I give special thanks to my advisor Christine Ogren for reading many versions of these chapters and offering inspired and critical feedback. I want to acknowledge and thank the many members of my family and friends who encouraged me. My grandparents Hugo and Elizabeth, and my mother, Betty Crawford, supported my education from my earliest years and through graduate school, encouraged my scholarship in history and writing, and listened to my ideas through every phase of my growing. Thanks to my

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... ister Tiffany Jensen for her love and support. I would like to thank my parents-in-law, Alan and Mary Howard, for their support. Thanks to my long-time friend and writing partner through two graduate degrees, Michelle Van Wert Kosalka. My little son traveled in utero to archives across the Midwest. As an infant, toddler, and preschooler, Hugo grew alongside my dissertation, a perfect research companion. I especially appreciate the love, support, and understanding from my partner in life, Aaron, as we have traveled along this bumpy road together. iii ABSTRACT This dissertation provides a history of Mexicana/os' participation in three systems of education: formal, non-formal, and informal, in the midwestern states of Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, and Missouri, from 1910 to 1955. The study addresses the social constructions of race, gender, and class as it analyzes how these ongoing and complex constructions influenced not only how broader communities structured and practiced education offered to Mexicana/os but also how Mexicana/os participated in education and made education work for them in parochial and public schools, in settlement houses, in churches and missions, and in familial and community settings. iv PUBLIC ABSTRACT This dissertation provides a history of Mexicana/os' participation in formal, non-formal, and informal education in the Midwest from 1910-1955. While most published histories of Mexican American education focus on formal schooling in the U.S. Southwest, this dissertation serves to explore education in schools and other settings in the midwestern states of Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, and Missouri. The study addresses the social constructions of race, gender, and class as it analyzes how these ongoing and complex constructions influenced not only how broader communities structured and practiced education offered to Mexicana/os but also how Mexicana/os participated in education and made education work for them. Based on over a hundred existing oral history interviews and other primary and secondary sources, this dissertation argues that Mexicana/os living in the Midwest in the first half of the twentieth century valued education. Mexicana/os deliberately pursued formal, non-formal, and informal education. Mexican/os actively participated in and utilized what was available, they navigated around, resisted, and challenged racialized structures and practices, and they made education work for themselves, their children, and their communities. The first two chapters focus on formal education. Chapter One investigates the schools available to Mexicana/os and the school structures and practices they encountered, including segregated schools and English-only policies. Chapter Two explores what formal school meant to Mexicana/os, how they made choices about schooling, and how they utilized varied educational opportunities through schools. The study then turns to non-formal education through settlement houses and religious institutions. Chapter Three explores Mexicana/os' decisions about participating at two midwestern settlement houses: Neighborhood House in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Guadalupe Center in Kansas City, Missouri. The chapter explores how Mexicana/os navigated Americanization education and looks at Mexicana/os' agency in initiating and joining clubs and taking leadership roles. Chapter Four reveals Mexicana/os' agency in seeking out non-formal educational opportunities in Protestant and Catholic churches and v missions, as well as in utilizing these institutions to organize mutual aid societies and devotional societies through which they taught themselves, other parishioners, and the broader community about service, faith, and Mexican history and culture. Finally, the study explores informal, or familial and community, education, investigating how Mexicana/os modeled and taught themselves and their children life skills, lessons in faith, values, and literacy, and how they developed and transmitted Mexican history and culture, on their own terms.