Latina/o Studies Commons^™

Broadening Perspectives: Using Multiple Teaching Approaches To Meet The Needs Of Language Students, Kalen Taylor

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This portfolio is comprised of research, opinions, and ideas that the author has learned during the Master of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program at Utah State University (USU). It is a representation of experiences gained through teaching lower division Spanish courses at USU. In addition to experiences, it is also comprised of research perspectives which were furthered by coursework in the MSLT program.

Contained within the pages is a road map of the author’s journey of learning and research. The portfolio begins with the author’s perspectives on teaching including his philosophy on teaching and how he has developed by observing …

The Munemitsu Legacy: The Japanese American Family Behind Mendez V. Westminster: California’S First Successful Desegregation Case, Annie Tang

Library Articles and Research

"Many Orange County, California schoolchildren know the name 'Mendez.' After all, the iconic name is front and center of the landmark civil rights case that desegregated several of the county’s public schools in 1947, preceding the 1954 Brown v. Board case on a national level. The Mendez family, one of five Latino families which challenged several school districts in the county on their practice of Mexican-only schools, had their name immortalized in history. But the Mendezes would not have been able to lead the legal charge if it was not for another family of color, the Munemitsus, the Japanese American …

Latinos In Massachusetts: Afro-Latinos, Trevor Mattos, Phillip Granberry, Quito Swan

Gastón Institute Publications

Afro-Latinx communities are critical stakeholders in Black and Latinx demographic groups, and they also make up a critical fabric of Boston, Massachusetts and the United States politically, economically and culturally. The Afro-Latinx experience sheds light on the critical intersections of race, ethnicity, culture, economics, gender, and class in not only America, but in Afro-Latinx Diasporas across the Americas and the world. Afro-Latinx individuals and institutions often face racism within broader Latinx communities and White America and are often stigmatized by their non-Latino Black counterparts. At the same time, there is a strong tradition of Afro-Latinx political advocacy, cross cultural movements …

Introductory Note To Issue 3, 2020, James Loucky

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

Maya America is honored to present this special issue in collaboration with Yax Te’ Books. Presenting a trilingual compilation of narratives from the town of Parramos and neighboring villages in the central highlands of Guatemala, the book in three languages underscores how challenges inherent in language maintenance also represent opportunities for affirming cultural values and practices.

Introduction To Tzijonϊk Richin Jun Tinamϊtaj Chi Iximulew, Hana Muzika Kahn

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

Maya America and Yax Te’ Books team up for this special edition of the journal in order to present a new trilingual book of stories, traditions and testimonies recorded in the department of Chimaltenango, Guatemala. The book, edited by Hana Muzika Kahn and Jonathan Holmquist, is in Kaqchikel, Spanish and English, presented in three columns on each page, so that the reader can read and compare the languages. It is presented in this edition of the Maya America Journal, and can also be downloaded at no cost from the Yax Te’ website: https://yaxtebooks.info/ A print version will be available shortly. …

Stories From A Town In Guatemala - Tzijonϊk Richin Jun Tinamϊtaj Chi Iximulew - Historias De Un Pueblo De Guatemala, Hana Muzika Kahn, Jonathan Holmquist

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

This book is written testimony of the memories, traditions and experiences narrated by the people of Parramos, Parrojas, Chirijuyu and Chitaburuy, in the Department of Chimaltenango, Guatemala. All these narratives are part of a collaborative research project in which I participated with Dr. Jonathan Holmquist, with the support of Temple University. The stories have been written to share within the community and with readers from other parts of Guatemala and beyond. They are in Spanish and Kaqchikel, the languages spoken here, and are translated into English, in response to community wishes.

