Cultural Wealth Model

Applications of Yosso's Community Cultural Wealth Model Yosso's Community Cultural Wealth model is made up of a multitude of resources held by various groups of color and minorities; it acts as a form of 'resilience' against many types of systematic oppression. It was created with the thought in mind that, capital doesn't only mean financial income, other types of capital exist that can hold value as well. With that in mind it is important to distinguish the difference between the two. Income is the money being brought into the home through different forms of labor, either through the workplace, or other side jobs; wealth, on the other hand, is the total amount of collected assets and resources which again, are not necessarily financial.
Which brings us to our next branch of the Community Cultural Wealth Theory—linguistic capital. Linguistic capital is the collection of "intellectual and social skills learned through communication that occurs in more than one language and/ or style." (Yosso 2006: 43) This is tied in with bilingual education and should be seen by all as a positive rather than a negative because it is very easy for children from struggling families to blame their culture; it makes perfect sense why young bilingual children would be ashamed of their home language because they are forced to conform to their surrounding expectations. The idea behind this branch is the idea that Chicanos/as have been exposed to more than one language and gain cultural communication skills that translate into the academic and even social settings. Quite often children from such homes takes part in storytelling. According to Yosso, skills obtained from this activity include: memorization, attention to significant detail, pauses for dramatic effect, comedic timing, facial expressions, specific vocal tones, volume, and rhythm. Those same skills used for effective story telling crossover to various language styles to appeal to different audiences. Even more benefits are made for children who translate for their parents.
For example, with a mainly white university campus acting as our social institution, a Chicano/a student's ability to maintain academic achievement without letting their individual barriers and struggles affect them would be the result of having strong navigational capital. Besides students, this also applies to adults and their personal affairs which can include individual, family, community, and work factors. For example, Mexican immigrants, who come to the U.S., who have to maneuver through new institutions, that are centered around white middle class folks, develop navigational capital. In these cases, it can also be described as inner resources dwelling from their cultural background that help, not only to get by, but to thrive and exceed their expected expectations. This capital can help to navigate social institutions such as the job market, health care system, and the judicial system, to name a few, but can be applied to any single institution that creates an uneven playing field for Chicanos/as (Yosso 2006). Overall this branch can benefit the individual in an institution that is formed on race, and continues to work against them, while still drawing from their own backgrounds of lesser opportunities. Navigational capital is very closely related to our next branch on our model—social