Chancla
Healing Our Families, Ourselves, and Our Culture through Nonviolent Parenting
Contributors
Formats and Prices
- On Sale
- Aug 18, 2026
- Page Count
- 304 pages
- Publisher
- Little Brown Spark
- ISBN-13
- 9780316567602
Price
$29.00Price
$38.00 CADFormat
Format:
- Hardcover $29.00 $38.00 CAD
- ebook $14.99 $19.99 CAD
- Audiobook Download (Unabridged) $24.99
Preorder from Retailers:
For many in the Latinx community, “la Chancla”—what we learn to see as the warning sign for disciplinary violence—has become a cultural symbol that has spawned relatable memes that many of us laugh about and bond over. But what if it’s also a symbol of something more harmful?
In Chancla, educator and Latinx Parenting founder, Leslie Priscilla, invites readers, parents, and the Latinx community on a transformative journey away from cycles of fear, shame, and corporal punishment. With warmth and deep cultural insight, Priscilla explores the historical legacies attached to Chancla while offering a path forward rooted in connection, self-reflection, and ancestral healing. Chancla is the nonviolent parenting practice that celebrates Latinx cultura, while teaching its readers—and their Mamis, Papis, Tias, and Tios—how to heal from generational violence.
Blending personal storytelling, historical context, and actionable tools, Chancla helps readers not only nurture their children, but their wounded inner child. Readers will see themselves in these pages, because ultimately Chancla encourages them to unlearn what they’ve inherited and make space for what they deserve: homes full of love, safety, and respect.
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“If you are one of the brave few who pursue the most revolutionary path anyone can walk—parenting children filled with the beauty of their culture and free from its shackles—then you cannot travel alone. You must allow Leslie Priscilla to be your guide. She is the one and Chancla—this soul stirring, heart healing, world changing book—is the map.”Glennon Doyle, author of Untamed and We Can Do Hard Things
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“Priscilla does the deep work of tracing how pain moves through generations and how we can interrupt it through embodied, cultural reclamation rather than through continued shame. This book understands that healing our children begins with healing the body that raises them… Essential reading.”Dr. Resmaa Menakem, author of My Grandmother’s Hands
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“With cultural depth and emotional clarity, Chancla helps readers understand how parenting patterns are often inherited adaptations to trauma rather than conscious choices. Leslie Priscilla offers both insight and practical pathways for breaking cycles of fear and building families rooted in safety and connection. Chancla is a vital resource for anyone committed to healing patterns of generational violence.”Dr. Mariel Buqué, PhD, author of Break the Cycle & founder of Break the Cycle - BTC®
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“Breaking cycles is hard work, but Leslie Priscilla makes it feel possible… An absolute gift to Latinx parents everywhere.”Reyna Grande, author of Migrant Heart: Essays About Things I Can't Forget
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“This book is a much needed contribution to the lexicon of breaking from generational trauma in Latine families.”Prisca Dorcas, author of For Brown Girls and Tias and Primas
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“Leslie Priscilla powerfully reenvisions la chancla as a tool for healing and resistance.”Soraya Chemaly, author of Rage Becomes Her, The Resilience Myth, and All We Want is Everything
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“Chancla is for anyone ready to break generational patterns with intention, dignity, and fierce love. A deeply healing and transformative read.”Dr. Jennifer Mullan, author of Decolonizing Therapy
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“With Chancla, Leslie Priscilla does what few have been willing to do: she names the harm that lives inside the love we were raised with, and she does it without betraying our culture or our families… Leslie is one of the most important voices in this conversation, and this book is the proof.”Ana Flores, founder of #WeAllGrow Latina
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“As we ask how to heal from the continual violence of colonialism in our families and communities, this book is a guide to help us look deeply into ourselves to ask what it will take to become the cycle-breakers we long to be. Chancla is a trusting guide, full of stories, histories, and lessons for us to move forward with in a heavy world. May we lean in.”Kaitlin Curtice, author of Native and Everything Is a Story
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“Chancla is a deeply heart-opening and powerful invitation to transform the way we love our children, ourselves, and our culture. Leslie Priscilla’s work is profound, sacred, and truly essential as the Latinx community continues healing from inherited historical, generational, systemic, and colonial wounds… Let us unlearn and disrupt the legacies of Chancla Culture together. Leslie's book is crucial to the movement.”Natalie Y. Gutiérrez, author of The Pain We Carry
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“Chancla is a vital reckoning for our times—a love letter to the Latine community that carries the weight of what we have inherited and what we can still change… At a time when the world feels increasingly brutal and unmoored, Chancla offers something urgent and practical: a way to intervene. Not abstractly, but in the intimate, daily decisions that shape who we become and what we tolerate. This is a guide for anyone searching for tangible ways to resist dehumanization and cultivate a better world, beginning at home.”Jean Guerrero, author of Hatemonger and Crux
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“Mixing the personal with analytical, laughter with tears, prose with diagrams, Chancla is more than just a self-help book; it is a celebration of and challenge to our beautiful Latinx culture.”Gustavo Arellano, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
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“How many of us have made jokes about la chancla, not understanding the deep impact it has on our mental health and relationship to our children. Leslie Priscilla has written a beautiful book that captures and sees our cultura fully…our wounds, our warmth, and our capacity to heal generational cycles.”Yolanda Renteria, LPC and trauma specialist