share the same cultural and class background of participants, and with the
intention to continue community involvement beyond project end dates. Even
though not all Photovoice projects can be mujerista, we hope Photovoice projects
could become mujerista-inspired, challenging researchers to apply some of the

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Mejia et al. 305

techniques explained here. Throughout this article, we use community-researcher to

refer to any of the five Latina mothers participating in the project and facilitator(s)
to refer to those who assisted in the process (Yolanda, Olivia and Angie). The
plural we is used to refer to all of the authors (Yolanda, Olivia, Angie, Ruth,
Graciela, and Elizabeth).

Beginnings
The North Portland Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) Photovoice project
began in January 2008 and ended in May 2008. Even though the goal was to
incorporate the often marginalized voices of Latinos in North Portland, it eventu-
ally took a different approach when it created a space that encouraged sustained
critiques of community realities in immigrant communities.
While Multnomah County Chronic Disease Prevention Program (MCCDP)
HEAL’s main objective was to reduce health inequalities using the community
health worker model, the steering committee (made up by MCCDP’s members,
academic and community partners) felt Photovoice could better integrate an
already active group of school volunteers into the ongoing dialogue of community
health. Table 1 lists collaborators involved in the North Portland Photovoice
project.
Community-researchers (n ¼ 5) had been actively volunteering in the two North
Portland schools (a K-8 and K-5 school, respectively) when asked to participate in
the Photovoice project. Olivia and Yolanda had been employed by Multnomah
County as school-community health promoters and were asked to integrate the
project into their current duties. This article focuses on the model that arose from
this project. Findings, current initiatives, and projected goals from MCCDP HEAL
are described elsewhere (Everett, 2011; Everett, Mejia, & Quiroz, 2009). Table 2
provides the demographic characteristics.

Barriers
Before delving into how mujerismo inspired and then drove this project, we reflect
on the initial difficulties we encountered when advocating for a more community-
led endeavor. Facilitators’ initial experiences exemplify some of the barriers minor-
ity women encounter when collaborating in research. Their concerns centered on
how different parties (academicians, school and other institutional representatives)
might be placed within relationships of power and privilege. The methodological
strength of PAR lies in its focus on community knowledge and the empowerment
of community members as one of its core outcomes. However, facilitators were
painfully aware of how minority professionals are subtly silenced in professional
contexts. Below we list issues that emerged early on and explain strategies used to
even out power differentials. In addition, we show facilitators’ own struggle with
privilege vis-à-vis community-researchers as to illustrate the complexity of the lived
experience of US Latinas.

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306 Action Research 11(4)

Table 1. HEAL Photovoice collaborators.

Collaborators Roles

Academic and institutional partners

University faculty Supervise students; support facilitators; liaison with
funding partners; report writing.
University students Assist with technical support issues (digital clean-up of
images, printing/enlarging for presentation); draft
report; GIS asset mapping; website maintenance.
Facilitators Translation of materials; report writing; group facilita-
tion; assist madres with data analysis/interpretation
MCDDP program manager Supervision of co-facilitators; report and grant writing;
liaison with funding agencies
Community partners
Latina mothers Data collection; data analysis/interpretation; feedback
on reports and academic articles; dissemination
events
Elementary and middle school staff Personnel support to facilitators and parents
Others
HEAL steering committee Various members (community members, school staff
and parents, CBOs, institutional, and other neigh-
borhood stakeholders) as additional support and
direction/guidance.

One of the first barriers encountered were assumptions regarding roles and
responsibilities in the project. Even though facilitators’ and community-
researchers’ roles were clearly stated by the faculty member and the county’s pro-
gram manager, some would erroneously assume that ethnic background equaled
the role of language interpreter. Some would ask, for example, who would be
leading the Photovoice sessions and which one of the facilitators would serve as
interpreter for this person. While this was eventually addressed and corrected, it is
a telling example of how privilege shapes perceptions of minorities working in a
professional capacity: their bilingualism and ethnic background makes them
acceptable only as cultural brokers and their expertise is forgotten once their eth-
nicity is confirmed.
Implementing the project also meant that we would encounter beliefs some may
have held about minorities and their (in)capacity to act as researchers. Research
indicates that people perceive Latinos as less intelligent (Delgado Bernal, 2002;
Steele, 1997) than Whites. This was echoed early on: during one of the early meet-
ings, some were worried that community-researchers would not take pictures of
community concerns and would instead ‘take pictures of their family and pets’.
Two things needed to be addressed here: even if they ended up taking said pictures,
it did not mean these pictures were ‘not right’. Second, and most importantly, we

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Mejia et al. 307

Table 2. Community-researchers’ characteristics.

