Educational Attainment through Community Cultural Wealth: Narratives of Latino U.S. Congressmen

Latinxs, especially Latino males, have lower college completion rates, but studies find that community cultural wealth is prominent in the narratives of those who succeed in higher education. By focusing on current students or recent graduates, the literature has not examined how a college completion experience aided by community cultural wealth impacts Latinxs who have an opportunity to influence education policy. Consequently, this study investigates the role of community cultural wealth in the college completion experience of three Latino U.S. Congressmen: Tony Cardenas, Henry Cuellar, and Raul Grijalva. Findings suggest that community cultural wealth had a substantial impact on these Congressmen completing college. These results provide higher education greater insight into how policies and advocacy strategies grounded in community cultural wealth can be successful and improve the higher educational pathways and graduation rates of Latinxs.