Overshadowed by official statistics on the sexual behaviors and attitudes of Latina youth, such as pregnancy and birth rates, has been the sexual self-protective efforts of Latina youth. While the existing literature on girls' sexuality accounts for some of the complexities of young women's lived sexual experiences, it also reveals that the literature on Latina youth is acutely underdeveloped, especially in light of the growth of this population in the United States.

In an attempt to address this gap, my research seeks to establish what social processes contribute to the ability of Latina youth to engage in safe sex practices and importantly, how Latinas negotiate and construct their sexual subjectivity through these processes. Utilizing a multi-methodological approach, I conducted a qualitative study of forty sexually active Mexican-origin and Puerto Rican young women in Chicago and a subset of their mothers. Largely informed by the theoretical insight of feminist studies literature, I analyze the intersectionality of gender, culture, race/ethnicity, and class in the sexual lives of Latina youth through an examination of three principle questions: How do young Mexican and Puerto Rican women in Chicago negotiate and articulate their sexuality? What are the discussions about sexuality that Latina mothers and daughters engage in as they construct their identities? And finally, how do Latina youth perceive risk in their sexual behavior and how do they address risk in their lives? I argue that the sexuality of Latina youth is best understood within a framework that explores their agency rather than relegates them to a "social problem." The results of this study reveal some of the ways Latina youth become informed sexual subjects. In their encounters with sex education in the classroom, interactions with their mothers regarding sexuality and gender, and in conversations with peers, Latina youth critically confront, resist, and rework cultural and gendered notions about sexuality in general and Latina sexuality. This study demonstrates that the utilization of an agency-approach rather than a deficit-approach to explore the sexual lives of young Latinas can uncover new dimensions of their social worlds.