Age 25–35 range

Education
Primary school 3
Junior high 0
More than junior high but less than HS 1
High school 0
Any post-secondary education 1
Percentage that attended US schools 20%
Foreign born 4
Nationality
Mexico 3
El Salvador 1
US 1
Time in US (in years) 1–23 range
Marital status
Married 5
Language
Spanish only 4
Spanish and English 1

saw this discourse of cultural deficiency as problematic because it further margin-

alized the Latino community.
Carrying out the project with a diverse group of Latinas of varied educational
backgrounds, hailing from different regions of origin, and possessing varied levels
of English fluency, would create complex dynamics of power and privilege.
For example, some migrants may arrive to the US with the ability to legalize
their citizenship status and with transferable educational and professional skills
whereas others may remain undocumented and do not have the educational back-
ground to quickly learn English or increase earnings. Each Latin American region
is a culture of its own, sharing little to none with other regions. Even within a single
country, different cultures, distinguished by race and ethnicity, will seldom interact.
Thus, differences in nationality, language, and socio-economic backgrounds are
not very easy to address, and often go unnoticed by those standing outside the
Latino community.
Facilitators shared a pan-ethnic background similar to that of the community-
researchers (first generation Mexicans and/or Central Americans), but the former’s
experiences as paid professionals trumped these commonalities. During earlier
meetings, community-researchers suggested facilitators should be the ones taking
the pictures. Additionally, community-researchers felt that they, as volunteers, did

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308 Action Research 11(4)

not have the ‘professional training’ to speak publicly about community issues. As
shown later, part of the facilitators’ job was not to deliver the Photovoice meth-
odology but to have community-researchers understand that this was their project.
When community-researchers would ask facilitators to tell them what a certain
picture’s caption should be, they would get a nonsensical, often extremely humor-
ous or silly answer from Angie, exemplifying on how they alone were the ones with
the right words and the correct knowledge. Humor eventually helped diffuse any
shyness and feelings of deference community-researchers had and made it easy to
address issues that may have come up among our group.
Yolanda and Olivia had been working for the North Portland community for
many years; however, community-researchers did not know Angie well enough to
entrust her with their critical appraisal of their neighborhood. At first, community-
researchers questioned the use of an ‘outsider’ to conduct research on (instead of
with) them. There were initial doubts about Angie: did she know the community
from an academic level or from a more personal one? Would she be coming to
collect information from them and then leave to never be heard from again?
Answering these initial questions allowed us to gain strength to prepare ourselves
to undertake a project that would bring further issues of power and privilege to the
surface.

Addressing barriers
Facilitators challenged and addressed institutional and academic players’ perform-
ances of White privilege. They also diminished their own power vis-à-vis the
community-researchers by constantly advocating for community-researchers’
ownership of the project.

Eradicating White privilege

As stated before, the project had to begin educating others on White privilege and
how it manifests in research projects. When misconceptions about community-
researchers arose, facilitators immediately addressed these behaviors lest they
risk community-researchers becoming invisible, marginal, or in any way disem-
powered. For example, when someone doubted community-researchers’ ability to
participate in the project, Angie stopped the flow of the conversation and engaged
in dialogue to understand why this misconception was brought up. When facilita-
tors could not address this immediately, they would write faculty and institutional
managers, and followed up with a learning exercise before the start of the next
meeting with students.
Facilitators’ ability to be openly critical, however, rested on the fact that
project directors and faculty understood that these assumptions regarding the com-
munity would present themselves. It also helped that they felt secure in their pos-
itions as paid staff to speak up on instances of what Villenas and Moreno call
‘benevolent racisms’ (2001). By the end, those involved in the project were able to

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Mejia et al. 309

self-reflect on how complexities of privilege subtly operate when deploying health

promotion activities in marginalized communities.

