Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

Fall 11-17-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

December 2025

Department

Communication and Multimedia Studies

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]

Beatriz Nieto-Fernandez

Abstract

This study critically examines discourse and the ways it shapes identities and community belonging for self-identifying Afro-Latina, second-generation-immigrant women in South Florida. This qualitative research uses an intercultural communication framework to analyze interviews and collected poems. Informed by grounded theory and a Black feminist critical approach rooted in the intersectionality theory, the data is analyzed through comparative thematic and metaphorical rhetorical analyses. When discussing the discourses related to the development of ethno-racial identities for Afro-Latinas, certain communicative patterns of self-discovering, self-defining, and self-envisioning emerged. With regard to community belonging, three metaphorical discourses arose: not-enoughness, in-betweenness, and un-humanness. The internalization of discourses exemplifies how ideologies frame our communication. This study produces the “I’m Too Much, Yet Never Enough Paradox” and “Multiple Consciousness” concepts. The poetic approach permits the reader to better understand the depth of the experiences of the participants—Cameron-Grace, Rose, Sasha, Elizabeth, Alani, and Jacqueline.

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