ABSTRACT
Environmental identity research suggests that aspects of the physical environment—specifically aspects of nature and place—can influence identity formation in addition to and alongside social, cultural, and political aspects of identity. Ways of being and ways of belonging also can be useful in understanding transnational environmental identities. Through auto-ethnography, this chapter explores formative, and sometimes transformative, experiences of five young women who committed to environmental studies and action during their undergraduate university education. Their views help to articulate what it means to hold both transnational and environmental identities simultaneously. In some cases, a Chicana environmentalist sees herself as directly tied to Mexican roots, and in other women, identity and heritage can feel at odds with each other. Whether born in the United States, Mexico, or El Salvador, these women's perspectives show a range of ways that transnational and environmental identities are influenced by ways of being and acting in the world, as well as ways of belonging, through the daily decisions, types of work, sense of belonging, and community groups they identify with. Their perspectives serve to elaborate diverse ways Latinas develop environmental identities.
