Abstract: This study examines the experiences and beliefs of young Puerto Rican mothers attending The Family Learning Center (FLC), a family literacy program located in the Puerto Rican community of Chicago, and administered by The Puerto Rican Cultural Center (PRCC), a community-based organization that had been serving the educational and cultural needs of the surrounding Puerto Rican community since the early 1970's and was deeply rooted in the liberatory philosophy and pedagogy of Paulo Freire. The PRCC's programs reflected this philosophy, and along with the more conventional services offered under the family literacy model, the FLC emphasized Puerto Rican history and culture, and provided opportunities for participants to be involved in community activities and grassroots projects. Furthermore, there was a strong emphasis within the program on utilizing participants' lives and experiences as the basis of instruction, of valuing, eliciting, and incorporating their personal narratives and stories into the curriculum. This “re-storying framework” set the program apart from many of the public schools attended by the women, as well as differentiated it from more traditional family literacy programs that have been faulted for promoting unitary notions of literacy and parenting education. Using qualitative and ethnographic research methods, I explored the mothers' processes of identity construction around past and present educational experiences, and the role that their current participation in the literacy program and community played in expanding notions of themselves, as women, students, mothers, and, above all, as Puertorriqueñas. I also documented the myriad sources of information available in community and family settings that the women drew on in their mothering role, in this way countering notions that they were lacking in parenting skills and knowledge. Through this study, I have sought to provide more enriched portraits of young mothers, as well as explore the ways that the program's emphasis on involvement in community activities and Puerto Rican culture allowed participants to get “history in their hands,” in the process recovering past histories and family stories, so they could preserve them for future generations.