Bringing our cultura

We started each meeting1 with icebreakers to build upon the similarities we all shared
as Latinas. One of the icebreakers involved sharing famous lines from our favorite
telenovela villainess; however, the most popular icebreakers were those that incor-
porated food. Another one would be sharing recipes from our regions of origin,
emphasizing what was similar or distinctive. One involved sharing ethnic dishes we
had (un)successfully recreated with US ingredients. On two occasions, we reflected
on our first experience trying ‘American food’ and acting out our first reaction to
McDonald’s. Culturally inspired icebreakers helped facilitators and community-
researchers become aware of our similarities vis-à-vis dominant US culture.

Taking ownership
The first day, facilitators carefully informed community-researchers of their role not
only as community experts but also researchers. They emphasized the community-
researchers’ knowledge of neighborhood history and dynamics, made them experts
with first-hand knowledge on what needed to be changed in the community.
Facilitators emphasized the project belonged to the community-researchers and
that they would gladly facilitate (but not direct) the process of what is photographed,
what is discussed, and what is reported. During the first sessions, facilitators con-
tinuously reminded community-researchers about their role as experts via humor,
dialogue, and reassurance. By the end of week four, community-researchers kept
extending the meeting beyond the allotted time, as they felt they had much more to
say and not enough time to say it. They also felt comfortable enough to start refer-
ring to the project as nuestro proyecto (our project).

Pensadoras: Telling stories that were never told

A pensador/a (creative thinker) transforms his/her world by piecing together ‘cul-
tural knowledge[s], practices, and identities’ (Godinez, 2006, p. 25) thus building
new understandings of their lived social moment. Sharing of pensamientos
(thoughts) via storytelling informs others of their position within a socially oppres-
sive system. Unlike linear (i.e. Western) storytelling, powerful storytelling creates a
narrative that ‘drifts along . . . without development . . . without definite beginnings
or endings’ (Minh-Ha, 1989, p. 143). In the case of many immigrant Latinas, their
day-to-day activities to survive an often hostile US context leaves them little time to
be storytellers or have the space to create knowledge as pensadoras.
Photovoice customarily follows an analysis phase, where participants choose
their favorite pictures and then share with the group why they picked them and
what they wish to convey with that picture. Instead, it was decided that each of the

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310 Action Research 11(4)

community-researchers would share all of the pictures they had taken. This was
initially implemented to get everyone to know each other. In the end, however, it
showed how collective participation, using storytelling during photo captioning (in
this case, Figure 1), gave community-researchers a chance to weave stories as
pensadoras, and create knowledge about the community.

Graciela was talking about graffiti . . . to her this means gang activity. [A community-
researcher], however, interrupted and said that even when there is no graffiti, gang
culture might influence children. She began sharing what she knew about gangs and
gave us a mini-presentation that could have shamed any police gang task force. One
issue that stuck with me was when she said that one should be more worried with what
kids learn from the Internet. She also shared how gang signs may be subtle, making it
more difficult to even know what is and what isn’t a gang sign. Elizabeth then mourn-
fully declared that even if they cleaned up the marks, there was a strong possibility
they would appear again. (Angie’s notes 4/2008)

A mujerista approach recognizes the need to reject patriarchal forms of facilitation

and encourage collective storytelling. In this instance, community-researchers
learned from each other via the reactions that emerged from one picture. In add-
ition, community-researchers had the opportunity to come back to any pictures
and detract and/or further elaborate on past captions as to allow for further theme
creation.
In Figure 2, we compare Wang and Burris’s major methodological steps – taking
photographs around a main concern or theme, captioning and analyzing selected

Figure 1. Graffiti and the abandoned school.

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Mejia et al. 311

Mujerista Photovoice Wangand Burris' Photovoice

(Re)discovering
issues/concerns Meetings to
and concerns via discuss concerns,
pláticas introduce a theme,
(discussion) etc.