Black Dancers And Musicians Performing Afro-Christian Identity In Early Modern Spain And Portugal, Miguel A. Valerio

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

This article discusses several early modern Spanish and Portuguese texts that describe Afro-Iberians’ festive and confraternal practices in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. While scholars have contended that the early modern Iberian states and church used conversion and confraternities, or lay Catholic brotherhoods, to integrate Afrodescendants to Iberian society, by linking Afro-Iberians’ festive practices to their confraternities, the article contends that these texts underscore how Afrodescendants adapted their African cosmologies and festive customs in the diaspora, rather than totally assimilate to Iberian culture. The article also triangulates Afrodescendants’ festive practices in Europe, Africa, and the Americas, suggesting that Afrodescendants …

A Post-Occidental Ontology Of Desire And Subjective Return In Gregorio Martínez's Crónica De Músicos Y Diablos, Elizabeth Vargas

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

How can this inherent force facilitate the parallel development of material and subjective production? Can we rely on desire and the subject's loss of the self to the environment as ways to think about freedom and slavery today? Before addressing these questions through Deleuze and Guattari's understanding of desire and returns, I shall introduce a summary of the novel Crónica de músicos y diablos by Gregorio Martínez (1991). I then contextualize Martínez-Navarro's literary connections and his role in ongoing economic trends that make authors agents of thematic deterritorializations, a process that led Martínez-Navarro to be part of a tension with …

Mestizaje/Hybridity (Mesti-Bridity) As Struggle, Contest And Subversion In Plácido (1982) By Gerardo Fulleda León, Darrelstan Fitzwarren Ferguson

PALARA: Publication of the Afro-Latin/American Research Association

The major objective of this paper is to investigate the extent to which the author, Gerardo Fulleda León, problematises the concept of hybridity in his 1989 dramatic work, Plácido. It aims to identify the different ways in which race, class, nationhood, and even gender, all come to figure nineteenth-century Cuba as a hybrid state enduring struggle and contest. It uses Homi K. Bhabha's understanding of hybridity as a "third space" that constantly dialogues and clashes with its constituent selves, alongside Peter Wade's similar reasoning of the term as precisely a process of "struggle and contest". It finds that Fulleda …

Lopez V. Seccombe: The City Of San Bernardino’S Mexican American Defense Committee And Its Role In Regional And National Desegregation, Mark Ocegueda

History in the Making

This article examines Lopez v. Seccombe, one of the earliest successful desegregation court cases in United States history. The legal challenge was decided in 1944 in the City of San Bernardino, California and desegregated city parks and recreational facilities, specifically the Perris Hill “plunge” or pool. The decision of this case set precedent for other local desegregation challenges, including the much more celebrated Mendez v. Westminster decision in 1947, and eventually had influence on the landmark Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. This study will focus on the Mexican American barrio in San Bernardino’s Westside, …

“If Aristotle Had Cooked”: Contemporary Feminist Practices Within The Rhetoric Of Young Latinas’ Spoken Word Performances, Nora K. Rivera

English Faculty Articles and Research

Over three hundred years have passed since Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, the first feminist in the Americas, wrote her famous response defending her right to learn and to speak through her poetry. Today, the spoken word poetry of Melissa Lozada-Oliva, Denice Frohman, Mercedez Holtry, Melania Luisa Marte, and Elizabeth Acevedo grapples with the same matters Sor Juana did more than three hundred years ago. This article analyzes the feminist practices within the rhetoric of the spoken word performances of Lozada-Oliva, Frohman, Holtry, Marte, and Acevedo by positioning their work as performed testimonios (Blackmer Reyes and Curry Rodriguez 2012; …

Mexico And The People: Revolutionary Printmaking And The Taller De Gráfica Popular, Carolyn Hauk, Joy Zanghi

Schmucker Art Catalogs

During its most turbulent and formative years of the twentieth century, Mexico witnessed decades of political frustration, a major revolution, and two World Wars. By the late 1900s, it emerged as a modernized nation, thrust into an ever-growing global sphere. The revolutionary voices of Mexico’s people that echoed through time took root in the arts and emerged as a collective force to bring about a new self-awareness and change for their nation. Mexico’s most distinguished artists set out to challenge an overpowered government, propagate social-political advancement, and reimagine a stronger, unified national identity. Following in the footsteps of political printmaker …

Towards A Workforce Development Action Plan In The City Of Chelsea: Community Voices, Fabián Torres-Ardila, Daniela Bravo, Henry Chavez, Lorna Rivera

