Mayra Puente

Biographic Data

ID6555524
NAMEMayra Puente
GIVEN NAMESMayra
FAMILY NAMEPuente
SIGNATUREPUENTE M
AFFILIATIONSUniversity of California, Santa Barbara
ORCID0000-0002-6705-9651
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS10
TOTAL CITATIONS9
AUTHOR COUNT10
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR2022
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX2

  • “Maybe They Don’t Believe in Us”

    Open AccessDaniel Rios Arroyo, Mayra Puente et al.ARTICLEEducation Sciences2026

    This study examines how rural Latinx students from California’s San Joaquin Valley make sense of and navigate access to four-year universities within a geographically and institutionally constrained college-going landscape. While prior research on Latinx college access has largely centered on urban contexts, this article highlights how race and rural place shape the availability and quality of information about four-year universities as experienc…

  • “Contributing to something good”

    Open AccessMayra Puente, Melissa Romero et al.ARTICLEFrontiers in Education2025

    Introduction The U.S. prioritizes the development of STEMM talent, often framing its value through an individualistic and capitalist lens. This approach may not align with rural students’ values, ethics, and way of life, particularly for rural Latinx students, who often come from collectivist cultures. Accordingly, this article investigates how rural Latinx students’ intersectional identities and geographical backgrounds influence their STEMM deg…

  • I Kind of Backtracked a Little”

    Open AccessMayra Puente, Daniel Rios Arroyo et al.ARTICLEJournal of Hispanic Higher…2025References: 4

    Leading college choice theories assume that all students follow linear paths to college. Applying a college-conocimiento framework, this article finds that rural Latinx students deviated from traditional, sequential pathways, experiencing reverse transfer, leaves of absence, changing transfer plans, and stopping out of college. Findings from several pláticas conducted over 4 years reveal that (a) institutional misalignment, (b) new passions, (c) …

  • “You Didn’t Go by Choice!”

    Open AccessVeronica L Fematt, Mayra Puente et al.ARTICLEEducation Sciences2024

    As the Latinx student population grows in the United States, more public research-intensive institutions are becoming Hispanic-Serving Research Institutions (HSRIs). This exploratory qualitative study examines the experiences of Latinx students at an HSRI, particularly in STEM fields where they face underrepresentation and are pushed out. The objectives for this study were two-fold: (1) investigate the institutional factors contributing to Latinx…

  • Summer Bridge as a Counterspace

    Mayra Puente, Brianna R RamirezARTICLEJournal of Student Affairs…2024

    This article challenges the “remedial” and “developmental” framing of summer bridge programs. The study used semi-structured interviews and focus groups to assess 63 students of Color who participated in a 5-week summer bridge program. Through the theoretical concept of counterspace, findings showed that the intentional structuring and content of the summer bridge program strengthened students’ awareness of dominant higher education ideologies, n…

  • Ground-truthing as Critical Race Feminista Methodology

    Open AccessMayra Puente, Verónica N VélezARTICLEInternational Journal of…2024References: 14

    This article extends the methodological proposal of "ground-truthing" in Critical Race Spatial Analysis (CRSA) to consider GIS as Critical Race Feminista Methodology (CRFM). Traditionally, GIS technicians are sent into the field to verify remote-sensing data via "ground-truthing." This process was repurposed in CRSA to "ground" mapmaking in the spatial wisdom of Communities of Color to examine "color-lines" and their everyday impact. Missing in t…

  • Rural Latinx Students’ Spatial Imaginations of Their College Choices

    Open AccessMayra Puente, Mayra Nuñez Martinez et al.ARTICLEEducation Sciences2023

    Rural students face multiple issues pursuing higher education, including financial hardships, inadequate college preparation, and geographic isolation from postsecondary institutions. These issues are further complicated for rural Latinx students, especially those from immigrant farm working backgrounds, who are positioned at the intersection of multiple systems of oppression. Yet, rural Latinx students’ college choice and transition experiences …

  • Navigating the university as nepantleras

    Brianna R Ramirez, Mayra Puente et al.ARTICLEJournal of Diversity in Higher…2023

  • Platicando y Mapeando

    Mayra Puente, Verónica N VélezARTICLEInternational Journal of…2023Cited by: 2References: 12

    The field of geographic information systems (GIS) has been exclusively associated with positivist epistemological perspectives and quantitative research methods. In a deliberate effort to move away from false notions of objectivity and neutrality, this article proposes the Chicana/Latina feminist GIS methodology of Platicando y Mapeando. By drawing on critical raced-gendered epistemologies and the Chicana/Latina feminist methodology of pláticas, …

  • A Critical Race Spatial Analysis of Rural Latinx Students’ College (In)Opportunities and Conscious Choices during the Covid-19 Pandemic

    Mayra PuenteARTICLEJournal of Latinos and Education2022Cited by: 7References: 4

    The ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated educational inequities for students from institutionally marginalized communities. This article specifically examines the college (in)opportunities and conscious choices of rural Latinx students from California’s San Joaquin Valley as they pursued higher education during the pandemic. This article applies a Critical Race Spatial Analysis (CRSA) framework to analyze the intersections of race, sp…