Participants take Participants take

photographs photographs
around issues/ around issues/
concerns concerns

Participants
Collective choose
storytelling using photographs that
each others' they like best and
photographs want to share with
the group

Content analysis,
grouping, Content analysis of
amending, selected pictures
clarifying, refining
issues; formulating
new issues

Inform policy Inform policy

makers and makers and
institutional players institutional players

Policy and Policy and

institutional institutional
changes changes

Figure 2. Comparison of a mujerista-led Photovoice model and Wang and Burris’s

Photovoice model.

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312 Action Research 11(4)

pictures, and selecting key themes to present to policy-makers – with the mujerista-
led model – discovering and articulating a concern, collaborating and captioning
via collective storytelling around every picture, and formulating a list of concerns
to present to institutional players and policy-makers.
The mujerista model builds upon Wang and Burris’s model by engaging in
a relationship that aims to create knowledge by constantly taking and/or (re)ana-
lyzing pictures taken, disseminating knowledge throughout the whole process, and
building upon this newly created knowledge to present to institutional decision-
makers. Thus, institutional players such as Multnomah County Health continu-
ously have integrated these visual narratives to inform current and future health
initiatives.

Fotos mujeristas
Applying a mujerista paradigm throughout the design, implementation, and ana-
lysis allowed for more community-directed results to surface. This was because
community-researchers’ expertise, needs, and leadership were central to the process
but also because the process went beyond giving voice – facilitators and project
managers advocated for community-researchers’ findings to be added to future
institutional plans. Facilitators also actively worked on eliminating instances
where community-researchers’ control of the research could be jeopardized.
Community-researchers also grew confident enough to engage in a critical reflec-
tion of their community and of social consequences of being ‘foreigners’ in a land
they had intended to make their permanent home. Finally, a mujerista model
ventured to create a space where the highest possible forms of consciousness-
raising can be achieved by all, but specifically by the community-researchers them-
selves. Below, findings show community-researchers’ understanding of their lived
realities via narratives that emerged from the pictures.
Community-researchers grew confident enough to ‘talk back’ to stereotypes dom-
inant society may have had of them. This picture illustrates how erroneous beliefs
about ‘dirty Mexicans’ are shattered by actions of a mostly White community:

Here is a bus stop where people throw garbage. They criticize us Mexicans, saying we
are dirty, and I see that it is Americans [the ones who are dirty]. I see them through my
window that they throw trash. Many times when they do that, I start picking up so
they can see that not all Mexicans are like they say, ‘dirty’, and that they too have
people that are dirty.

Pictures illustrated contradictory nutrition messages that parents receive from insti-
tutions and compared it with the limited choices of healthy foods that schools
offered their children:

There is good food during the afternoon, healthy, but mornings . . . the food is no good
. . . I do not like that the breakfast food is pure sugar, everything is jelly . . . The school

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Mejia et al. 313

Figure 3. Bus stop.

Figure 4. School meals.

makes sure to call us when our kids behave bad, or everyone around tells us about
healthy eating . . . but are we able to call the school if their food is not healthy?

News media constantly highlights Portland, Oregon as sustaining a biking and a

non-automobile commuting culture. Non-profit organizations encourage elemen-
tary school children to bike by providing information, support, and advocacy.
However, even though they promote a commuting culture throughout all of
Portland’s neighborhoods, as the picture above shows, not everyone will have a

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314 Action Research 11(4)

Figure 5. Faulty sidewalks.

smooth ride. Since these organizations have little resources to undertake street
repairs, we are left with questions about who really is a Portlander. Whose culture
are we cultivating? Whose biking matters?
Latinos are the largest minority group in North Portland, representing approxi-
mately 23 percent of its residents2 (US Census Bureau, 2010). Even though North
Portland’s poverty level (34%) is higher than other Portland neighborhoods
(Burnham, 2010), the area has also seen an increase of home purchasing by
middle-class professionals. Some views regarding North Portland, however, are
not positive. An excerpt from a website dedicated to inform others of different
Portland neighborhoods exemplifies these negative views:

The northern border of University Park is the trashy, high traffic Lombard Street
. . . which is dotted with ‘Fast Cash’ joints and fast food restaurants – but there are a
few ‘decent’ businesses sprinkled in. The street is starting to improve . . . starting to.
(Hall, n.d.)