Gastón Institute Publications

The mission of the Gastón Institute at UMass Boston is to inform policymakers and the public about issues vital to the state’s growing Latino community and to provide research, analysis, and information necessary for more effective public policy development. The Gastón Institute has a long track record of conducting collaborative mixed-methods research in Chelsea, especially with Latino immigrants from Central and South America. For example, in 2008-2010, Gastón researchers worked with Chelsea Public Schools to evaluate family literacy programs at five schools. Since 2016, Gastón faculty have been working with Chelsea High School and Bunker Hill Community College’s Chelsea campus …

State Of The Latino Non-Profit Sector In Massachusetts, Fabián Torres-Ardila, Phillip Granberry, Krizia Valentino

Gastón Institute Publications

Latinos are one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in Massachusetts. Between 1980 and 2017, the Massachusetts Latino population increased by 475%, with many new arrivals coming from Central and South America. In Massachusetts, the top ten Latino subgroups by population size are: Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Brazilians, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Mexicans, Colombians, Cubans, Ecuadorans, and Hondurans. These varied national origins reflect the diversity of the state’s Latino community and its breadth of strengths and needs. The Mauricio Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy (Gastón Institute) estimates that by 2035, the Latino population will represent nearly 15.3% of the …

Latinos In Massachusetts: Ecuadorians, Phillip Granberry, Krizia Valentino

Gastón Institute Publications

The Gastón Institute’s 2020 Latinos in Massachusetts series focuses on the ten largest Latino populations located throughout the state. In order of size, these Latino populations are Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Brazilians, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Mexicans, Colombians, Cubans, Hondurans, and Ecuadorians. This report analyzes Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) data from the 2017 American Community Survey (ACS) conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. Our descriptive analysis uses both household- and individual-level data to estimate population size and percentages and to compare Ecuadorians to Other Latinos and Non-Latinos in the state.

A Brief Genealogy Of White Women's Reform Literature: Uncle Tom's Cabin To American Dirt, Benjamin "Josh" Doty

American Dirt

A presentation given by Benjamin "Josh" Doty as part of a discussion on the book American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins.

The Controversy Of American Dirt, Margaret Cantú-Sánchez

American Dirt

This presentation talks about the current criticism and controversy surrounding the book American Dirt. The presentation includes information on panelists and questions to consider while reading the text.

Panelist: Benjamin "Josh" Doty; Diane Gonzales Bertrand; Diane Duesterhoeft, Alex Salinas, Cathy Whitlow

American Dirt - Event Flier, St. Mary's University

American Dirt

This flier advertises a presentation held on September 30th, 2020 discussing the controversial text, American Dirt and the problem of Latinx and Black representation in literature and media.

¿Cómo Traducimos "Ni Una Más" Al Inglés?: Latin American Manifestation Of The Phenomenology Of Femicide, And The United States’ Subsequent Internal Neglect, Suemi Mendez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper aims to tackle two components in analyzing the phenomenological concept of femicide, most simply known as the killing of women because they are women through structural violence and oppression. First, it will develop its deployment within the Latin American framework as it has been adapted to function within the regional lexicon, both socially and legislatively. This assessment will serve to address the successes and failures thus far in tackling femicide as the location with the highest statistics globally. Through this foregrounding, it will lead into how this revised deployment of femicide fits into the context of Global North …

Latinos In Massachusetts: Colombians, Phillip Granberry, Krizia Valentino

Gastón Institute Publications

The Gastón Institute’s 2020 Latinos in Massachusetts series focuses on the ten largest Latino populations located throughout the state. In order of size, these Latino populations are Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Brazilians, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Mexicans, Colombians, Cubans, Hondurans, and Ecuadorans. This report analyzes Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) data from the 2017 American Community Survey (ACS) conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. Our descriptive analysis uses both household- and individual-level data to estimate population size and percentages and to compare Colombians to Other Latinos and Non-Latinos in the state.

Massachusetts was home in 2017 to 918,565 Latinos, of whom 42,488, or …