Feeling arriconado (shoved in a corner) is how community-researchers collectively

described their feelings as North Portland Latinos/as when hearing others describe
their neighborhood. Looking at its secondary meaning, arriconado also means
forgotten and marginalized. Community-researchers knew that the vision others
construct of Portland – metropolitan, organic, ‘hip’ – did not include them. During
one of the meetings, Ruth succinctly encompassed the feeling of arriconados with
this statement: ‘when people come to North Portland, they think they have arrived
to some other place’. Neighborhood comments of it being ‘trashy’ reinforce this
feeling of arrinconados by downplaying (and in this context, making invisible)
community strengths.

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Mejia et al. 315

From mujeres to mujeristas

Interviews evaluating HEAL’s initiatives (Everett et al., 2009) revealed parents’
overall satisfaction with Multnomah County’s activities. They also revealed
how Olivia and Yolanda’s continued involvement with the community served as
a way to maintain the political momentum gained via the Photovoice project and
illustrate community-researchers’ mujerista identities emerging from their involve-
ment as community experts.
Community-researchers emphasized how they now notice things in the neigh-
borhood and compared them to how they may not have done it in the past:

One comes here [to the United States] without the need to look at our
alrededor (surroundings) . . . we are [now] critical, more often, of changes that need
to be made.

[One is] now noticing where there is more . . . graffiti in the walls, of how the streets are,
if there is garbage or not and . . . one is learning more of current things.

Another community-researcher explains that this way of noticing things changes

once you have ‘an experience’ that illuminates community inequalities that were
not noticed before:

I don’t know, is like one feels that you are not wanting of anything [thus] you do not
notice anything around you . . . [but] . . . an experience . . . it changes you, and all of the
sudden one says ‘it is true, one must take notice of what is going on’.

Community-researchers emphasized the need to have access to affordable and local

food options that would not only help them but also the local businesses that are
limited on the types of food they offer:

[L]ocal businesses have vegetables, they have a little bit they don’t have a lot, so that
means, it could be more . . . [Participating in the MCCDP school programs] . . . ma[de]
me consider more the local business and markets, and if they could sell a little bit of
vegetables, it could be nutritious.

Graciela began questioning paradoxes and inconsistencies that society had of

Latinos and society:

I do not agree with [TV] programs that always go and say that Latinos are the worst
in obesity . . . those are lies . . . I know a lot of Americans that are obese . . . [I]t is all
of us.

Community-researchers were also cautiously optimistic of which changes are pos-

sible via participatory health promotion efforts and which changes may take more

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316 Action Research 11(4)

than policy to make lasting impacts. Below, Ruth mentions the need to change the
predominant misconception that North Portland is ‘not really Portland’:

[North Portland] still needs a lot of improvement . . . we are over here at the north side,
we are arrinconados . . . That is the only fact . . . [even when] . . . we are around a lot of
companies [such as] Columbia sportswear.

This final comment shows how these mujeristas understand that infrastructural
improvements do not equal cultural transformation. In Ruth’s eyes, the proximity
of Columbia sportswear and its symbolic representation of the US Pacific
Northwest lifestyle was still not enough for the rest of Portlanders to consider
North Portland minority residents as part of the community.

From mujerista photos to mujerista results

At the time of writing this article, the MCCDP has been awarded a highly com-
petitive CDC grant to implement policy, environmental, and systems-based
changes to promote healthy eating and active living. One objective of this grant
is working with school and community partners for the implementation of district-
wide school wellness policies.
Focusing on issues of health equity and chronic disease prevention, the grant’s
aims were directly inspired by these findings. One of these new initiatives used
recommendations of improving the food offerings and supporting local businesses
to establish the Healthy Latino Corner Store Network, part of the Healthy Retail
Initiative, a project that helps participating Portland corner stores with marketing
and technical support to provide healthy and fresh food alternatives to residents.
At the time of writing, half of the participating stores are located in North
Portland. Details on this initiative are reported elsewhere (Everett, 2011).

Discussion
Our varied consciousness-building experiences as Latinas embody what Chicana
scholars call politicization out of necessity (Moraga & Anzaldúa, 1983). These
experiences, borne out of conducting our lives while fighting different forms of
institutionalized racisms and subtle ethnocentric practices by dominant society,
all while living in a predominantly Anglo-American community, compelled us to
envision Photovoice as way that North Portland Latinos could inform others of
their own community concerns while at the same time, gaining some control in the
research and dissemination process.
Aside from serving as visual examples of emerging mujerista identities, photos
were efforts to fashion knowledge often too raw to assimilate by those better pos-
itioned socially and economically. Community-researchers were embedding these
pictures onto a social reality, which has been ignored or glossed over by institutions
claiming to ‘help’ minorities. Instead of sanitized images with a caption explaining

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Mejia et al. 317

why families did not make use of the parks, madres took bold pictures of aban-
doned school lots and associating them with the rise in gang activity, complicating
views of social inequality by openly speaking out on the inability to afford healthy
food in a rapidly gentrifying area where supermarkets mainly cater to middle-class
residents. In short, pictures reminded others that health in minority communities is
a complicated issue, and that sometimes health interventions may not get to the
root of the problem if they fail to ask, pero de verdad y con sinceridad (truthfully
and in good faith), for the input of those living in the community they seek to
intervene in.
Graciela, Elizabeth and Ruth and the other two community-researchers, agreed to
participate in this project knowing there were some changes needed in the community.
It forced them to leave the school context and take their activism further out into the
community. For example, Photovoice dissemination activities involved making vari-
ous public appearances via community radio and outreach events. For one particular
community-researcher (Graciela), getting out of her comfort zone allowed her to get
over being ‘a bit quiet and shy’. She is now extremely involved in immigrant justice
activism. Others continue encouraging other parents to be involved in their commu-
nities by becoming school volunteers. Community-researchers are, nevertheless, aware
efforts may be slow to materialize or that small gains may not be as permanent. Ruth,
for example, indicated that initially one could see a moderate decrease in graffiti tags;
however, she feels the amount of tagging has increased. Community-researchers also
lamented that their biggest concern, the abandoned school, continues to attract a bad
element in the adjacent park, making it unsafe to walk or bike there.
As a newly envisioned model, we emphasize its limitations when applied to other
communities. As stated before, even well designed projects may not benefit the com-
munity it aims to work with, thus one should be cautious of the initial excitement a
highly participatory project may bring to those designing it and collaborating in it.
Participants gain a critical vocabulary and a vision of themselves as social justice
players; however, conscientization falls short when there is a lack of support, power,
and influence to make changes. Empowerment can initially strengthen their sense of
belonging and community control; however, applying community demands raised in
highly participatory Photovoice projects may challenge institutional processes that
control avenues of change. To increase the impact of Photovoice projects, issues of
funding, authorship, time, and stakeholder expectations should be taken into
account before modifying a project into a mujerista one.
Furthermore, facilitators as college-educated and professional Latinas, were
aware that gains from participating in this project might have been more immedi-
ately visible than that of community-researchers. For community-researchers,
expected gains (fixing sidewalks, bettering meals, lowering gang activity) would
take more time to materialize. Although the structural forces that created these
power inequalities between facilitators and community-researchers cannot be read-
ily eliminated, the group endeavored to minimize the impact of unequal statuses by
the way we implemented the project. We discovered that for the project to be truly
collaborative, all of the phases of the Photovoice process would need to fully

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318 Action Research 11(4)

involve participant-researchers. For example, to involve participants as co-authors,

Angie began carefully translating the original article (and all of the modifications
and subsequent versions) from English into Spanish. This also meant meeting with
the participant-researchers to talk about manuscript changes to ensure that their
voice was truly incorporated into the text. While some might see this as an overly
time-consuming (and unnecessary) task, it assures full participant-researcher
involvement over facilitators’ professional needs.
Finally, one must be conscious that many working in positions similar to that of
facilitators may not have the ability to critically express themselves to supervisors,
as doing so may lead to disciplinary actions and even termination. However, it is
important to keep in mind that constant education of others (especially those with
more power) during every stage of a Photovoice project is needed to do justice to its
liberatory aims. The inability to do so can further solidify the issues a mujerista
Photovoice tries to dismantle by creating PAR in ‘name only’.

Concluding thoughts
Community-researchers felt their participation in this project helped them recog-
nize the complicated linkages between policy and real lives. They also recognized
their own experiences might be unique in that their participation reflects their
commitment to a school that actively seeks parents’ participation and their role
as community leaders. We saw this Photovoice project go beyond volunteer
responsibilities, job duties, or academic objectives: it was an opportunity to under-
stand themselves in an unequal social moment, which simultaneously co-opts and
subtly silences minorities’ voices, no matter their class position or legal status.
Taking into account its limitations, this mujerista Photovoice process might serve
as a model to move beyond research by encouraging the creation of new politicized
identities in both participants and collaborators. Community-researchers’ involve-
ment in this project exemplifies such identities, aiming to change not only research
practices but also society.

Acknowledgements
We dedicate this article to the memory of Heather L. Hartley, PhD (1969–2008), former associ-
ate professor of Sociology at Portland State University and dearest friend. We also thank
Heather for bringing us together to work on this project, and trusting us with the task of
challenging methodological rules and transforming research paradigms. We are deeply indebted
to the rest of the participants. We thank Margaret Everett, Meg Merrick, Sonia Manhas, the
MCCDP program and various others who helped with the project. We are grateful to Marjorie
DeVault and Syracuse University Sociology Students for comments on earlier drafts of this
manuscript. This project was supported by funding (with the help of Meg Merrick and PSU
students) by Portland’s Metro County office and Northwest Health Foundation.
We thank Maria Teresa Castillo Burguete for leading the review process for the author
of this article. Should there be any comments/reactions you wish to share, please bring them to
the interactive portion (Reader Responses column) of the website: http://arj.sagepub.com.

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Mejia et al. 319

Notes
1. We conducted nine working meetings and the community stakeholder dissemination
event. Meetings began right after parents dropped off children (around 8:50)
and lasted (officially) until 11:30 a.m., but many times we met until 12:30 p.m. or so.
The meeting place was the volunteer meeting space in the K-8 school. We had one par-
ticipant absent during meeting 4 and meeting 6 and another one absent during meeting 7
and the community presentation meeting. When a participant was absent, they were
informed on what was discussed on the previous meeting, have them quickly revisit
any pictures previously analyzed, and made sure to discuss any pictures they had taken
during their absence. Meetings were not changed from the initial agreed-upon time.
2. The overall percentage of Latinos in Oregon is 11.7 percent, making them the largest
minority group in the state. 17 percent of those Oregon Latinos reside in Portland (also
the largest minority group in the city).

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Author biographies
Angie Pamela Mejia emigrated from Honduras at the age of 11 and accidentally
discovered feminism via her love of women’s rock music. She is now a doctoral

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student in the Department of Sociology at Syracuse University. Her dissertation

research focuses on U.S. Latinas, depression, and biomedicalization. Together with
her husband, she enjoys introducing their son to the complexities of 1990’s alter-
native music, fashion, and cultural memory.

Olivia Quiroz was born in Mexico City and at the age of eight her family migrated
to the United States. She has a B.S. in Public Health from Oregon State University.
She has worked for Multnomah County since 2007 and in her current position as
the Senior Policy Health Specialist she serves as the liaison to a coalition of part-
ners working towards shared policy outcomes in the arena of land use and trans-
portation planning. She enjoys taking advantage of Oregon’s hiking trails any
chance she gets.

Yolanda Morales was born in Guatemala. She works as a community agent at

Cesar Chavez School and has a long history of grassroots activism related to
gender, education, and community empowerment. She is an avid walker and
enjoys motivating others to join her in urban adventures.

Ruth Ponce is a parent liaison at Cesar Chavez School and works as a community
organizer for the Multnomah County’s Healthy Retail Initiative all while finishing
her education at Portland State University. Her transnational experiences as a U.S.
born but Mexican raised woman has inspired her to empower Latina mothers and
young women in the North Portland community.

Graciela Limon Chavez was born in beautiful Mexico City, Mexico. She is a com-
munity leader at North Portland and a parent volunteer at Cesar Chavez School.
She believes no human being is illegal and dreams of a future where borders no
longer separate families.

Elizabeth Olivera y Torre participated as a parent leader at St. Johns School. This
project has inspired her to look at pictures as a politically powerful tool that can
use to start much-needed dialogues about social issues in the Latino community.
She loves spending time with her family.

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